an alternative to EAC?
Reply #15 – 2002-04-28 17:48:25
on my machine with Win98SE, EAC and CDex both use about the same CPU, as judged by Process Explorer. Both in the teens usually, with EAC on secure and CDex on full paranoia. EAC is more likely to all of a sudden lock my computer, though. Moreover, it sometimes has problems with my drive (a cheapie); cdParanoia used by CDex does better with cheap drives I think. Moreover, the cdParanoia scheme is easier on the drive than EAC's, as judged by how often the speed changes and the laser head moves around when using EAC on a scratched cd. As for the scratched cd's, EAC will give more consistent rips (bit-for-bit more similar when ripping a scratched disc multiple times for comparison; CDex will give similar-sounding reads but the error correction it makes varies a bit more with each read). That said, I have scratched discs, that I keep for testing purposes, that CDex gets better-sounding reads from than does EAC. Though on the whole, EAC does better here. It's also nice to have a progress window; in CDex the only way you know that cdParanoia is having trouble reading is when the % progress indicator gets stuck on a certain value for awhile. In my experience CDex is a bit easier to set up but has fewer options and isn't quite as cusomizeable. EAC's wav editor feature is very nice. I use it frequently. Just finished going through a cd by Tourniquet, a heavy-metal band that is melodic and amazingly technically proficient but has an annoying screaming/growling vocalist... I clipped out all the vocal portions and merged the leftover sections in rhythm so that the "seams" aren't noticeable. Time-consuming, but what's a man to do in a year off?