Bob,
Please stop ripping with iTunes and download and try the free XLD app on your mac as recommended by a number of people above.
There are a couple of reasons why:
1) XLD guarantees bitperfect rips and reports if there are any errors. So you can change settings to rip more quickly and adjust to slower reading only when you are dealing with a scratched up disc. As long as you get "No errors reported" you're good to go. It's free for mac and if you read computeraudiophile forums so you see that it is proven and preferred for a majority of mac users.
2) iTunes treats album art differently than almost every other playback program. The problem is that since it doesn't imbed art in every track, if you choose later to use your ripped library with other software(let's table the discussion about software/streamer/platform for now) art won't necessarily be visible, creating lots of metatags editing work for you. Ripping with XLD will eliminate the issue.
Trust me on this. I am a former iTunes user who lived through the pain described on hundreds of albums ripped using iTunes years ago. Changing to XLD now will save you tons of time and mental energy down the road regardless of which hardware and playback platform you move to in the future.
Note that all the iTunes recommendations above seem to be of the flavor: "I do this" not "Here's why iTunes is best for you to use".
FWIW, about the ripping seeming daunting, I suggest not thinking of it as a race to complete. While watching sports or tv I will rip CDs during commercials etc. It only takes a few seconds of attention. Do a few a night, starting with your favs and it won't be such a chore. Cheers,
Spencer
Please stop ripping with iTunes and download and try the free XLD app on your mac as recommended by a number of people above.
There are a couple of reasons why:
1) XLD guarantees bitperfect rips and reports if there are any errors. So you can change settings to rip more quickly and adjust to slower reading only when you are dealing with a scratched up disc. As long as you get "No errors reported" you're good to go. It's free for mac and if you read computeraudiophile forums so you see that it is proven and preferred for a majority of mac users.
2) iTunes treats album art differently than almost every other playback program. The problem is that since it doesn't imbed art in every track, if you choose later to use your ripped library with other software(let's table the discussion about software/streamer/platform for now) art won't necessarily be visible, creating lots of metatags editing work for you. Ripping with XLD will eliminate the issue.
Trust me on this. I am a former iTunes user who lived through the pain described on hundreds of albums ripped using iTunes years ago. Changing to XLD now will save you tons of time and mental energy down the road regardless of which hardware and playback platform you move to in the future.
Note that all the iTunes recommendations above seem to be of the flavor: "I do this" not "Here's why iTunes is best for you to use".
FWIW, about the ripping seeming daunting, I suggest not thinking of it as a race to complete. While watching sports or tv I will rip CDs during commercials etc. It only takes a few seconds of attention. Do a few a night, starting with your favs and it won't be such a chore. Cheers,
Spencer