Good day
I have been ripping all my CDs to FLAC for many years (previously with EAC, now with dBpoweramp).
It is always annoying when a CD does not match the AccurateRip database. Sometimes you can achieve an improvement with a little toothpaste or generally cleaning the CD.
With certain CDs, physical damage is visible. Ok.
But with some CDs nothing is visible. So probably a production problem. But how does a “correct” entry in the AccurateRip database come about?
This question arises even more for me with the copy-protected CDs, which show one or even all tracks as inaccurate. How does an accurate entry in the database come about?
And my last question: are there differences in the CD drives? Are there any recommendations?
Thank you very much.
“Correct” in AccurateRip only means that you got the same result as other rips that are already in the database. If there are 500 existing results that match each other and yours does not, it’s likely that there is an issue with your rip, but it’s also possible that your CD does not match the others for some other reasons. If there is only 1 existing result and yours does not match, it’s a toss-up for which one is correct.
AccurateRip enables the lossless (FLAC, Apple Lossless, Wave, AIFF, Windows Media Audio Lossless) to be checked against an online database to check for ripping errors. Why would you need to? when ripping (saving) a CD the CD drive or computer are not able to determine errors in the audio stream, 100% of the time. Errors can be introduced by scratches, or manufacturing defects, it is estimated that 2% of all ripped tracks have ripping errors. A ripping error might be audible, or might be a block of silence, either way it would be good to know with a certainty there are no errors, AccurateRip can check your already ripped files using the results of other peoples rips. A the premise is quite simple, a scratch on your disc would not be in the same location as a scratch on another persons disc, so that if your rip matches another persons rip it is error free. Lossy formats (mp3, AAC) cannot be checked because these formats throw away audio when ripped, AccurateRip can only verify if the audio is 100% identical to that on the audio CD.
Yes there are differences between drives, in particular whether they support C2 error pointers:
https://dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper-setup-guide.htm
https://www.dbpoweramp.com/secure-ripper.htm
(edit: and also how they deal with particular copy-protected CDs, one may manage a CD that another one doesn’t, and vice versa)
I don’t know how to find out if a particular drive supports C2 without trying a search on Google or in the dBP forums, or testing it yourself. I have the standard Dell external USB drive (the only one they have on the website) and it does support C2 and works great in general.
For me, the problem, or something similar, occurred precisely because I ripped with FLAC. I finally switched to WAV. However, I did not find out why problems occurred before.
Welcome to the Roon community, @Matthias_Munkwitz.
The ripping process and the encapsulation are entirely different steps. If there’s an issue ripping a CD, it makes no difference if the output file is FLAC, MP3 or WAV.
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