Ripping: EAC or dBpoweramp? Final answer...
2008-03-18 03:27:52
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. What a wonderful website to stumble upon. I'm a new member and have no posting history... I have a pretty big music collection. Close to 5,000 cd's. I simply have been collecting music since I was a kid, never sold/traded any, and today could almost start my own radio station! But perhaps that isn't the greatest thing considering that is where all my money has gone. All my music is currently ripped to mp3 at 128 Kbps. I have been doing A LOT of reading about properly ripping to FLAC, and the ABSOLUTE BEST way to do it. EAC is popping up all over the place as THE BEST ripper. I have downloaded it, properly read the guides (though it seems there aren't many 'updated' ones - within the last month), configured it, and have tried it out to the best of my ability. I have also downloaded dBpoweramp, read about it, configured it (not much to it!), and have tried it out to the best of my ability, etc. etc. I REALLY LIKE dBpoweramp, and I think that is so because of the ability for the program to communicate with AMG for metadata and album art. (I have read and re-read that AMG does a better job at getting the correct metadata and album art as compared to freeDB, MusicBrainz, etc.) *My overall biggest concern is that (1) I am getting 100% (or damn close to 100%) accurate rips and (2) that the metadata and album art are precise the first time around (understanding that I may have to change a little here and there using Mp3tag later on). **My concern is that as I get used to using dBpoweramp, am I going to be missing out not using EAC? Does it REALLY make that much of a difference? Will I look back after ripping my 5,000 cd's and wish that I had used EAC? And if EAC is the absolute preferred method, Spoon has got to chime in and tell me otherwise!! ***If in fact EAC is the way to go, does someone have an updated manual to help with prebeta version? And I'll be absolutely honest: I'm not sure what some of the acronyms mean. C2? What's that? I read some of these discussions and it sometimes feels like rocket science... Thank you for all your help and advice. I simply need to MAKE A DECISION and use either EAC or dBpoweramp. Public: What's your FINAL ANSWER?