Ripping CDs to HDD

I've noticed a few people on here talking about ripping their CDs to Hard Drives and all seem to think it's worthwhile and some suggest that there is an improvement in sound quality over playing the same disks through the CDP

I can't get my head around this.

I don't understand how even a first generation copy of a CD can sound better through the server than it did through the original CDP given that the copy was made using the same CDP???

Surely, any imperfections inherrant to the CDP will be transferred to the HDD during the recording process? and therefore reproduced when played back through the server?

Or don't you use the CDP as the original source?

In which case, I still fail to see how a copy of anything - whether it be analogue or digital, can be 'better' than the original.

I take everyone's word who says it works but could someone try to explain how it works please? I'm baffled.

 

Dr Hi, think of it as raw data, if you can present the data in a 'better' way, there may be less timing errors and it 'may' sound better.
Keith.

 

Think of the music as software, 1's and 0's. The process of extracting the 1s and 0s off the CD is probably not as 'clean' and extracting the same 1s and 0s off of a hard drive.
Dont forget when you copy those 1s and 0s off a CD, the duplicate version on the hard drive will be exactly the same 1s and 0s - no loss or addition.

Why? (I hear you ask)....optical drives (CD's) have a limited error correction and read performance when compared to HDDs. The cabling tends to differ (PATA versus SATA), and generally the mechanical 'enviroment' within a HDD is better controlled, possibly even electrically too.

All of these benefits with HDDs coupled together should make for better quality signals to reach the DAC. Music to my ears

Hope that helps

 

Ok, thanks for the replies, I think I'm nearly there. So, assuming you need the best data read from the original CD, do you use your CDP to transfer the data? or a drive on a PC? or one of those dedicated music servers? (which I know nothing about)

Sorry if this sounds really dumb but there are aspects of the digital world that I'm totally unfamiliar with.

I promise to catch up though!

 

Dr you just copy the cd on to your hard drive in your PC or mac, making sure you choose an uncompresed codec, FLAC WAV AIFF etc .
Thats all there is to it, connect a dac to your PC and thats it .
You will have to consider the way you connect and the dac of course.
keith.

 

Use the drive on the PC but use appropriate software to make sure you get a good copy - e.g. EAC (Exact Audio Copy) which checks very carefully for errors, reads and re-reads where necessary etc. (Also it's free!)

The keys for me towards getting excellent as opposed to good sound have been EAC, Foobar2000 (player, also free) and the M2Tech USB-SPDIF converter which enables Foobar to play in 'Kernel Streaming' mode. (I'm not entirely sure what that means but I think it helps get the 1s and 0s off the hard disk and out to the Dac bypassing as much as possible of the Windows sound features.) It was this combo which took my PC source to a level where I was happy to retire the CD Transport.

 

I suspect you are right to start with.

Any cries that a server can sound better is(I think) down to self justification.

I would use your cd player to play music and your computer to do your accounts.

 

A computer to do accounts? Don't you use a quill and parchment David?

 

I shall treat that jest with (all) the contempt that it deserves.

 

I hope that means you don't feel any contempt. As you said, it is jest.

 

.

 

Thanks for this. That makes a lot more sense now - especially the stuff about the error correction and re-reading. That goes some way to explaining why a lot of people talk about it being quite a long drawn out process.

I'm certainly willing to give it a go and see what happens.

I'm actually quite happy with my system at the moment. The biggest problem I've got now, (which I see affects a lot of other people on this forum) is the absolutely terrible quality of the recordings on the majority of the CDs I buy.

 

There's no ripping/copying to HDD/DAC solution yet devised that will help with that little 'problem'.

 

Which was Dr Ms origional point.

 

iTunes, Mac and a dac.

Job done and worries over.

If you don't like wire buy an Airport Express.