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Recommended External CD Drive For Ripping?


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As the title says, I am looking for a recommendation for an external cd drive to use for ripping my 3000 cd's. Because of where the pc is placed, the internal cd drive is simply not at all easily accessible, and thus, not usable for this purpose. Thanks for any help with this.

 

 

JC

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You should clarify a bit. How far away from the pc will this drive need to be?

 

I took the drive out of my pc and connected it via a sata cable and external power supply but I don't know how long sata cables can be; mine is pretty short.

 

Usb 2 drives are pretty slow; I don't know if any usb 3 drives are in existence.

 

Chris

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OWC delivers parts and accessories that are Mac compatible.

Great source of RAM, SSD's etc.

 

 

I use an external Bluray drive from OWC:

OWC Mercury Pro 16X External Blu-ray Burner

 

 

Speeds are CD: X40, DVD/Bluray: X16

USD 167,-

 

 

 

 

In case you want maximum speed and don't need Bluray:

OWC Mercury Pro 24X External DVD Burner

Speeds are CD: X48, DVD single layer: X24

USD 99,-

 

 

OWC is also available in Europe:

 

Mac Upgrade

 

 

Firewire is OK up to 5m (16,7')

Promise Pegasus2 R6 12TB -> Thunderbolt2 ->
MacBook Pro M1 Pro -> Motu 8D -> AES/EBU ->
Main: Genelec 5 x 8260A + 2 x 8250 + 2 x 8330 + 7271A sub
Boat: Genelec 8010 + 5040 sub

Hifiman Sundara, Sennheiser PXC 550 II
Blog: “Confessions of a DigiPhile”

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The external drive would be about three feet from my Windows pc.

 

JC

 

 

You should clarify a bit. How far away from the pc will this drive need to be?

 

I took the drive out of my pc and connected it via a sata cable and external power supply but I don't know how long sata cables can be; mine is pretty short.

 

Usb 2 drives are pretty slow; I don't know if any usb 3 drives are in existence.

 

Chris

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If you're comfortable mucking about inside your pc let me know and I'll give you details as to what I did to make my internal cd drive into an external drive. Otherwise...

 

Take a look on Amazon or Newegg for a usb drive. I think they're pretty much similar, nothing stands out as great. 3000 cds is going to take forever to rip and even longer with a usb drive.

 

Do you have kids, grand kids, friends with kids or bored adults who you can pay a few bucks to do the ripping? That might be your best option if you don't want to go nuts before you get to listen to your ripped bounty.

 

Chris

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As I see it you have plenty of options:

 

 

a) A very fast external drive (X40 - X48) with a fast connection (USB3 or Firewire)

LG USB 3.0 Super Multi Blue External 14x Blu-ray (X48)

OWC Mercury Pro 24X External DVD Burner

LG WH14NS40 USB 3.0 Blu-Ray Disc Rewriter with Bytecc Enclosure

 

b) A CD Rip Robot

Nimbie USB Plus CD/DVD Auto Loader/Duplicator/Ripper (USB 3.0/2.0)

 

 

c) Using a ripping service if appropriate in your area

Ready to play

 

 

 

No endorsements meant except the OWC Mercury Pro - it is lightning fast, usually rips a CD in 2 min.

Promise Pegasus2 R6 12TB -> Thunderbolt2 ->
MacBook Pro M1 Pro -> Motu 8D -> AES/EBU ->
Main: Genelec 5 x 8260A + 2 x 8250 + 2 x 8330 + 7271A sub
Boat: Genelec 8010 + 5040 sub

Hifiman Sundara, Sennheiser PXC 550 II
Blog: “Confessions of a DigiPhile”

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  • 7 months later...

The LG is very fast, but mine has died. It started doing a lot of seeks on multiple CDs. I'm in the UK, and I called LG for support, and they informed me that they don't sell the drive in the UK, and haven't for two years. (I bought mine about six months ago from Amazon.) Fortunately, Amazon was willing to give me a refund; otherwise, I'd be out £109.

 

Any recommendations for other fast drives, now that I need a new one? I have Plextor Blu-Ray drive that I'll continue using for Blu-Rays (which I don't rip often), though it's pretty slow. I'd be interested either in a drive that does CD, DVD and BD, or just a fast CD drive, because I have several hundred CDs to rip, and get more all the time.

I write about Macs, music, and more at Kirkville.

Author of Take Control of macOS Media Apps

Co-host of The Next Track podcast.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Can't believe you guys do it one CD at a time.

 

Easier and cheap answer:

 

Buy a Sony VAIO VGP-XL1B off of Ebay for under $200. Hook it up to a PC with a Firewire interface

running Windows XP (NB: needs to be XP - problems with Windows 7/8).

 

Load up 200 CD's.

 

Run dBpoweramp batch ripper (yields about 15-17 CD's/hour).

 

Sleep while your CD's rip to FLAC.

 

Repeat 200 till finished.

 

Sell the VAIO to somebody else for $200.

 

Put windows XP machine onto free stuff on craigslist (don't forget to remove your hard won audio booty).

 

You're done. Viola.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Digipete: "No endorsements meant except the OWC Mercury Pro - it is lightning fast, usually rips a CD in 2 min.

 

Okay, this thread has been gone for sometime, but I am now in a position where my first NAS is about to arrive, and I need to start ripping shortly. I just want to be clear that I can put any cd into this unit and it will rip the cd to an AIFF file, using DB Poweramp, in just a couple minutes? I apologize for the request for clarification, but I've never ripped a cd in my life. Thanks.

 

JC

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Just a few tips. DB poweramp can rip the files to a specific path, sorted by Artist\album\Disc number - Track number - Track name by default.

 

If your Folder for music is M:\Music\ (as set in the path in DBpoweramp), the Naming follows:

 

dbPoweramp 1.jpg

 

Metadata is found on the net, but please check the values which will pop up on screen. As a guess, the data is 90% accurate. A classic case is "The Eagles" which changed to "Eagles" dropping the "The". So dbpoweramp will rip to folders The Eagles as well as Eagles depending on the album.

 

I also wonder what speed to rip, the notes on the MFSL CD-R advise to burn at 1x speed mainly to keep the vibration down. Wheter that would apply to ripping, certainly some discs really take off and vibrate the CD tray quite violently.

AS Profile Equipment List        Say NO to MQA

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Yes, I highly recommend DB Poweramp for ripping, and following One-and-a-half's advice to set up the metadata/tagging path upfront. I personally don't nest albums within artists but who cares. My folders are artist-album (and my tracks always begin with track number) but I collect them into separate large directories like redbook, hirez, DSF, ISOs, multichannel, etc. I do that so that when I have a 2nd system and let's say it doesn't support DSD or doesn't support hirez or is only for multichannel I can tell the library manager (JRiver, Minimserver, etc) to just watch certain directories.

 

I guess I'd buy a fast bluray like Pete is suggesting; that way you can rip DVD-A, DVD-D and BluRay audio down the line (not to mention video, which is not part of this thread subject). Damn, if Mr Wicked's project were going any faster you could just buy his (which will then rip SACDs too) but it's unknown when those will be ready.

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For good quality ripping you should use a CD only drives, you may find first generation Plextor or LG on ebay.

 

Agreed. Baseline CD drivers are more stable and reliable IMO....one laser, one mechanism.

 

Does the OPs machine have external sata port?......or USB3?.......firewire?

 

Without knowing the available interface, hard to suggest the fastest method. Personally id do sata with an external enclosure and a long sata cable snuck into the case.

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Dot Rip as fast as you can

RIP as slow as you can, more accurate

And if you want best possible sound,

LPS power supply or battery supply

 

For good quality ripping you should use a CD only drives, you may find first generation Plextor or LG on ebay.

 

I disagree ... if you use dbPowerAmp and utilise SecureRip then once the CD is ripped and matches to the database, you are assured you have a "perfect" copy.

 

Everything else is irrelevant.

 

Eloise

 

PS. yes I know some people will disagree ...

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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As a general reply to the OP ... depending on how much you have to spend on doing this...

 

Buy a case such as...

CA-127-AE_94549_600.jpg

...and add a high capacity PSU. Then add a motherboard, processor and memory and extra SATA controllers.

 

Stuff it with 6 CD (or DVD) drives. Add a couple of HDDs (for OS and for storages).

 

Then use dbPowerAmp and you can insert 6 CDs at a time, walk away. Next time you pass swap for 6 more.

CA-059-OP_38678_400.jpg

MB-123-AK_85180_600.jpg

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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I disagree ... if you use dbPowerAmp and utilise SecureRip then once the CD is ripped and matches to the database, you are assured you have a "perfect" copy.

 

Everything else is irrelevant.

 

Eloise

 

PS. yes I know some people will disagree ...

 

Did you read the link dbpoweramp secure ripping test.

 


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Did you read the link dbpoweramp secure ripping test.

With respect did you?

 

"Overtime AccurateRip can become like a wise-friend, someone you can rely on and trust. It works by storing peoples ripping results and comparing your result with theirs. For example 100 people rip Madonnas latest CD, of those 100 twenty have errors, the other 80 all have identical rips. If you were to rip your Madonna CD there are 2 possibilities, AccurateRip would report that 80 other people agree with your rip (confidence of 80), or that 80 disagree if your had errors. What are the odds of 80 people agreeing with your rip, but they really had a bad rip (ie those 80 people had bad rips which happened to give the same check code)? the odds are 4 billion x 4 billion (repeated 80 times), an astronomical number. If more than 3 people agree with your rip, it is 100% certainty it is accurate."

 

Eloise

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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With respect did you?

 

"Overtime AccurateRip can become like a wise-friend, someone you can rely on and trust. It works by storing peoples ripping results and comparing your result with theirs. For example 100 people rip Madonnas latest CD, of those 100 twenty have errors, the other 80 all have identical rips. If you were to rip your Madonna CD there are 2 possibilities, AccurateRip would report that 80 other people agree with your rip (confidence of 80), or that 80 disagree if your had errors. What are the odds of 80 people agreeing with your rip, but they really had a bad rip (ie those 80 people had bad rips which happened to give the same check code)? the odds are 4 billion x 4 billion (repeated 80 times), an astronomical number. If more than 3 people agree with your rip, it is 100% certainty it is accurate."

 

Eloise

 

Yes I did:) but you should read the detailed results.

 


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