I use AudioGrabber 1.62.2 with the LameEnc DLL engine 3.70 at the 192kbit/s bitrate (joint stereo). I went through the stuff www.r3mix.net 'articles' and came to the following conclusions:

I 'should' be using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to rip the music pure (100%) from the CD. However, I got hooked with the AudioGrabber -application (easy to use, has CDDB and .mp3 encoding options ready, just copy the LAME .dll into the dir). Their difference is that EAC reads the CD's raw as AudioGrabber does DAC (Digital Audio Copy). I will not go into talking about this but people have pointed out that EAC goes through the error checksums etc, somehow utilizing the raw-read mode or something like that. So far I have not noticed any clicks or other artifacts that the www.r3mix.net guy says the Digital Audio Copy may produce, I trust it quite much depends on the speed you are using in reading, the quality of your CD-rom AND the particular CD. Most of my CDs have been used very little so I am in luck by having no visible 'bad' scratching in most. Am I wrong if I claim that 'Digital Audio Copying' (ripping) is like playing the CD on your own CD-player ie. listening to the record?

I have locked my HP 9310i series writer (which I use in the ripping process) to 8X reading speed in the AudioGrabber program. Higher speeds seem to "give possible read errors" on the program as my p3-600 can not keep up with the ripping pace - the disk needs to re-spin and the laser will have to resume reading at the very same spot it left off. Although I noticed no problems with higher speeds either, I went for the 8X option. Some people would claim even 4X is too fast..? (the audiograbber guy says that quality drives should handle this ok) CD-drives should be rated for 'read music' speeds but I didn't bother to go find more about this.

Sometimes the AudioGrabber or my CD-drive does not comply with the 8X read-speed I've issued to it and the 'possible problem' -count changes to a positive number from 0 but I have not heard any problems on the songs this has happened.

I am NOT using VBR currently as the www.r3mix.net guy claims that the new LAME encoder engine's (though mine is the 'stable' version) VBR produces some serious artifacts and still needs some tweaking. This made me a bit worried as I do NOT want to go through all my (roughly) 250 CDs more than this one time. 192kbit/s seems to produce clearer sounds as I listen to them at home with my Pioneer (can't remember the model, one of the top ones of 1998) amplifier and OR-300Hi (these guys are huge and have a really good sound) speakers. The difference with 128kbit/s and 192kbit/s can be heard.. also, I have never been in need of HD space.. lucky me I guess (other than that the Empeg I have in mind only has a 12GB drive.. hmmm, I think it will fit about 150 full albums encoded with 192kbit/s). I'm switching to VBR as soon as the more close-to-the-tech people (or atleast ones talking about it) flash green lights.. though I only have about 100 CDs more to go..

I'm also using the 'Encode with Highest Quality (reduced speed)', 'Use ID3 Tag' and the 'Normalize peak level to 98%' -options. This may somewhat slow the encoding process, I have not really experimented with these but they all sounded good. Ripping & Encoding one CD takes a while but well.. I have other comps to play with during that time, I'm not even touching the one I'm doing the encoding on while the CD is in the oven. I never do anything with the machines I'm 'burning' stuff on, I somehow equalize encoding with burning.. I reckon reading something about the peak level normalizing but I really can not recall what it was. The ID3 tags are used by the Empeg (I hear) so why not keep them there.

I guess I'll have to go for the 18GB model.. however, there is this question about the money.. I'm hoping I can find the money for the Empeg in time, I'm hoping the blue screened one will fit perfectly in a VW Golf V6 4motion that I should be getting from the factory very very soon now..(hopeful)

On the other hand, are you sure you want to keep -ALL- your encoded CDs on the Empeg-machine only? A moderately sized IDE hard-disk costs next to nothing these days.. I'm looking forward to putting the 'diamonds' of my collection on the Empeg and leaving some of the music I know I will not be listening (even on the Empeg) somewhere else.


Antti 'Amarth' Luostarinen
#14229 in the waiting queue
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