Why a difference between EAC and Aiff to WAV via itunes?

[kowtim]

Hi Everyone

 

This is my first post and I would like to first of all say hi to the all the folks here. There sure is a wealth of knowledgeable folks here. Thanks for looking at this by the way!

 

Ok.... here is my scenario!

 

I would like to archive my baroque classical CD collection onto a hard disc. One of my 1980's original Handel Harpsichord CD's has started pitting / corrosion.... so for this reason alone, best to have a backup of my collection on hard disk! I live in Malaysia and "good" classical CD's are no longer sold here . So tragic that many a true masters life's works is condensed into one "greatest hits" disc and that's all that can be bought here... I digress. Apologies!

 

The idea is that if I suitably and correctly archived my CD collection onto a hard disc, then in the future should I wish to create a "sonically identical CD", I could burn a CD-R from the correct files on my hard disk that will end up with a CD-R sounding exactly, or SO close to the original that it could be considered "approximately exact" sonically.

 

I have researched and discovered, very late I know , that if I were to rip my CD's into iTunes, and if I was to rip them into the AIFF format and set the error correction to "on" and insert good clean unscratched original CD's into a good high quality external large size CD burner, then I should be able to get a near perfect rip placed onto my hard disc.

 

And so... I have tried this. I have ripped a CD to iTunes. I set the import settings to AIFF and Error Correction to On.

 

Now... what I did was this to test the theory, I took one songs AIFF file from the iTunes album folder and I used a converter to convert it to a WAV file. I then burned this WAV file using Nero Express and set the burn speed to 8X and burnt the audio track to a Sony 700 MB CD-R.

 

Why have I done this? Via my research, I have found that if I rip my discs into iTunes with the settings described above, then I get all the convenience and awesome benefits iTunes offers, I get to tag my files which WAV doesn't support, and if I followed the procedure above, I could ( should ), in the future, be able to generate approximately exact sounding CD's to the original.

 

The result of all this is, that with the modest replay gear I have, I can't really tell that there is any difference between the original CD and a CD-R that was created by original CD - iTunes AIFF rip - AIFF to WAV conversion - Nero Express 8X Burn.

 

The problem I have is this. If I were to rip an original disc via EAC into WAV files on my PC, and use Nero Express to burn those WAV files on a CD-R, the resulting sound is VERY noticeably different! On my modest replay equipment, all unskilled listeners actually prefer the EAC version as it seems to have a "brighter" presentation hence more impressive sound. Whilst this is true... it also results in much unwanted sibilance, which I certainly don't like.

 

I would like to take the viewpoint that they all "should" sound the same. But they do not. Could anyone suggest to me why I am getting the differences I am, and perhaps suggest what I might try to get them to sound the same... perhaps I need to look at the offset settings in EAC more closely? I did go thru the setup procedure on EAC pretty closely and offered it various recorded CD's that "were" in its database so that it could self calibrate... but I did not really go into it 100 % as the installation process seemed to be going along so smoothly that it raised no flags and made me "feel" all was well.

 

Any ideas or thoughts or opinions?

 

Regards

 

Mark