The gritty details:
The OS: Gentoo Linux (kernel 2.4.23)
The drive: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W4012A, firmware V1.05
Computer: EPIA-M 9000 (Via C3 processor)
The disc: John Coltrane's Giant Steps, with a scratch affecting the end of track 11, and the beginning of track 12.
Cdda2wav version: 2.0_linux_2.4.20_i686_via-ezra, real time sched., soundcard, libparanoia support
Cdrdao version: 1.1.7
Cdparanoia version: cdparanoia III release 9.8 (March 23, 2001)
Rips are analyzed by converting all WAV files to raw "CDR" audio with sox, ie: `sox test.wav test.cdr`. Because some ripping methods append the next track's pregap to the end of the current track and some don't, I analyze only the beginning of each file using 'head' or 'dd'.
Some test rips:
test1 - CDDA2WAV:
$ cdda2wav -D /dev/cdrom -t 12
$ sox audio.wav test1.cdr
test2 - CDPARANOIA:
$ cdparanoia 12
$ sox cdda.wav test2.cdr
test3 - CDDA2WAV with -paranoia:
$ cdda2wav -D /dev/cdrom -t 12 -paranoia
$ sox audio.wav test3.cdr
test4 - CDRDAO:
$ cdrdao read-cd --device 0,0,0 --driver generic-mmc giantsteps.toc
$ toc2cue giantsteps.toc giantsteps.cue
$ bchunk data.bin giantsteps.cue test4
$ mv test412.cdr test4.cdr
test5 - EAC:
Ripped with "Test & Copy Selected Tracks --> Uncompressed"
Copied the wav to my Linux box, and converted to cdr as above
Different drive, computer, and OS.
RESULTS
File sizes:
test1.cdr: 76091904
test2.cdr: 76091904
test3.cdr: 76091904
test4.cdr: 75355728
test5.cdr: 76091904
md5 hashes: (`head testx.cdr | md5sum`)
test1.cdr: e18c043fdbb25322593030439203680c
test2.cdr: bf47654535e0de14ee9e56b51bc02882
test3.cdr: e18c043fdbb25322593030439203680c
test4.cdr: e18c043fdbb25322593030439203680c
test5.cdr: 5058d55c95dd4ba49da849b7df0c8931
All files sound pretty much perfect except test2, which has numerous pops.