PC recomendation for cd ripping

Dvdgreco, ripping is executing a console program, so laptop quality will effect the speed but not the quality of the rip,

But in the case of running JRiver to serve the data, the quality of your laptop is very important for sound quality. Basically a faster cpu, more RAM and disabling unnecessary services from startup will improve the sound quality.

Don't, that simple. Use the time to listen to music. Among the many cd players I have used, I've found that a Sony CDP-CX355 is a better alternative to ripping. I have two, so I can load 600 cd's and just enjoy the music. One of the units has been in continuous hourly use for 18,000 hours, still going strong. Enjoy the music.

Should not make a difference. I suggest you select 0% compression for FLAC or rip as a .WAV file instead.

I use Db Poweramp for ripping.

"My PC is about 4 yrs old. I maybe over thinking this but does the cd/dvd drive of the PC effect the quality (sound) of the FLAC file created when ripping cd's?"

I'm not too familiar with Jriver, so I'm not sure how good it is for ripping. If you use EAC (its a free program), its at least as good as any other ripping software and it has a utility for checking how good your optical drive is. The only downside is that it can be difficult to set up. There are a few good user guides for download that give you step by step instructions on how to get the best rip's. Just follow the instructions and you'll be OK.

PC shouldn't affect anything. The drive might, and having scratched or dirty discs certainly will. Use something that can give accuraterip results so you can monitor results. EAC can do this, as well as DB Poweramp. Also, you might want to embed album art while you are doing the rips. I didn't do this when I ripped my collection a few years ago, and wish I had. I don't know if JRiver has a similar feature.

did a similarly big leap last year. from a 4 year old vista setup to a i7-3770 3.4 GHz with 16GB of premium RAM and a 2GB video card. MUCH nicer PC. noticed zero difference in SQ but ripping speed was waaaay faster (would guess 3x or more)

The best ripper of all is dbPowerAmp, and it is priced very low. It also uses the multiple cores of your processor to speed things up.

As for ripping to FLAC, use Level 5 or 6. This will net you files about 60% the size of the original with full fidelity...

-RW-

I have ripped hundreds of CD's using Jriver. I used iTunes before and really found Jriver much better. I have used 2 different PC's and heard no difference in sound quality. Started ripping with WAV and have switched to FLAC as no difference in sound was detected in A/B listening tests. I have tried different compression settings for FLAC and heard no difference so am using the default setting of 6.
I agree with Riffer in making sure discs are really clean and dust-free before ripping.
I think Jriver is all you need for playback and ripping (use Copy mode: secure, and a Read speed of 2x).
Good luck!

Looks like Tune_Man gave you good info, go with that...

-RW- I still loves me some dbPowerAmp!

I don't think you need the fastest or most modern PC for ripping. I use dBPoweramp and a dual CPU Xeon 3.6GHz (Nocono processor) with an 800 MHz FSB and Win XP.

The biggest factor IMHO is the CDROM/DVD drive. I use Plextor drives with an error detecting ROM. This DVD drive can detect both C1 and C2 errors. My two CPUs are hyperthreaded for a total of four logical CPUs, and dBpoweramp divides many of the tasks between all four CPUs. The ripping speed is determined by the actual ripping conditions on the disc. Some rips run at > 35x, but others run much slower. Its unclear to me why the speeds vary that much, as I see a large speed variation even between immaculately clean discs.

The Secure Rip function is great but I have run into situations where my particular album was not in the secure rip database. I have also run into one or two albums where dBpoweramp refused to read a disc (perhaps due to some form of copy protection), although my CD player and Plextor will still play the music through the PC.

Rip CD's on PC using dbpoweramp with Accurate Rip enabled. Use a drive with C2 error correction.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio