High End Rip Vs Pc/Mac rips

If you are worried, apps such as EAC and dbPoweramp check against a database of previous rips (Accuraterip), this will show you if your rip is perfect or not.

The rips done a PC thus can be demonstrably proven to be "bit-perfect". There is no improvement on "bit-perfect" as it means that every piece of informatition on the CD has been copied exactly to the hard-drive. 

The only advantage with some high end ripping products is that some of them make the whole process very automated and simple. But so long as you have the capability to move the mouse around, folllow simple instructions and move files around, then after an initial setup, the above applications will be more than enough.

In fact, if you have possibly a stubborn, hard to rip CD (of which I have a few), then EAC especially will help, as it has a mode whereby it will keep retrying over and over until it either gives up (badly damaged disk) or gets it right. 

For all but the extremely well-heeled or extremely lazy, the PC method is enough.

It's bull****, ignore them.

The best way to check that two WAV files are identical is to invert the phase of one of them with an audio-editor and check that they cancel each other out perfectly. The test is irrefutable.  I’m prepared to bet that a CD ripped by an average a £15 CD ROM and the same CD ripped by one of those devices would pass the cancellation-test, meaning that they are indisputably identical.

It's bull****, ignore them. +For all but the extremely well-heeled or extremely lazy, the PC method is enough. +1

I haven't attempted a comparison so cannot say.  As you noted at the Show, I too saw many using Naim servers and quite a few with NAS devices, either visible or tucked away.

A big 'however', given your commitment to Naim in your signature (to the tune of £30k at a guess), I would have thought an HDX would be an obvious choice, albeit with not much change from five grand.  I spoke to a Danish Naim dealer at the Show who sold just 4 cdps last year but hundreds of streamers.  Based on our chat over lunch, I think he'd say an HDX, especially with a DAC or power supply upgrade, would well surpass even your state-of-the-art CDP (at about half the new cost, so you could probably px yours and come out ahead). 

Why mess about with a PC if you can afford not to?

On a mac, you need do nothing more than tick the error correction box in iTunes. I have 3,000 bit-perfect copies of CDS on a WDC hard drive, Playing those files back (i.e. turning the digits into music) is where the magic happens, not in the initial rip.

If basic CD-ROMS didn't read accurately, you would never be able to install software or restore from a backup. It's all marketing cobblers. Bits are bits until you send data into a DAC, then you can argue about jitter etc.

That said, I'm looking at marketing some "directional" SATA cables, which have been burnt-in by transmitting the 'lucky' numbers from Euromillions lottery. A very reasonble £1000 per 30cm.

I was at one of the demonstrations where a  PC ripped track  was compared to a high end rip. They did sound different but I ,and I think one other ,out of 20 preferred the PC rip . So what does that say ?

Tim

edit. It was a blind test.

It says the test was flawed, or rigged.

As has been said, if you use error correction (Which is available on PCs as well as MACs) or programs such as EAC, then there will be no difference. (Essentially what makes the Naim so good is that it re-reads the disc until everything matches 100%, just like EAC)

However the Naim also has some more advantages over a computer, it’s in the same rack as your audio system and you can just pop the disc in and everything is done for you. (Convenience is something you cannot put a price on)

If you don’t mind putting a bit of work in though, you can save yourself a fortune by using a computer.

Bill

These rippers must do everything but make the tea if they're easier than using a computer.  The hardest part of ripping CDs on a computer is correcting the tags before the rip and making sure albums with multiple CDs are grouped together.  Oh and finding/scanning the 'right' album art (depends how anal you are about that I guess). Surely you must have to do the same thing? There's nothing slowed me down where I've thought 'if only I had a dedicated ripper it would have been faster/easier'. What am I missing?

Which companies made this claim?

Which company conducted the 'blind test'?

The blind test I attended was by Naim. What bothers me is why I thought the PC / Mac rip was superior to the Naim when 18 out of 20 disagreed with me. My aural faculties are  a bit out of sync with most peoples' it seems.  I thought the Naim system sounded very good otherwise and I had no idea they made speakers too. At least I learned something from the show which I thought was really interesting.

Tim

I wouldn't count on having "learned" anything. One of the guys I was with went to a power cable "demo". First they demoed an amp with a normal power cord, then they turned it off, swapped it for one of their power cables, switched it back on and played the same track again. Except the second time the rep turned the volume up 5dBs higher than it had been for the previous cable...

Hence the "rigged" in my previous reply.

It's the only way you'r e gonna pass a power cable test.