I want to rip my CDs in AIFF format to my Mac HD, but I'm wondering if it is necessary to use software such as iTunes to rip in AIFF instead of simply dragging the files from the CD on the desktop to a folder on the HD?

When I put a CD in, I can click on the disc and it opens up and I see all the audio files in AIFF format. Why not simply highlight all files and drag them to a folder on the desktop?

I know that using iTunes when I rip a CD, it has "error correction" which presumably does not occur when simply dragging aiff files from a CD to the HD.

If anyone knows the advantages/disadvantages in terms of sound quality to ripping using a software program vs simply dragging and dropping to the HD, I'm very interested in learning more.

Use Apple Lossless instead of AIFF. It it is capable of EXACTLY the same quality as AIFF but it supports tags and saves you disc space.

You have to rip CDs so your computer convert them to a file format that it can understand. The music inside the CD is NOT an AIFF file.

some more info here:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofive...php/t34802.html

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=26272

Thanks for the suggestion. Most of my files are ripped in Apple Lossless, but I want to rip some in AIFF to do some comparisons and I'm wondering if there are any disadvantages to simply dragging them from the CD to a folder on my HD vs. using iTunes to rip them in AIFF.

On a related note, there is a distinct difference in sound quality when listening to the same file (either AIFF or Apple Lossless) through iTunes version 7.6 and Quicktime 7.4.1. The Quicktime player is much closer in sound quality to the actual CD. I don't know if this is related to the version of iTunes or not. I intend to do more comparisons.

I just discovered that the files I copied over directly from the CD to the HD (bypassing iTunes) don't get tagged.

But I guess what I'm really wondering is besides tagging, is there any other reason someone should use audio extraction software (such as iTunes) to rip uncompressed audio files to a HD?

Error correction. Even if your OS sees CDDA as files, it isn't the same as a data CD in terms of transferring directly from the disc to harddrive.