Hard Drive or CD?????????

[classicalnut]

I've been ripping all my cd's to apple lossless and broadcasting to an airport express for optical out to my stereo.

I'm curious to know if there is a sound quality difference between ripped "lossless" audio vs. original cd in a high quality transport...

Any ideas?

Neil

[boe]

I saw a comparison and the lossless isn't identical to the original (some variation towards the end range). The charts I saw showed some changes appeared no matter what method was made to duplicate the CD.

I don't have the link so I can't post it.

[aud19]

I think you have to weigh the bennefits.

CD's aren't the highest fidelity media out there to begin with so depending on the software etc you use to duplicate the files you might have some ver small loss of detail that you might here with the bennefit of having all your music easily accessible, nicely organized etc. Never worry about scrathes or finger prints, never have to get up and load a new CD etc.

I believe if you rip all your CD's to wav files you won't lose any info. However it will take up a fair bit more disk space....? Hard Drives are cheap though... at least for PC's :lol:

[Blazar]

a $50 hard drive is better than a $10000 cd transport...

Use "Exact Audio Copy" software to copy PERFECTLY a cd without scratches or fingerprints.

The hard drive NEVER has to worry about sampling error again... EVER.

All that money people spent on hardcore cd transports all went down the toilet. People still buying those things are simply insane..

[Bruce]

Quoted by boe
The charts I saw showed some changes appeared no matter what method was made to duplicate the CD.

Not sure of your source, but I just don't believe it.

If that were truye, than anytime someone used the ZIP compression program on a PC data file, the final result wouldn't be the same as the original, and that just isn't true.

Lossless compresssion means exactly that, the copy is an exact duplicate of the original (bit for bit) after it is decompressed. The checksum used to ensure exact copies would inidicate a single bit out of place.

I think your source was rather an uninformed report.

[posix]

Not sure of your source, but I just don't believe it.


If that were truye, than anytime someone used the ZIP compression program on a PC data file, the final result wouldn't be the same as the original, and that just isn't true.

Lossless compresssion means exactly that, the copy is an exact duplicate of the original (bit for bit) after it is decompressed. The checksum used to ensure exact copies would inidicate a single bit out of place.

I think your source was rather an uninformed report.

I've written a comprehensive post to this question but the site blew up before I managed to post it so it got "lost in translation"

Anyway, Bruce is right, partially.

Your CRC comparison will work on whatever data your CD ripping software managed to gather off the disk. The problem is that may not be all there is to your CD. There may be lots more good information left on the CD without you even knowing.

There are applications out there that will do a FULL CD copy but that takes about an hour or so per song.

And THEN you will have your WADIA/muse for free.

Which brings us to the original question - yes HD is the best way of reproducing music, the trouble is do you have a good enough soundcard? If it's less than $700 don't bother

[classicalnut]

Which brings us to the original question - yes HD is the best way of reproducing music, the trouble is do you have a good enough soundcard? If it's less than $700 don't bother

Does quality of sound card make much difference when taking the optical "bit perfect" data out to a high-end outboard DAC?

[JonMarsh]

It depends on how clean your SPDIF output is, and how good the DAC is at rejecting jitter. I'm trying out that route this year, using an Maudio Audiophile 24/96 and Benchmark DAC. Got about 170 GB of my favorite CD's ripped- it took a long, long time!
EAC isn't fast, but it's good.

~Jon

[posix]

Does quality of sound card make much difference when taking the optical "bit perfect" data out to a high-end outboard DAC?

Sorry, my original post included explanation of that too. But basically my mistake - either a great soundcard or just use the optical output (as in glass fibre) of your el cheapo soundcard and use external el extremo big-cash dac to do the conversion for you.

[classicalnut]

I've got an Apple Airport Express playing my apple lossless files. Very soon will have the MSB Digital Director (for re-clocking the optical out from the airport express) and the MSB Gold Link DAC for conversion. I'm sure it will sound worlds better than the current setup (direct optical into el-cheapo internal DAC in a Teac AG-H550)

[Blazar]

As far as the hard drive vs cd transport... hard drive is better once you have a properly copied source file.

The question on optical output to an outboard d/a converter vs. d/a conversion in the computer itself is more complex. The advantages of having the d/a converter in the computer itself is that great professional quality soundcards have excellent jitter suppression. one of these cards and arguably the best is the RME Hammerfall 9632 with XLR breakout cable.

I will pit my RME sitting in the "noisy electronic environment" of my computer against ANY of the D/A converters out there and would challenge your ability to find a disadvantage in the RME. It has very high s/n ratio and some of the best jitter suppression available. Coupled with my B&W 802 speakers and rotel 1095 amp it has been a truly amazing experience.

avsforum has an archived thread about a comparison between the lexicon 12b and the rme and the RME was equal/superior.... I don't know what more you can ask for out of a computer sound card.

A quiet computer / hard drive, an RME 9632, and the best amps / speakers you can possibly afford. This is simply the recipe for the most cutting edge sound available on the market. I would spend every penny after the rme 9632 on speakers and amps. Don't waste even a single cent on "high end" speaker cables. That money is better spent in the speakers/amp which make a CLEAR audible difference.