Hello All,
In the past I have used EAC with NEC 3520 drives (IDE!) to rip my CDs to FLAC, but this was a slow process, and I eventually lost interest after ripping about 700 or so CDs. In any case, my current motherboard does not support IDE drives, so I thought it would be a good idea to post here to enquire about the current state of play in drives, software and so on.
Clearly, I am in need of a high quality drive to rip my CD collection. The drive could be a Blu-ray, DVD or CD mechanism, it does not matter so long as the read performance and error correction are really good. As a large chunk of my collection has not yet been ripped (about 3000 CDs), I'm also looking into the option of getting a CD ripping robot (auto-loader). What drives, software and robots would forum members recommend? I prefer to avoid slot loaders as my case is set up for traditional drawer loading drives.
Suggestions and comments on what are the best choices would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Ah ... I suppose my solution nine years ago is obsolete. But FWIW ...
I bought two of these (second-hand, and wore out one): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-VGP-XL1B-Media-Changer-recorder-/253139133013 (caveat: Firewire!)
I paid - in 2008! - about what this guy charges today. Price development, IIRC: Initially $800 (actually, the mechanism is bought from a firm called Powerfile, which used to charge the double), soon cut to $399 and then further - and at end-of-shelf-life, down to $170.
Not sure if this is what you are after, but I think it looks cute: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:146319
Thanks for the reply Porcus.
A turnkey solution is required, so the DIY project would not work.
As for the Sony, I don't believe dB Poweramp has a driver for it. I would prefer not to use proprietary ripping software. Just wondering, what ripping software does the Sony use, and how is the ripping process automated?
dBpoweramp does have a driver, the sony falls under the Media Changer drivers.
With the mediachanger.exe tool from https://www.mediadogg.com/id13.html one can pass to next disc. True there was some driver issues when the thing was completely new, but that is ages ago.
I used dBpoweramp (paid for the Reference). This was before the Batch Ripper, so I automated it myself. If I were to do it today, I would consider CUETools, command line <3.
Thanks for your input Spoon.
For someone starting from scratch, which robot would you recommend?
Any preferences for a drive?
Thanks.
dBpoweramp does have a driver, the sony falls under the Media Changer drivers.
Any preferences for a drive?
Given that really pretty good optical drives are now dirt cheap, remember that EAC and probably other software supports more than one drive. I'm currently using 6 with EAC. AFAIK EAC's limit is too large to be a practical issue.
At some point just managing loading the drives becomes the practical limit. I found that labelling the drives to match the drive info on the EAC messages helps quite a bit.
Remember that you can use USB drives hooked up via a USB hub...
IME the best USB drives are the ones you assemble yourself using the best SATA dri ve you can find.
My drive selection technique was to visit my nearest superstore and obtain one each of everything relevant. I hooked them up and just went through my collection until some discs ripped with too many errors, or stopped completely. Tried that disk in some other drive. I noted which drives bombed out the most and which kept on ticking, regardless.
Went back to the store and stocked up on the winner. When I did this, the winner was the Samsung SH-224. YMMV.
This scheme will obviously work on the web, as well. Even better...
Remember that you can use USB drives hooked up via a USB hub...
Back in the day, you would not always get all error correction data over a USB bridge. Don't know if that is still an issue.
Went back to the store and stocked up on the winner. When I did this, the winner was the Samsung SH-224. YMMV.
If a disc is troublesome, then I would attempt a different drive model.