best cdr ripper

irishguy

what do you think is the best cd ripper/mp3 encoder?? my personal fav is realjuke box plus,

Inspector Gadget

...this sort of question always tends to provoke some level of evangelism from various parties, as people aren't all agreed on what actually constitutes the "best", if there is such a thing.

Personally, I have a grudge against RealNetworks for knowingly foisting spyware on the public, so I refuse to use their products. However, I have two excellent (not to mention practical) reasons for not using RealJukebox; instead, I use Exact Audio Copy 0.9b4(http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/). Those reasons are:

1. It's one of amazingly few CD-rippers out there that actually tries to reconstruct the data from scratched/damaged CDs, leading to better audible results.
2. It's free - RealJukebox appears to be... rented? $9.95 a month? WTF? :eek:

On top of that, it (EAC) also features:

1. FreeDB Support
2. CD Database export to a variety of formats
3. Hugely configurable file compression options using your choice of compressor (it even knows how to control the basics in a large variety of known encoders) - personally I use LAME (also free).
4. It can generate/burn CD images for audio CDs

etc. etc.

Hope this helps,
Gadget

netman

I use AudioCatalyst 2.1. Perfectly happy with it, goes off to CDDB, rips and encodes to a format of your choice. You can use it as AudioGrabber, extend it with a codec, or use it as AudioCatalyst to encode to mp3 using their own codec.

Lightning fast, good sound, easy to use... Simply works for me

byte

Like netman, I also use AudioCatalyst 2.1

PiE

CDex

Xithus

Id be a Cdex man aswell.

CombatCow

Yup CDex is some funky sh!t.



COMBATCOW >:^)

Gerry

Yeah I also use exact audio copy, its very easy to use but not at the expense of features. I have configured it to use lame for mp3 encoding, gives excellent results at 192kbit vbr.

adeypius

CDex all the way

LoGiE

Cdex or Mp3 Pro nice and fast;)

Diarmuid

I'll have to agree with EAC. Top notch ripper. Check out the music board. there's already been a thread with the same topic very recently