2. pc-audio
  3. 1277751075

Gapless ripping and playback

I am starting to seriously consider a computer-based playback solution. I just got a Sonos music system, and while I am enjoying streaming internet radio through my system, I am also intrigued by the prospect of ripping my music to a storage drive and then using the Sonos to access it wirelessly.

However, I have a rather large issue to confront before I begin ripping my mountain of CDs. I have a large number of club/dance albums that are gapless (i.e., the music flows seamlessly between tracks). When I've tried ripping these CDs in the past, I've never been able to have the tracks remain gapless during playback.

The primary solution that seems to be advanced for this problem is to rip the entire CD as a single file; with only one track, there can't be any track gaps. However, the vast majority of my CDs have a number of songs that I often skip past, and having a single file would make skipping these passages a maddening affair.

How would I go about ripping a gapless CD so that it remains gapless upon playback, and still gives me the option of skipping past the bothersome tracks in the middle that I don't want to hear?

Further details:
I have computers running Windows 7 and XP at the moment. I am willing to rip in either WAV or FLAC. All music would be stored on an external hard drive.

Thank you.
mistercrash
djohnson54
396 posts
 
EAC supports ripping to a single flac or wav file with a supporting .cue file. The question is whether the Sonos server software will support this arrangement. I am just getting started with Squeezecenter and a Logitech Touch and it doesn't seem to currently support this type of format. I think I read that it is in the next release though. I really hope this format catches on. It's easier to manage when you listen to albums as opposed to songs. IMHO many albums are unlistenable or greatly diminished by the gaps (think of Pink Floyd DSOTM).

There are also many PC music players that support gapless playback even with separate files. Foobar 2000 is one that I have experience with but this won't help you with the Sonos.

Dick
mistercrash OP
19 posts
 
So it seems as though gapless ripping isn't really a problem, but gapless playback may be a problem depending on the software that is used.
djohnson54
396 posts
 
That's been my experience but there are far more possibilities out there and I certainly don't have time to try them all. Keep your ears open as things are changing rapidly in this area. One good place to check is the Computer Audiophile website: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/

Dick
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
It's easy to do with iTunes. Seems like you may be able to rip the way you want with iTunes using wav and convert to FLAC if need be. Or just use iTunes. Easy-peasy with a computer, I am not sure with Sonos though.
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