When Copying CD's

First the vast majority of music CD’s are recorded at 16/44

If I use "a good CD copying software, ( Exact Copy Audio ) I have multiple choices for my end result.
Wav files, Flac files etc and at all kinds of upscaling all the way up to 32/384.

I use a Marantz 7011 AVR which has its own Dac capability as well a surround signal processing

Question: am I better off copying the cd’s at their native 16/44 and let the AVR do all the upscaling or is it better to upscale during the copying phase to say 24/192 and then have the AVR upscale or process from there.

Thanks

I recommend Flac 16/44. You can change the compression in Exact Audio Copy, EAC, if you like but the defaults are just fine.

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Many of us use DBpoweramp to rip our discs. I’m more comfortable with down sampling than up sampling. Others can chime in. I rip them as FLAC with the least compression. DBpoweramp compares previous rips in their database and notifies you of discrepancies in the rip.

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Since even SSD storage is so affordable now I’ve started ripping all of my CD’s as .WAV
I wouldn’t do any type of upscaling/sampling during the ripping process.

Unfortunately, WAV don’t contain tags. Flac does.

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…and FLAC files can be checked for integrity while WAV cannot.

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In concept I agree because, i want the DAC that I choose in my system to do any upscaling.or processing.

What Player will send the unaltered 16/44 file to the DAC in my system for processing.

I use EAC and keep my rips native 16/44. I always ripped to WAVs, no compression. However Ted noted FLAC format has integrity checking to protect against bit rot. Yes, more to worry about. So I will flip my EAC default to FLAC from now on… although honestly, I am not so sure I should worry about bit rot… even if a bit gets flipped or dropped… a few out of the trillions… But given there is no cost in audio quality and FLAC is still bit-for-bit like WAV, I will flip my bit in EAC from now on.

My principles:

  • I could care less about tagging
  • I could care less about compression - disc and network transport is cheap and getting cheaper by the minute
  • I don’t want any manipulation of the bits… no up down sampling… I let that all up to the playback DAC.
  • Do no harm

Peace
Bruce in Philly

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I think you mean ‘I could not care less’. If you could care less the implication is that you care some…:wink:

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To recommend players we’d need to understand how you (plan to) rip the CDs, (plan to) organizer and store the files, which software you (plan to) use, and last but not least what a budget might be (maybe in relation to your overall system). Sorry, if you posted that already somewhere and I missed that.
Btw: I’d also recommend ripping as Flac with no upsampling.

dbPoweramp is the ripping program I’d use. Rip them to flac, 16/44.1

I recommend ripping to 16/44 from the compact disc.

I use either dbPoweramp or XLD. I’ve heard Exact Audio Copy is excellent so you have what you need.

I use dbPoweramp too, ripping to Flac, 16/44. Files are stored on an SSD in a sonicTransporter and backed up to a Synology NAS.

I could care less about not caring less to care less about something I don’t care about… less so.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

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Paul did a whole video and post on ripping and best approach. I rip wav; however, Brett is right on tagging. I believe Apple has a zero compression equal to windows wav, yet supports info… AIFF

https://www.tunefab.com/more-topics/apple-lossless-vs-aiff.html

Since 2TB SSD for my Nucleus+ NAS is ~$300, I rip zero loss

Ok so 16/44 Flac seems to be consistent for most probably because end result works and Flac allows tagging

So now now let’s assume that we store our ripped 16/44 Flac files on a network shareable hard drive otherwise known as a NAS

Next on the list is what player can see network files and play Flac

Once again we have a lot of Good choices

Plex, Nvidia TV, Roon, Apple TV, Windows Media Player, Apple ITunes etc

If you have a favorite what is it and why and more importantly what is your connection method from your player device to your amp

Thanks Everyone for participating I do appreciate it

Hooboy… you are wading into a religious war… yikes.

I store my music on a NAS. So NAS to PC via Ethernet, Foobar player on PC to Directstream DAC via USB.

Let the war begin! Oh, my setup is the best and everything else sucks. Salvation is only possible through accepting Foobar as your player. I am obligated to smite all heretics.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

Hey Bruce thanks for wading in

I myself have liked Plex as a media player, why it reads files on my Nas, it does no music processing, I can access remotely and play music. And oh yes it also does photos and videos

I have Plex Server running on a PC and as an app on my Apple TV as well as a NVidia Tv all connected to my amp via HDMI

I also have a Raspberry Pi3 with a HiFiBerry Dac+ Pro connected to my amp via RCA cables

Of all the Raspberry Pi running Moode is simple easy and seem to sound best.

Just trying to get any last ideas to try before choosing one and forgetting the rest

Once again Thanks for contributing

dB Power Amp Ripped to AIFF onto my iMac. iMac backed up to Synology NAS.

My primary library software is JRiver Media Center, but my kids’ iTune/Apple Music purchases and rips are also available through the iTunes/Apple music software on the iMac.

All downloaded and ripped files archived on the iMac (including Apple Music files) are available to be played on my DS Sr. DAC via JRiver Remote, Roon, Mconnect/Mcontrol and Apple Music on my iOS devices via my wi-fi/Ethernet network and the Ethernet bridge (PSA Bridge II) installed in my DAC.

So far the best sound in my system is obtained when I play files using JRMC/J Remote; followed by Roon/Tidal and then Mconnect/Mcontrol.

FWIW, YMMV, ETC…

Here goes - I sectioned my Nucleus+ SSD NAS {50% WAV; 20% SACD (DSF); 20% FLAC (hi-res); 10% FLAC}

Best to least SQ - [SACD; FLAC hi-res; WAV, FLAC] through Nucleus+ w/ Convolution Filtering to Bridge II using AQVOX-SE switch; PSA DMP; TIDAL