Bit Perfect Imports

[BEEMB]

 

Interested in peoples thoughts on the following ...

 

I used iTunes on a Mac to import most of my music. Error correction was turned on so I assumed that this produced a bit accurate file. (all ripped as AIFF).

 

But ... why does Exact Audio Copy then take soooo much longer to do the same ? (if it is infact doing the same) ...

 

Other players offer different types of import too .. Media Monkey has a jitter free import option ...

 

Are they all capable of producing bit perfect imports ?

 

Matt.

 

[Cavaille]

The possibility of producing bit perfect imports depends mostly on your drive. However, the difference between iTunes and EAC is that iTunes does a synchronized read at maximum speed whereas EAC reads and compares the bits it grabbed. Adding to this EAC detects the cache in the drive that could produce flawed rips if activated. iTunes doesn´t. This cache also is important for the speed. Furthermore EAC mostly doesn´t use the error reporting capability of the drive (some drives are "saying" that they detect errors while in fact they doesn´t) - EAC detects errors itself. iTunes trusts the drive. The programmer and fans of EAC claims, that it produces flawless rips that are indeed bit perfect.

 

The Jitter Media Monkey talks about is "read jitter" that can occur if the synchronization between sectors of the disc fails within the drive. If you´d have that in your rips you would hear clicks and pops. This is not to be confused with "time based jitter" that occurs during transfers via e.g. optical cables.

 

If you are happy with iTunes, if you don´t have pops and clicks and if you like it fast then stay with iTunes. Make sure you don´t use EQs or any other DSP like resampling etc.

 

[tino]

That has made things a lot clearer for me too.

Would you recommend that when ripping within Media Monkey "read jitter" mode should be on ??

 

Also, do you have any idea what the other setting "read frames" refers to. It is preset at 27, but as far as I can see you can press the up button and move this number into 3 figures??

 

Thanks,

Martin

 

[Cavaille]

When you rip you can leave that setting checked. But if you didn´t run into some problems yet, you most certainly already have bit perfect copies.

 

If I understood this correctly, "read frames" refer to the number of frames read at the same time before realigned by the synchronized mode. If you didn´t encounter problems leave it as it is.

 

I suggest you use other software to be sure. MediaMonkey doesn´t say anywhere that their main goal concerning ripping is quality. I use EAC a lot. Also good is dbPowerAmp (although it costs). And high grabbing speed is mostly not equal to quality.