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So I've spent the last few months ripping my ever-growing CD collection (about 800 CD's) to WMA lossless. Most of my CD's are in really good condition. For about the first 600 CD's I used WMP without error correction. For the last 200 or so I used DB Poweramp...still no error correction.I've read a lot here about the importance of error correction, which if I had it all to do over again I would have payed more attention to, but I see nothing about how it effects the actual sonic qualities of the end-result.
Let's say I decided to start all over and used error correction. Would I notice a big difference in the sound quality of my files? I haven't heard a crackle or pop or glitch in any of my current rips, and feel they sound pretty good, but am I missing something? Could I expect a big difference in sound quality if I decided to re-rip everything with error correction....please tell me no!...but please be honest:)
Follow Ups:
A while back I did some experiments using EAC burst mode with two different drives. EAC burst mode does no error correction at all. I just gets the data off the disc as fast as it can. I did a "test and copy selected tracks" which does a test rip, computes the CRC of each track, then does the actual rip, re-computing each track's CRC. By comparing CRC codes of each track of the test and copy, you can get a good idea if uncorrected errors occurred. These were discs that I had already ripped in EAC secure mode. I used a combination of discs that ripped without event in EAC secure mode, and tried some that EAC had to work really hard at in secure mode to get the right data. With one drive, an AOpen COM5232AAH Pro, burst mode worked almost perfectly. The only time I ever got CRC mismatches was with problem discs that I delibrately picked out. OTOH, another drive, a LiteOn 5239S, using burst mode caused CRC errors on at least one track of every CD I ripped, even discs that weren't problem discs.So if your drive has good error correction, you should be in good shape. If not, it's going to be difficult to tell if you have a problem or not.
I guess there is no definite answer, so the classic IT reply applies here - it depends!-It depends on the quality of the redbook Cds used for ripping. Even if not scratched, they might be with errors (CDs are stamped with plates that wear off and cause errors)
-It depends on the CD-rom used for ripping. Some are better, some are worse.
-It depends how good the rest of the system is and how attentive listener you are. Do not think of click and pops, think of removal of thin veil from the recordings.
Look, re-ripping of 800 CDs is awful chore and it depends how much you value your free time.
I would do the following. I would pick 40 redbook CDs at random from your collection (5%) and re-rip them using EAC with correction.I would make a chart and list how many of them ended up needing correction.
If more than 20 (i.e. more than 2.5%) needed correction, I would
decide to re-rip the entire collection. If less than 2.5% I would keep it as it is.Also, I would compare error-correction ripped CDs with previously ripped ones. Blind test, you listen, someone else chooses the tunes.
Last but not least, if I were to embark on re-riping chore, I would sit down and make a firm decision which format to use.Perhaps going FLAC route is better in the long run. Have you heard of nasty watermarking ZUNO player is doing. Who knows what will MS do down the road. I would not choose to be their hostage.
I really appreciate the well thought out info. It's much as I expected. I think what really stood out to me was the "thin veil" you spoke of.I'm going to do some testing, as you recommended, and see if there's a major problem. If so, it really won't be that big of a deal to create a folder and start sticking new rips in it when I have the time. Before I know it I'll have my entire collection re-ripped. I can always listen to my old rips until I get everything redone.
As for WMA......this is seriously something I pained over when I started this, fully knowing that once I put all this work in, I wouldn't want to have to rethink everything. That is rarely possible though. Good audio is all about constantly re-thinking and questioning your decisions! It's never just quite right.
Anyway, I vacillated between Monkeys audio, Flac and WMA. I guess we could really start a war here, but there's a few things that keep me with WMA despite the fears of the future; which are quite valid. I'm not going to go into it, but I think at this stage it's a roll of the dice what things are going to look like 5-10 years from now. The good thing about lossy formats is that you can always convert them to another format when needed (unless you DRM'd them). So, if I look up someday and WMA isn't cutting it, I'll just convert them to another format.
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