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Some dBpoweramp results from secure mode

I had a chance to try out dBpoweramp with my Dixie Chicks CD that has the defective last track. As mentioned, I have two drives - the LG-4167B and Plextor PX-740 (which I think is a rebadged BenQ). In EAC secure mode, I could rip the last track successfully with the Plextor but not the LG. I tried this in dBpoweramp secure mode. The Plextor did fine (same as EAC). With the LG, the results were variable. On one attempt, it got into this very long procedure, and when it was done, it ended up with the wrong CRC according to AccurateRip. Then I tried it a second time without removing the disc from the drive or anything else. This time, it ripped the track very fast, and gave the correct CRC. It's worth mentioning that dBpoweramp appears to use AccurateRip as an integral part of its algorithm to determine if it ripped the track correctly. This gives it an advantage over EAC in the case where the CD is in the AccurateRip database. EAC appears to only report the AccurateRip results after the fact.

So I tried to modify EAC's settings to get it to do better with the LG drive. I had "skip track extraction after duration longer than 4 times real time" enabled, which was causing it to give up. I disabled this option and tried re-ripping the problem CD using "test and copy". I ended up with the correct CRC, but the test and copy CRCs had a mismatch (the final copy had the correct CRC). I tried it again and got the wrong CRC in the copy.

Based on these tests, I'd conclude that dBpoweramp is the equal of EAC in terms of data integrity. The only concern I have with dBpoweramp is what might happen with a CD that has problems and whose information is not in the AccurateRip database. If you sit and watch the extraction, you'll see that it will slow way down on bad tracks. But if you set it to rip and then walk away, there doesn't seem to be any indication after the fact that a problem occurred. Maybe Christine has found an option that could help with this. With EAC I knew there was a problem because it gave up on the rip. Even when I disabled this option, I still knew there was a problem because of the mismatched CRCs in "test and copy".

So dBpoweramp looks very promising at this stage. But I'm not ready to give up on EAC yet.

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