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Can I get bit perfect uncompressed CD rips via itunes?

Garth

Garth

pfm Member
Hello All,

Apologies but this is a but of a multi question post!

I have a large collection of CD's I would like to be enjoying more and with better sound quality. Right now I have been listening to them though either my budget Cambridge 540 DVD player or my budget Rotel 06SE CD player. The sound is okay but I recall enjoying CD's more when I had the original Rega Planet some years ago.
I also have a node 2i.

I am planning to get a used Rega DAC as an upgrade to the DAC in the node and also to hopefully get better sound from my CD's by relegating either the Cambridge or Rotel machine as a transport for the Rega DAC. I assume that I will also give me better sound when streaming through my node 2i.?

If I am able to rip bit perfect uncompressed files of my CD's and load them onto a flash drive to plug into the node 2i, am I likely to get better sound that way rather than by just playing the CD's through the transport and then to the Rega DAC?

Final question! Can I create bit perfect lossless rips via itunes on my macbook pro and if so how exactly would I do that? Are ALAC files ripped that way bit perfect and uncompressed or do I need to get special software and also rip them to something like WAV to get the highest possible sound quality?

Or is the only way I can get bit perfect CD rips by buying something like a BlueSound Vault?

Thanks!!!
Garth
 
iTunes will rip to lossless wav or aif files, you just have to select the format in preferences. Whether the ripped files will sound any better in your system you’ll only know by testing.
 
Thanks folks. Will album art and metadata show up? Are they going to be bit perfect? Thanks!
 
Of course if my budget transport playing CD's through a Rega DAC ends up sounding better than the same files ripped and streamed locally though my Node and Rega DAC then I just won't bother ripping them. One less tedious task! :)

Although someone at my local hifi store told me that a bit perfect lossless rip of a CD played through a streamer will sound better than the same cd played through a CD player. They said that was why NAIM stopped making all their expensive $40,000 CD players and now just makes one that sells for around $2500 CAD. Does this make sense or am I being sold a bill of goods?
 
If your disc is in perfect condition then in theory iTunes will do the job. If you want to make sure that the rip is completely accurate is to use something like Exact Audio Copy or dbPoweramp which has error correction built in and also verifies your rip against the accuraterip database to show you if your rip is accurate. Both tools will let you encode to FLAC or ALAC. I use dbPoweramp because I find it easier to use.
 
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Some apps will decompress a file to memory before playback so lossless shouldn't be an issue either.
 
Garth said:
Can I get bit perfect uncompressed CD rips via itunes?
Click to expand...

Yes.

And you can use XLD to confirm that:

1. File and Open Folder As Disc

2. At the lower lefthand corner select Verify (verification is not possible for some rips and in that case it'll read AccurateRip: NO)

3. Look for confirmation in the log file

All tracks accurately ripped
 
Nara said:
A thread around the subject recently... 'Streaming is inferior to redbook cd playback'.
https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/streaming-is-inferior-to-redbook-cd-playback.268314/

I'd be interested to hear what you think when you get this system set up.
Click to expand...

I can only remote-stream lossy with Spotify (not really comparable), but local-streaming ripped files sounds a lot better than feeding the DAC the digital output of a CD player. (and it measures better too)

My guess is that for the former I am using HQPlayer to upconvert to DSD256 into NOS mode, whilst the CD transport can only output Redbook into the DAC's own interpolation anti-alias etc.

HQPlayer can also upconvert the stream from the computer's optical (DVD) drive but my Mac mini no longer has one of those.
 
Paul_Riordan said:
If your disc is in perfect condition then in theory iTunes will do the job. If you want to make sure that the rip is completely accurate is to use something like Exact Audio Copy or dbPoweramp which has error corr ction built in and also verifies your rip against the accuraterip database to show you if your rip is accurate. Both tools will let you encode to FLAC or ALAC. I use dbPoweramp because I find it easier to use.
Click to expand...

On Mac OS the equivalent CD ripping software is XLD.
I use it for classical music only (OCD, I know), for other genres I use iTunes.

iTunes is great for tagging (helped by a couple of Doug Applescripts) and the best browser for Mac I've used.

For best sound quality: HQPlayer.
 
tuga said:
Yes.

And you can use XLD to confirm that:

1. File and Open Folder As Disc

2. At the lower lefthand corner select Verify (verification is not possible for some rips and in that case it'll read AccurateRip: NO)

3. Look for confirmation in the log file

All tracks accurately ripped
Click to expand...
I didn't realise you could verify it after ripping like that. Thanks.
 
ITunes does not correct for drive offset and does not offer any corroboration that it’s rip is bit perfect, though it is likely to be so. DBpoweramp, amongst others, does correct for drive offset, and verifies your rip against the online Accuraterip database. It has a number of other useful features, like ripping the “extra” bits of HDCD discs, checking for pre-emphasis, ripping hidden tracks, and offers a choice of artwork and metadata which can be useful. It is also very fast, as it uses all cpu cores.

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm
 
Garth said:
Of course if my budget transport playing CD's through a Rega DAC ends up sounding better than the same files ripped and streamed locally though my Node and Rega DAC then I just won't bother ripping them. One less tedious task! :)

Although someone at my local hifi store told me that a bit perfect lossless rip of a CD played through a streamer will sound better than the same cd played through a CD player. They said that was why NAIM stopped making all their expensive $40,000 CD players and now just makes one that sells for around $2500 CAD. Does this make sense or am I being sold a bill of goods?
Click to expand...
The true part is that the cd player can't extract the data better than a lossless rip and might possiby do it worse. And I imagine naim may have stopped making 40k cd players if it ever did. The rest is conjecture and/or guff. Streaming digtal files is more convenient in many ways but it's a free country (Canada, I imagine). Also at some point cds will transform from naff last-gen tech to vintage. If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.
 
adamdea said:
The true part is that the cd player can't extract the data better than a lossless rip and might possiby do it worse. And I imagine naim may have stopped making 40k cd players if it ever did. The rest is conjecture and/or guff. Streaming digtal files is more convenient in many ways but it's a free country (Canada, I imagine). Also at some point cds will transform from naff last-gen tech to vintage. If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.
Click to expand...

On the other hand... I'd be willing to bet that will there will be more current mid — high-end CD players/transports in use in 20 years time than will be the case with their streaming brethren.
 
notevenclose said:
On the other hand... I'd be willing to bet that will there will be more current mid — high-end CD players/transports in use in 20 years time than will be the case with their streaming brethren.
Click to expand...
High end streamers are a very niche product appealling to a very particular market.
 
I moved to Apple Music a few years ago but do apple still do iTunes Match - if I remember correctly you ripped your CD once but then can download from any iTunes linked device and could do this is the lossless format. This may have moved on though
 
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