I want to read my audio-CDs securely, and earlier I have been using Exact Audio Copy for this task. It truly is a great application, but I have now left Windows completely behind. I am currently running GNU/Linux and *BSD exclusively. So I am wondering, can I trust cdparanoia if I use it with a drive that doesn't cache audio-data? And how can I decide whether a drive caches audio or not (without any Windows-tools like EAC or Feurio)?

One of my computers has a BenQ DW1620A, and I believe I have heard someone say this drive doesn't cache audio. Anyone that can confirm this? And if this is the case, would the drive be a good choice in my situation?

Eac can detect your cd read options.

EAC is very unreliable in detecting cache. Feurio is supposed to be better. There are also databases on the internet where you can look up the correct EAC options for your drive with regard to cache, C2 etc. If your drive is truly non-caching, cdparanoia is safe to use and will get you secure rips.

Many people say that the paranoia libs are secure with non-audio-caching drives, but this test from the FAQ by Pio2001 seems to indicate othervise...

Cdex Vs Eac : The Results ! :
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=ST&f=20&t=3164

On GNU/Linux or Mac OS X, i would recommend to just do a manual test & copy routine using any non-secure ripper, and then re-rip in lower speed if inconsistencies occure...

You could also try Pyripper :

Pyripper :
http://www.gentoolinux.demon.nl/

(I'm on Win32 and haven't tried it myself...)

My emperical experience is that cdparanoia with options -z -X is secure in the sense that you can make a second rip which matches bit for bit. I too wanted the extra security of "test&copy", so i made a script(pyripper didn't exist then). cdda2wav is unrealiable with --libparanoia and a cd that fails in cdparanoia, so test&copy is needed for that. Cdda2wav will work on drives that cache audio and paired with a good script or program will make a nice ripper. On non-caching drives cdparanoia is prefered. You'll know pretty quick if a drive turns out to cache audio, it will always give you two different rips (test and copy rip).

That has not been my experience. I used cdparanoia on Mac OS X to rip several times the same CD with Plextor Premium. Cdparanoia reported no problem whatsoever, yet one track had very audible defects (CD was scratched). I diff'ed different rips -- the good tracks were identical, the bad track was different each time.

(OTOH, EAC on Windows reported the defect accurately.)

i have the benq dw1620 pro drive and according to EAC it caches audio.

-andy-

According to the 3 submissions at http://www.daefeatures.co.uk/ , the dw1620s are non-caching drives.
One of those submissions was your dw1620 PRO ...
(as you reported here.) Change of mind ???

I always thinked that drive which caches audio data is a worse option for ripping, like EAC manual states (when drive needs to re-read some problematic areas of disc it must somehow flush the cache first). Why wouldn't cdparanoia be a good option for ripping with non-caching drive..?

Refer to the drive manual, it should have info in it that states it caches audio and how big the cache is.

On a side note I hate drives that cache audio.

err, i'm sorry, i don't know why i mixed that up.. i just checked again and the DW1620 PRO drive DOES NOT cache audio data.

-andy-

Even if your drive does cache, it's fine if your cache is less than one meg. (Yeah, most drives have more than that nowadays, but it's still true.)