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iTunes - listening while ripping?


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Greetings! This is my first post here and I hope I will be able to contribute to this community.

 

My question is this - I'm about 1,400 discs into ripping my cd library into iTunes in ALAC format using my 20" iMac and a Drobo connected via firewire...I've always been hesitant to listen to music in my iTunes library while ripping cds into iTunes - is this a problem or can I do this without affecting the ripping of the cd?

 

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to listen to the music that I'm currently ripping. I'm listening to other files in the library while iTunes imports a different album.

 

Because of my hesitation I've typically listened to other cds via a traditional cd-player while I import albums. It would be much nicer to use that time to explore the albums already imported.

 

I'd appreciate it if anyone that has a definitive answer to this can chime in. Thank you!

 

 

 

Also - by way of introduction, I typically listen to headphones. I usually use the optical out from my iMac into either a DacMagic or my Cambridge 840C cd-player, run the outputs into either my SPL Auditor or Decware CSP2+ headphone amp, and then into either Denon AH-D7000, Senn HD650, Grado RS1i or 325is headphones. My speaker based rig is a pair of Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 fed by a Naim Nait XS integrated. I will look forward to learning more about computer audio from this crowd!

 

iMac 20\" - Snow Leopard - Drobo

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About your 1st question,

 

A while ago I was testing this on a older (slower) MacBook. While ripping CDs iTunes was using about 4% memory and 4.5% CPU. When ripping and playing at the same time, the CPU load went up to about 7% so I think you should be okay ripping while playing songs.

 

cheers

Ruud.

 

~

 

 

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Before you begin ripping with iTunes, think about if you want to rip using XLD (or Max) instead. While the results with perfect CDs will be identical, if you have some CDs in less than perfect condition you may find the XLD will do a better job at reading scratched parts, etc. without resorting to error correction so much. Also XLD can check our rips against the secureRip database for added confidence.

 

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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Eloise,

 

I was reading threads on XLD and found it very interesting! Perhaps I went into this project with a slightly different attitude than most, but I assumed this wouldn't be the last time I ripped the collection. It might sound strange to say I planned to rip a 3000+ album collection more than once (a small collection compared to many here!), but my assumption was that the "ideal" ripping solution was most likely years away. I wanted to take advantage of the joys of having the entire collection at my fingertips but didn't expect that everything would be perfect.

 

The process is very enjoyable for me. Getting to know forgotten albums, replacing broken jewel cases, etc...it's been an adventure!

 

Thank you for your good advice...I'll check out XLD.

 

Best Regards,

John

 

 

iMac 20\" - Snow Leopard - Drobo

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my assumption was that the "ideal" ripping solution was most likely years away

 

I would say that you can get the perfect ripping solution now - you can already read from the CD to 100% perfection so without processing the data, you're not going to get anything better in the future.

 

Have you read Chris' CD ripping strategy document?

 

I totally agree that finding "lost" albums has been a delight with ripping my CDs also.

 

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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