Is Itunes OK to rip CD's to AIFF?

If you set error correction on with iTunes how could you get anything other than a perfect rip?

One other question: Does Pure Music handle ripping, too? IOW if you have it installed and rip through iTunes is PM software doing the ripping?

Steve: so they have a flat-out bug in the software? Ought to be easy to fix. How long has it existed?

I went through your experiment using Beethoven's 9th. The dbpoweramp rip sounds awesome but the iTunes rip sounds exactly like the studio version of Stairway to Heaven! Something is off indeed.

Seriously, I don't doubt the phenomena (though it is surprising). I may end up re-ripping in the near future so I'm glad I came across this. I'd always though iTunes with error correction on was golden.

I now believe that the reason the 2nd rip of Beethoven's 9th sounded like Stairway was that I accidentally used a Zeppelin CD.

This casts some doubt on the entire experiment.

I have final results to report after further analysis.

My findings indicate that Beethoven's 9th Symphony ripped by dbpoweramp is notably inferior to Stairway to Heaven ripped by XLD. The differences are not subtle, and furthermore they remain consistent regardless of the orchestra/conductor/hall the 9th was recorded in.

Specifically, Page's guitar, and Plant's vocals, are far more present in the XLD version, while being totally absent from the dbpoweramp rip.

In short, XLD is markedly and objectively superior.

My finding will be presented in an upcoming issue of Stereophile. (John Atkinson's measurements revealed real & substantial differences between the two ripped files.)