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Topic: A quick dumb EAC question (Read 4943 times) previous topic - next topic
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A quick dumb EAC question

Hello all,

I'm using a laptop here at school which has a TSSTcorp CDW/DVD TS-L462A internal drive, but I have a desktop back home which has a Mad Dog MegaSTOR 16x Triple Format (MD-16X3DVD9-8X, I believe). So, my question is simply this: if I'm using AccurateRip to verify the results with EAC on both computers, does it matter which drive I use to rip my music? Would one be better than the other? I'm going for the best quality / backup of my CDs. Thanks for your help.

-audiomunky

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #1
If AccurateRip gives positive results for rips in both drives then it does not matter.

The only nuance lies in overreading which AccurateRip ignores.  Some people make a big deal out of this. 

To me it is not important (like gaps ).  If this is important to you then go with whichever drive can overread.  If neither can overread than go with the one with the smallest absolute offset.

Another issue you may want to consider is which drive you would rather put wear and tear on.

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #2
Wow, thanks greynol!  Very insightful.  I am very familiar with your position on gaps (I have learned a lot about them through your posts, but I tend to write mine to a CUE sheet, don't ask me why).   

Overreading is (for the most part) just reading silence, right?  I hope I'm not missing anything...  I don't think either of my drives overread, anyway.

It seems my Mad Dog has a read offset of +48, and my laptop is +6.  Laptop, right?

Someone else told me to find the drive that does not cache audio.  My laptop does cache, but Mad Dog doesn't (I think).  Should I still use the lappy?

Thanks for helping out a newb. 

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #3
Wow, thanks greynol!  Very insightful.  I am very familiar with your position on gaps (I have learned a lot about them through your posts, but I tend to write mine to a CUE sheet, don't ask me why). 
When doing single-file images, you can't avoid them; and it's certainly better to have them detected correctly.

Quote
Overreading is (for the most part) just reading silence, right?
Right (or stuff that should be silence at any rate).  In the case of your drives they are the last 6 or 48 samples of the last track only.

Quote
It seems my Mad Dog has a read offset of +48, and my laptop is +6.  Laptop, right?
If that's what AccurateRip says, then absolutely.

Quote
Someone else told me to find the drive that does not cache audio.  My laptop does cache, but Mad Dog doesn't (I think).  Should I still use the lappy?
Excellent point!  That's even more wear and tear on your laptop drive.  I'm under the impression that laptop drives are more delicate and more expensive than desktop drives.

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #4
Okay, so even though it's +48 and the laptop is +6, you would recommend the Mad Dog due to the fact that it doesn't cache and less wear and tear?

Sorry, I'm just trying to make sure I understand...thanks for your patience! 

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #5
42 samples is less than 0.001 seconds

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #6
That's what I'm thinking, yes.

I originally answered based on the quality of the rips.  Now the discussion has gone into more of a gray area where others undoubtedly have more experience and knowledge that I do.  I don't own a laptop.

If wear is an issue, I'd also suggest that you use burst with AccurateRip if you can get away with it.  In fact, a test pass isn't even necessary if AccurateRip says the rip is ok, which is even less wear than doing test and copy.

F5 followed by F8 (if needed) is just as good as F6.

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #7
Thanks, greynol and Cosmo, for your help.  Drive wear and tear is not as important as quality rips to me, but if the caching is going to affect it, then I better go ahead with the Mad Dog.  I just have to wait until I get back home.      Thanks again!

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #8
The caching thing goes hand-in-hand with the wear and tear.

Caching drives can deliver accurate rips just fine, it's just that it takes longer because of all the extra overreading involved in order to flush the cache.  This time "overreading" is different than before.  I'm no longer talking about reading from the lead-out, instead I'm talking about reading extra data that isn't used to do anything except clear the audio cache.

If you use burst mode, overreading is not necessary and is not done.  With burst you can rely on AccurateRip, or go with test and copy and matching CRCs to verify that the rip was secure.

I think spoon's new ripper only overreads during re-reads and does not read any more than what is necessary to clear the cache.  EAC, on the other hand, overreads by 2MB even if your cache is only 100KB which is not very efficient.

If accurate rips take precedence over possible wear and tear and extra time required to rip in secure mode because you're using a drive that caches audio data, then you shouldn't have any trouble with the drive in your laptop.  It could be that one drive is better at getting accurate rips than the other, but if the discs are in good condition or AccurateRip tells you that the rips are good, which drive you use isn't going to matter.

 

A quick dumb EAC question

Reply #9
greynol, you are very helpful and informative.  Thank you so much for your help.  I'm learning a lot.    I'm going to go ahead and start ripping with my laptop drive.  Thanks again!