Audiophiles and CD Ripping Pros - Listen Up!

[DirtyCzech]

So, I'm about to embark on an endeavor of ripping my entire CD collection to Apple Lossless. About 7 years ago I did this, but ripped everything to a low bit rate mp3 format because at the time storage was a lot more costly and I didn't anticipate for the day when I would own HiFi gear of my own (it would be an insult to have vacuum tubes render a 192k mp3!). Well, that day has come and I'd love some advice on a couple things before I start:

1. I'm looking to purchase an external CD drive solely for the purpose of ripping CDs since I don't want to put too much wear on the drive in my MBP plus I'd like a drive that is 100% accurate in ripping data. Any recommendations?

2. I'm highly considering Apple Lossless, but would iTunes be compatible with an external CD drive or is there a different ripping app someone could recommend that can rip an iTunes compatible lossless format from an external drive? Last I checked, Flac and Ape were not compatible with iTunes. I'm trying to automate as much as possible, so a ripping app that gets names from CDDB and formats then to easily import into iTunes is very important.

3. Has anybody experimented with ripping SACD and DVD-A? I set up the MBP soundcard for 24-bit/96kHz.

I have two 750GB eSata drives, so storage isn't a concern.

Thanks!

 

[Hughvane]

1. I'm looking to purchase an external CD drive solely for the purpose of ripping CDs since I don't want to put too much wear on the drive in my MBP plus I'd like a drive that is 100% accurate in ripping data. Any recommendations?

In a word - Pioneer. They work really well with Mac.
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Shop/DVD-Burners

Internal (buy enclosure) - http://eshop.macsales.com/search/Pioneer
Ready-made - http://eshop.macsales.com/search/External+CD/DVD

 

[ian_k]

Pioneer are very mac reliable, but they dont really do many external options, plextor i would probably class as 1 of the most reliable drives out there, they do esata, firewire or usb 2 versions

essentially most drives that register on the desktop when plugged in would work with itunes, for compatibility i wouldnt say aac format is the best format to rip in as it can only be played in itunes and if it was say played on a pc, they would need itunes installed in order to use......192kbps mp3 or 320kbps (best quality, but more space neeeded) would be the formats id use....

ripping well itunes does a good & easy job of it, you could also consider real player, or roxio toast, or any free utils on the net for it , itunes does cddb as long as its a widely available artist, it does it as soon as you put cd in


if you have some say dirty or scratched cds, id consider turning the cd rip speeed lower too...


not ripped sacd or dvd-a as theres not many cds in this format , id imagine you would neeed a 3rd party application, aint sure if toast does it,

 

[Mikuro]

iTunes should work just fine with an external drive, but if you need to use another app, keep in mind that iTunes can also read AIFF and WAV, both lossless formats. Unlike Apple Lossless, though, they are completely uncompressed, so the files will be the same size as the original CD, whereas Apple Lossless would be more like half, with the same quality. (You could mass-convert them from WAV or AIFF to Apple Lossless in iTunes later if you wanted, though.)

Edit: Oh, I don't think either format would support decent tagging, though!