I recently ripped my CD collection using EAC and LAME 3.95 using -preset extreme.

Now from what I have read in the forums here, there have been some concerns regarding the results between Lame 3.90.3, 3.95, 3.96. But from what I understand, the concerns were with other presets, like standard. It sounds like there really have not been any complaints or concerns about using -preset extreme in any of these versions.

A long time ago I had ripped all my CDs using another codec. Along the way I found some particularly difficult sections of music in my collection that had problems. I ended up testing a lot of codecs before I found a combination that worked on these "problem" sections. Before I re-did my collection, I tested those problem sections of music and was happy with the results of 3.95 before I proceeded to do the rest.

So I guess I'm just wondering, is there any point in re-ripping the CDs using 3.96 or any other version for that matter? The process isn't that bad for me. Using a two drives (an Aopen CDRW2040 and a TDJ DVDRW0404N) and two processors (dual P3-800) and configuring EAC for multiple concurrent LAME encodes, I can do the works in a few days. Took me a while to figure it out but I'm set now.

My only real hassle in doing it over again is that the FreeDB tags often are inconsistent and need to be fixed, but I've gotten handy with Tag&Rename. Doing the tagging will take me less time than the first try as well.

I considered doing it over again for gapless playback, but currently it's not a big deal as my portable MP3 player doesn't support it anyways (Zen Xtra 60GB). I haven't really researched all the options for gapless encoding and playback yet. Suffice it to say it's doesn't bother me enough to redo the collection at the moment.

I am seriously considering doing another rip in a lossless format, purely for backup purposes, just so that I can have a backup of all my CDs. Rather than just copy all the CDs, I would keep one copy of the files on an external USB/Firewire drive, and another copy backed up to DVD-R. A cheap Maxtor 160GB would be more than enough to hold my collection and then some, if my size estimations are correct, I'll only need about 40GB. Then copy it up to 10 DVD-Rs for an extra backup.

Unfortunately I haven't researched the lossless formats yet to really know how to choose between them. But the ability to easily use them to convert from lossless to mp3 (or other format) with LAME or some other compressor at any time, and not have to pump all the CDs into drives, sounds very, very appealing. Just start up the batch convert and walk away. Also, since some of the lossless formats support tags, it might mean I wouldn't ever have to worry about re-tagging again either. Fix it once and never worry about FreeDB inconsistencies again.

Thanks in advance for any advice. I've been lurking around reading these forums for some time now, and I really appreciate the info that's been shared here.

IMO, no.


Now that, I think is worth doing at some point.

I would imagine that the extra headroom on extreme means you have difficulty ABXing the majority of samples between 3.95 and 3.90.2 or 3.96. As always the best thing for you to do is choose a small sample of your CDs and do some listening tests. This is help you decide whether you need to re-rip and if you don't it will stop you from wondering whether you are missing out on some quality,

Ripping to lossless is a really good idea if you want convenience later on.

Thanks for the info guys.

I do have two samples from my music that I've found cause some problems with some codecs. I did test them under 3.95 before proceeding and was happy with the results, but I have not ABXed them between different LAME versions. I should go ahead and do that then, but I suspect you are right, I'm not going to hear a difference.

I'm going to go ahead and do a lossless archive as well, but I'm still researching the formats. From what I can tell, FLAC has the best hardware and software support so far, even though it hasn't been out as long as some of the others. Maximum portability is why I chose MP3 over the other lossy formats. So as far as lossless formats go, it seems FLAC has the widest support so far, so that's what I'm leaning towards.

I've only been researching lossless for a day so I've still got a lot to learn. I noticed that many of the lossless newsgroups used to be totally .ape but now more FLAC stuff is showing up. Also my favourite tag program supports OGG/FLAC, Tag & Rename.

Other than that, I just need another HD to do the archiving and I'm ready to go. Looking at getting a Maxtor 300GB, either internal or external OneTouch. Then it's time to start archiving again! Then I'll be able to re-compress to any lossy format I choose without the hassle of putting CDs into drives.

Thanks again!