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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 3 responses by horseface

horseface's avatar
horseface OP
222 posts
 
Thank you very much for the info

For the most part I will use CDex to rip (another great open source program) BUT there are a few CD's with copy protection enabled to the point I could NOT get them to rip ... I tried 3 different machines and 4-5 different ripping programs. I will try EAC

CD's that wont rip to date:

Trey Anistasio - Shine
Trey Anistasio - One Man's Trash
Mike Gibson's new CD

So my little S/PDIF input trick will be a one or two CD's per thousand deal. I have done some extensive research on the root kit feasco as I work in an IT department at a college. We even figured out how to rip it loose and stop it from running campus wide. Actually the Sony bug is just a drop in the bucket ... but I will spare you my spyware rant. I guess I'm not as worried about the "bug" as I am about the possibility that more and more CD's will be unripable.

I setup EAC but I havent used it. I'm a creature of habbit and seem to always use what I'm comforable with. I will give EAC a try. I am leaning towards a NAS box and a media player in the long run. I have the house wired for gigibit and a RJ-45 plate right behind the sound system.

Any thoughts on the network media devices? Since I dont really need the DAC in my soundcard do you guys think the M-Audio Audiophile external soundcard will fit the bill? Any other preferences? I'm actually contemplating re-ripping everything to wav (3000+ CD's) and running two Buffalo Technologies TeraStation 1.6 TB with RAID 5. I'm not running redundancy now and i'm a little worried. I keep the drives off when I'm not using them.
horseface's avatar
horseface OP
222 posts
 
EAC didnt work with the aforementioned CD's ... bummer.

PS - We got Mac OS-X to run on a Dell GX-620 yesterday. This should be interesting for Microsoft. I wouldnt try this at home yet. It's already possible to run XP on one of the Intel Macs and dual boot. I also got a look at Vista and will be heading up to Seattle in the near future to actually play a little. It's a gun-ship but has lots of AV stuff built in. They are even talking about putting your hi-def cable box on a PCI card in the Win box and let the Windows machine control your cable system.

NO THANK YOU ... I thought Sony was bad.
horseface's avatar
horseface OP
222 posts
 
Brb9 SCORES !!!!!

ISOBuster works like a charm ... all CD's ripped. I owe you a beer man. That is so cool. By now I should have learned my lesson. Throwing hardware at a software problem only yields more problems and wastes money. I'm going to go ahead and register the program. I figure it will be worth the $30.

I'm still going to pickup the soundcard and dump the Extigy.

If for no other reason it has coaxial S/PDIF output. I did a search in the archives and quite a few people rave it up. $150 ... what's to loose? I never really liked the Extigy.

I'll throw it on eBay ... never know, by now it's probably "retro" and worth a ton.

EAC and ISOBuster ... thanks guys.
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