brjoon1021 wrote: > I am posting here because, simply put, I want to reproduce what is on > my CD as EXACTINGLY (sound wise) as I can onto the hard drive and then > get it to my DAC as purely as possible.
You've got a common terminology problem. You don't use a codec to pull data off an audio CD. Most folks use the term "rip" or "ripping" altho that is inexact as well. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripping What you really want to do is 'extract' the audio bytes from the CD into a PCM (.wav) file. Then you can (optionally) compress it to some format. Since you care about quality, you should only consider lossless compression (or no compression). Search the forums, but the short answer is to use FLAC as the compression since it is free, open and lossless. > I am wondering how well the interface between the CD drive of my > computer and the motherboard and then the motherboad and the Disk > handle the data flow Actually, reading (extracting) audio off a redbook CD is not trivial. The red book standard expected data to be pulled and played directly. It was only years later that direct digital reading became possible. The data is extracted in a slightly different manner than a pure audio CD is played. > If FLAC is lossless and free in every way, why do > the studios my friend works with use the "meridian lossless codec" ? Actually, it is usually called Meridial Lossless Packing. Its part of the DVD-A spec. Its lossless, but designed by the folks at Boothroyd Stuart (the folks behind the Meridian brand) Using it makes it easier to do studio mastering for DVD-A > Is lossless lossless? Yes, by definition. And you can test it and verify it yourself. Tools like EAC try really hard to get the right bits off the CD. And AccuRip compares the bits you get to previos rips from other folks. So if 50 folks using 50 computers get the same data (verified by a strong checksum) you can be confident that you got the same bits as they did. This does *not* prove that you got the right bits, only that lots of people got the same answer, so it is highly likely that you all have the right bits. There is a separate forum here for ripping. I consider myself a serious, but not crazy, audiophile. I rip my CDs (over 700 so far) using a faster process than EAC and listen to it. If I like it, I keep listening. If I don't like it, I fire up EAC. I find EAC too slow and too grumpy. YMMV Pat -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com/ _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
