Lossless ripping & capacity usage - OUCH!

a very wise way of converting. Thank you.

Zarn_Smith:

Another vote for dbPowerAmp as the ripping tool.

In terms of which lossless format, in the end (apart from WAV, which I would not recommend) they are all as good as each other. The answer will be based on which formats your player supports. If you pluck for one format and realise that your player only supports something else, you can use dbPowerAmp to merrily convert them with no loss of quality.

In terms of the Bit Rate, well the answer is always rip at the same bit rate it was encoded in. So for CD 16Bit 44.1Khz. For vinal I would argue the same as CD, but I have never bothered ripping vinal to say either way.

I have no recommendation on which hard disk to buy. They are all as good / bad as each other. I can recommend however that you buy 2. One hard disk for your audio files and the other to backup the first. Seriously, you don't want to spend all the time ripping to have that disk fail and you have to do it again.

 Is the dbPowerAmp capable of converting at 14/192 resolution as I have SACD, DVD-A and some HDCDs?

 

I meant 24/192 not 14/192

I have never tried ripping SACDs. I'm not sure you can.

You can't - only real way to do it is via analogue, in real time...

Andrew Everard:

You can't - only real way to do it is via analogue, in real time...

Thank you Andrew. I assume it is the same for DVD-A? I also have a few HDCDs with 20/96 and 24/192. Can I rip these and maintain the audio purity when played back? 

Again, I think the only way is through analogue, ADCing them prior to storage.

DaveyBoy1980:

Capitan,

 

I don't know if this helps and I hope I'm not just repeating what one of the other guys has suggested but this is what I do!

My media player of choice on my PC/Laptop is mediamonkey. I rip all of my CDs to my laptop in FLAC (lossless). I do back my laptop up regularly so that I don't lose all my music if my laptop hard drive ever decides to die!

 MediaMonkey gives you the option of converting the files at the same time as syncing to your ipod. I have set it so that any music files over 320kbps in my collection gets converted to 320kbps MP3 files on the fly. This doesn't alter the FLAC files that I have on my laptop nor does it create a converted copy. All it does is converts and drops it onto the ipod. 

Do the FLAC files contain Tag information?

 This way I find that I have a lossless version on my laptop and a very good 320kbps version on the ipod which saves a lot of space and enables me to get a lot more music on my ipod! 

DaveyBoy1980:

Capitan,

 

I don't know if this helps and I hope I'm not just repeating what one of the other guys has suggested but this is what I do!

My media player of choice on my PC/Laptop is mediamonkey. I rip all of my CDs to my laptop in FLAC (lossless). I do back my laptop up regularly so that I don't lose all my music if my laptop hard drive ever decides to die!

 MediaMonkey gives you the option of converting the files at the same time as syncing to your ipod. I have set it so that any music files over 320kbps in my collection gets converted to 320kbps MP3 files on the fly. This doesn't alter the FLAC files that I have on my laptop nor does it create a converted copy. All it does is converts and drops it onto the ipod. 

 This way I find that I have a lossless version on my laptop and a very good 320kbps version on the ipod which saves a lot of space and enables me to get a lot more music on my ipod! 

Does your FLAC files have all the Tag ifo? I converted one track fro deep Purple's Machine Head CD using MediaMonkey and (1) it does not pick-up any track info (2) properties show it was compressed to 32% (setting was on but quality shows Perfect (lossless). It is same using dBpoweramp. Is this inorder?

wtaylorbasil:

 Does your FLAC files have all the Tag ifo? I converted one track fro deep Purple's Machine Head CD using MediaMonkey and (1) it does not pick-up any track info

Should pick up everything, assuming you were connected to the internet at the time, the fact that both Media Monkey and dBpoweramp fail suggests there's some other issue here. Is it an original CD? I've only ever known magazine cover discs not to be recognised in the past. 

(2) properties show it was compressed to 32% (setting was on but quality shows Perfect (lossless). It is same using dBpoweramp. Is this inorder?

Yes that's fine, generally I find my flac files end up about half the size of the original CD but it'll vary depending on the complexity of the music. 

the_lhc:

wtaylorbasil:

 Does your FLAC files have all the Tag ifo? I converted one track fro deep Purple's Machine Head CD using MediaMonkey and (1) it does not pick-up any track info

Should pick up everything, assuming you were connected to the internet at the time, the fact that both Media Monkey and dBpoweramp fail suggests there's some other issue here. Is it an original CD? I've only ever known magazine cover discs not to be recognised in the past. 

(2) properties show it was compressed to 32% (setting was on but quality shows Perfect (lossless). It is same using dBpoweramp. Is this inorder?

Yes that's fine, generally I find my flac files end up about half the size of the original CD but it'll vary depending on the complexity of the music. 

Thank you all for your patience. To this point I have concluded from all the help to;(1) Have one Seagate BlackArmor SW 110 1TB external HD (2) PC with 1TB HD- not decided whether internal or external decent DAC to playback via receiver-24bit/192Khz capable (3) Accept SACD/DVD-A can not be duplicated so leave them alone (4) Rip CDs and vinyls to FLAC lossless (5) Use dBpoweramp, MediaMonkey or preferably Media Jukebox to rip. (6) Continue to use Dennon 1920 to play back all multi-channel audio/video. Question; (1) I do have a few HDCD and will probably buy some more- some are 24bit/96Khz and some 24bit/192Khz and most producers will opt for 24/192 in future. Can these be ripped and maintain purity for playback? This amount of bite-size is enough for now for me.

Any other comments/suggestions are most welcome especially playback of the ripped files & to make it easier for the other family members-wi-fi possibly??

Use DBPowerAmp as suggested and rip to flac.

Flac is now a universal lossless format. Ideal for media streaming throughout a home network. You can select whatever songs you want for the day and load a version (lossy for space saving ) on a portable media player. Ideally use flac (about half size of wav file) but mp3 if you want really small files, at the cost of sound quality. The original hi quality rip will stay on your HDD.

I would dump itunes and get a better solution that does not tie you in to their formats and ways of doing things.

If you want to keep the quality of sound of your vinyl, record it @ 24bit/96Khz minimum ( 32/192) if possible. Audacity (free!) can do all the recording (and saving at a lower resolution to save space) and de-clicking, but it's best to have a very good source LP to start with. You will need the best soundcard you can afford at least 24/96 stereo, such as M-Audio Delta 44.

Once recorded and saved, to at least 24/96 for Vinyl, you could then write to DVD-Audio (or DTS-MasterHD or whatever it's called )  to have your albums on DVD's. You will need a dedicated DVD-A player if you write to DVD-Audio discs. However it is possible to play DVD-A via your PC and stream from a media server.

It is possible to rip your DVD-A's and I suggest you rip them direct to iso which is another very good universally accepted format.

DBPowerAmp has a codec you can add for HDCD and I suggest buying the  'Reference' edition of DBPoweramp as it gives you many tools you'll find you need once you get into this ripping game.

 

real.africa:

Use DBPowerAmp as suggested and rip to flac.

[[I have downloaded the dBPoweramp cd ripper and ripped 1 cd. It did not pickup Album, Genre & Date like MediaMomkey does. Also it does not give the option of sampling rate nor the bit rate-MM does not either. Will the Reference level dBP give tkose options?]]

Flac is now a universal lossless format. Ideal for media streaming throughout a home network. You can select whatever songs you want for the day and load a version (lossy for space saving ) on a portable media player. Ideally use flac (about half size of wav file) but mp3 if you want really small files, at the cost of sound quality. The original hi quality rip will stay on your HDD.

I would dump itunes and get a better solution that does not tie you in to their formats and ways of doing things.

If you want to keep the quality of sound of your vinyl, record it @ 24bit/96Khz minimum ( 32/192) if possible. Audacity (free!) can do all the recording (and saving at a lower resolution to save space) and de-clicking, but it's best to have a very good source LP to start with. You will need the best soundcard you can afford at least 24/96 stereo, such as M-Audio Delta 44.

Once recorded and saved, to at least 24/96 for Vinyl, you could then write to DVD-Audio (or DTS-MasterHD or whatever it's called )  to have your albums on DVD's. You will need a dedicated DVD-A player if you write to DVD-Audio discs. However it is possible to play DVD-A via your PC and stream from a media server.

It is possible to rip your DVD-A's and I suggest you rip them direct to iso which is another very good universally accepted format.

DBPowerAmp has a codec you can add for HDCD and I suggest buying the  'Reference' edition of DBPoweramp as it gives you many tools you'll find you need once you get into this ripping game.

 

At last I am about to ripp my cds to an external drive. I am trying dBpoweramp, Mediamonkey and Media Jukebox.

I will ripp all to FLAC. However I am not able find how to set the sample rate and bit rate. I would like to ripp all the tracks to 20/96.

For portable listening I would re-convert to MP3 at 128.

 Can someone help how to srt the bitrate and sample rate on FLAC?

regards

William

wtaylorbasil:

At last I am about to ripp my cds to an external drive. I am trying dBpoweramp, Mediamonkey and Media Jukebox.

I will ripp all to FLAC. However I am not able find how to set the sample rate and bit rate. I would like to ripp all the tracks to 20/96.

No point ripping CDs as 20/96, as the original is only 16/44.1.