ANYONE electing to "RIP" (copy) a Red Book Compact Disk to a mechanical HD or SSD has two primary options or means to do so: either on a standard PC which uses a built-in generic CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or Blu-Ray tray mechanism into which we insert our CD and UPON WHICH we totally DEPEND to faithfully read the "ones and zeros" off our CD and transfer them to hard-drive storage for later retrieval.
OR one can take a different approach to ripping their CD collection to a storage hard drive besides using a standard PC and use a machine specifically designed and constructed for the sole purpose of ripping CDs, which does essentially the same thing as a PC, only in a presumably far more uniquely purposeful and high-quality manner (such as amadeus888’s Aurender ACS100, whose SOLE raison d’être is ripping CDs).
HOWEVER, the point of this discussion of CD rippers is to evaluate the nature and quality of the laser transport mechanism used in generic computer CD-ROMS and dedicated machines like the Aurender ACS100 alike.
My contention is that if the new Philips-based Stream Unlimited CD Pro-8 drive makes such a radical difference to how well Red-Book CDs sound as compared to playing them over older, less advanced-design CD-spinning mechanisms, then the quality and nature of the CD-reading mechanism in the Aurender could very likely affect how a ripped CD sounds when played back from its storage drive.
I can’t personally attest to any sonic difference, if there is one, since I have no way to directly compare the sound of a CD played over my new Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T to the sound of the same CD ripped on an Aurender ACS100. Until someone does a direct comparison of the two, this discussion will remain at a subjective guessing-game level.
