[Empeg-general] Re: I've never ripped CD's and I want to do it right

[pgrzelak@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org]

Greetings!

  I personally used Sonic Foundry's "Siren" to do the encoding.  I used 128kbpsVBR.  The settings were for highest quality encode and 100% VBR.  I have not noticed any problems with the recordings I have made, but I am still listening through my local sound card - once I get the empeg, I may need to re-rip (I have heard that the quality of the empeg can really show up the defects in encoding schemes...).  This concept does not thrill me - it took me over 2 months to rip my CD collection.

  What I would recommend, rather than trying one specific encoding sceme / product, select 3 key songs of various songs / artists / styles.  Use this as a test case.  Then use the trial versions of all of the products you have heard mentioned to rip the same 3 songs, at different rates.  Find what sounds best to you.  

  You may also want to try to burn them back to a CD, if you have the software / hardware.  This way, you could see how they uncompress to standard WAV/Redbook, and you could also compare them on a higher end audio system, looking for artifacts.

Paul G.
Q# 15189
Status: In queue for a green 36GB Mk2