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S/PDIF Input Software to trap WAV files

I have been going through the forum and I'm thinking about going further into PC audio. I have half a terabyte of MP3/FLAC/OGG files and want to take it up a notch. I'm looking at the M-Audio Audiophile USB external sound card - upgrade from an SB Extigy I and run S/PDIF out to my Levinson 360S. I'm ok with that part of the system - My question is:

How can I go the other way?

Who out there is familiar with a software package that will trap an S/PDIF digital input signal from the Levinson 360S digital out OR the S/PDIF out on the transport. I want to feed CD audio from my transport into my computer to trap it in a WAV file format. So many CD's now put "black magic" on my PC that I would like to go a different route. Please tell me there is a way to do this. I bought the CD's ... I'd like to put em on my Ipod. I DONT want something that will mess with the signal ... just convert it to WAV from S/PDIF. I'm not all that up on exactly how the S/PDIF spec works with the signal. I have read the basics but it might take an EE out there to get it to make sense. Is it as simple as serialized transfer to a open file? I would think there is a conversion of some sort. This will also help with my decision to get a squeezebox or not. WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS to the digital information as it comes in on the wire and gets trapped in a file?

Maybe a bit to complex to answer ... any help with the software? I know D.A.R.T. will trap an analog signal and convert it to wav. I just want to go digital and trap it to WAV. It has an S/PDIF input, so maybe I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be. If there is conversion involved then the software method might make a huge difference in sound quality. If not maybe I dont need more the the software that comes with the card.

Anyone do this yet? In a way it beats the copy protection Sony is infecting us with.

The Horse
128x128horseface

Showing 1 response by edesilva

edesilva
768 posts
 
I'm not a huge Sony fan, but you only get a rootkit installed if you fire up their player. I've got over a half terabyte of ALAC files on my computer, all ripped from my own CDs, and no viruses to date.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say you do not want to use your transport to "record" .wav files. CD ROMs are, and always will be, better at creating bit-for-bit copies of CDs, because they don't have to function in real time. Use EAC. In secure mode, there is nothing that will give you a better copy, high end transports included--high end transports don't--and can't given real time constraints--read sectors over and over to get a perfect copy.

If you are concerned with viruses, make sure your computer is set up so that CDs do not autoplay. Then, when you drop in a CD, all the drive is going to do is read data from it, and not *execute* any code on the disk unless you tell it too. EAC won't execute anything off a disk. EAC will only read.
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