Just wanting to know if they are still the best ripping and encoding...THanks

Yup...

EAC is still unbeaten as a ripping tool (read here if you want details/proof)

LAME is still the best MP3 encoder (but there are superior formats).

Please, use the FAQ or Search (altough the search seems not to be working that good...)

If you can't get EAC to work there are decent alternatives. I only use it in burst mode because I am a speed demon, I just like it's interface better than any other. I dont encode on the fly either, so I dont really even know why I use EAC.

PS I hear there's a wayyy better encoder than LAME out there. I believe it's called Blade or something.

I believe an emoticon wouldn't have been misplaced there...

I do not believe this to be true. Also, in this forum folks are usually asked to provide proof of such statements. Are you rpepared to do this? If not you might want to consider withdrawing the statement.

mp3 is still the best...there some better codec but they are not supported by hardwares....

penvzila :
Group: Members
Posts: 119
Member No.: 3077
Joined: 15-August 02

I can only pray your post was a kind of twisted humor.

I cannot fathom that a person who has been a member since 2002 would be serious with those recommendations.

Before someone gets confused:

Blade is an outdated bad quality MP3 encoder.

SO DO NOT USE BLADE.

If he was trying to be funny, he could at least have said "I believe its called
xing (old) or something". Trust me, as a user who attempts sardonic humor here every once in a while, I give the attempt a 2 out of 10

As for the better codecs out there:

Musepack is widely considered the optimal lossy format. It fails on the fewest samples, apparently even down to lower bitrates to some extent.

Vorbis may or may not be superior to MP3. The high-end of Vorbis has not been tuned as extensively as has MP3. However, at lower bitrates, it is superior.

AAC is being tuned and is getting better. There have yet to be any tests done (to my knowledge) of high-end AAC transparency.

And, of course, there's always lossless. Right now, the big three (in my opinion) are WavPack, FLAC (which has (rather limited) hardware support), and APE. No particular order there. Each has its own feature set. There are fewer distinctions between lossless codecs though; they all give identical output.

I use Musepack and lossless for my stuff, with lossless on highly "artificial" music like Autechre and Boards of Canada.

No, IMO CDex and FLAC is the best combo!

Only at middle to high bitrates (~>140 kbps).

The range below 128 kbps is a totally different ballzone altogether, and Musepack sounds absolutely horrible at 64 kbps (ABXing this would be pointless, really )

And remember, in rjamorim's 128 kbps test, the Musepack samples had an average bitrate of 146 kbps, so that sort of reinforces the first line in my post.

But yes, if you're stuck with mp3 for various reasons, EAC and LAME is most probably the best way to go. As for CDex... well, for me, CDex was a stepping-stone to EAC...

Well, best is ignoring lossless, uncompressed, and potentially a couple other lossy codecs, but as for humor, I'm on Penvzilas side.

I see where you're coming from, for sure.

However, by rjamorim's reasoning, Musepack averages 128kbps at the quality setting used. The fact that its average was above 128 for this test signifies that the test material was more psychoacoustically difficult for it than normal.

The rest is a bit of a terminology difference. When I wrote, I was considering anything below transparency as lower bitrates. But you certainly have a point. Below 128, the whole scene shifts even more. The guy's looking for the best combo though, so chances are he's not concerned with that area.

@CDex recommenders:

CDex isn't capable of the advanced error correction that EAC offers. There are two rippers that are recognized as being "secure": EAC and Plextools. Otherwise, you stand a chance of unknown errors creeping into your rips.

L O L





of course I wasnt being serious. Although i must admit I find myself encoding in Ogg Vorbis these days, since I installed a mini pc in my car for digital audio purposes. That was the last reason to use mp3 for my personal rips, but I still do the occasional scene rip in LAME.

I got introduced to HA by a Head-Fi member, but once I sunk all the money i was willing to into Headphone crap I started reading the forums here a lot more than headfi. I used to just read for about twenty minutes a day, because there is actually a wealth of great info here, which is sort of the inspiration for my very subtly sarcastic comment regarding Blade.... anyway lately I've been feeling more comfortable about posting, even though I know I'm not really adding anything signifigantly positive to the community.

I poke fun, but before I came here I was using RealJukebox at 96kbps and then sometimes TRANSCODING to wma because i thought it was better. Hydrogenaudio has done for my overall tech savvy what headfi did for my musical tastes.

used to realjukebos myself but never transcoded to wma. I believe I stepped up to the Xing ripping/encoding software from there.