Which CD DAE software is the most accurate for Mac OS X?, Is XLD the most accurate with feature set? Options

[macman4hire]

I would like to archive my CD collection and have chosen to use FLAC as my lossless codec. I believe FLAC's wide range of hardware support, comparable compression rates vs. other lossless codecs and the encode/decode rates are a par with its competition. I have tried the following software for DAE XLD, Max, xACT, iTunes and Toast. I am leaning towards using XLD with its new features of AccurateRip, disable cache and its log report. Please read the following questions posted below and give your answers and advice about XLD or any other DAE software for Mac Os X.

1. I have read CD Paranoia will not allow the cache to be disabled if the cache is larger than 1 meg. Is the this correct?

2. Does the disable cache feature work in XLD?

3. Can the AccurateRip feature be trusted in XLD?

4. Can the the error log report be trusted in XLD?

5. What about using VMware Fusion with XP and EAC. Would this method produce accurate results?

Thank you for answers and help. 500 plus CD's to rip!

This post has been edited by macman4hire: Sep 2 2008, 05:38

[macman4hire]

I have created a comparison for three CD rippers that use CDParanoia on the Mac. This comparison is in no way a definitive comparison as the feature sets of these applications constantly change. Please contact me if any information appears inaccurate or you feel a crucial feature has been omitted. I attempted to list the features in an unbiased manner. All these applications offer several audio codecs which are listed in HA's 2008 ripping/encoding polls which confirms the most the popular ones are offered. I intentionally did not list the audio codecs because the focus for this comparison is the DAE capabilities on the Mac.


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This post has been edited by macman4hire: Sep 26 2008, 16:22

[gloog]

I have created a comparison for three CD rippers that use CDParanoia on the Mac.

I'd like contribute to this summary with a little research on very important subject, completely omitted in any XLD-related topic. It is a question of Pre-Emphasis.

I've found the only solution how to correctly detect PRE flag, and it is provided by xAct, only as a result log that is not even saved with rip.

Log looks like this (check the last two lines):

CODE

cdda2wav: There is no sound support configured!
Type: ROM, Vendor 'TSSTcorp' Model 'CDDVDW SH-S202N ' Revision 'SB01' MMC+CDDA
176128 bytes buffer memory requested, transfer size 32768 bytes, 4 buffers, 13 sectors
cdda2wav: Read TOC CD Text failed (probably not supported).
#Cdda2wav version 2.01.01a28_darwin_8.10.1_i386_i386, libparanoia support
cdda2wav: Host is down. Cddb connect failed.
AUDIOtrack pre-emphasis  copy-permitted tracktype channels
      1-10          yes              no     audio    2

How to handle such CD is another question, probably best solution is to burn on CD-R using reliable sw with PRE flag set ON. Toast supports this, but does not read this setting from CUE. It has to be set manually.

For those who want to play files from computer, there are some options: iTunes 7 during ripping performs frequency equalization similar to the one provided by stand-alone CD player, when encounters a PRE flag. The resulting Wav file is of course not a bit-perfect copy of a CD track. Any other ripping sw ignores this. Only some rippers can write correct PRE flag on the CUE sheet [like EAC], bot none on Mac OS-X. Playback with equalization on-the-fly is only possible in Foobar2000 / Win.

So for this reason, line containing Pre-Emphasis should be added to the table, with important benefit of xAct allowing to detect it, at least, and there's also a recommendation to XLD developer to consider implementing of proper PRE flag reading and logging.