Is computer audio a bust?

Joecasey

Joecasey, I agree but it does suggest that the longer time means that errors are more common, that Essence of Music reduces them. It probably does not mean much in ripping, but the ripping with the treatment sounds noticeably better, and I suspect that on a universal player would be quite a good deal better.
There are tons of benchmarks extracting data off different media. It's a known issue and impact greatly magnified in real time.

I don't understand what this has to do with the improvement in the quality of the rip or with the speed of ripping.

EAC is a good program for extracting data from discs but for creating audio files WaveLab kills EAC. WaveLab is a full mastering program which allows for all kinds of flexibility from creating and mastering two track recordings to 48 track mixes. Yes....that is way more than you'll need but what it can provide for your 2 track data will amaze you. It has all kinds of plug ins that will come in handy. It also can help with system set up, too. Take a look at their website for more information. It is $500 well spent.

Thanks, Raymonda. Since my interest is only in extracting files and not in remastering, I will stick with EAC and dbPowerAmp.

My mind keeps floating back to what is the optimal digital interface for connecting your "computer" to a dac. As Clio suggested earlier in the thread, I am wondering whether Ethernet is inherently superior to other options such as USB. More technical heads out there than moi please chime in....

What I like about Ethernet is there is no timing involved from the NAS to the streamer. Also, in my case since the streamer and renderer are one and the same, the clocking is done at only one point in the chain. In my opinion this is probably the simplest signal path.

Now to leverage my Lessloss DAC I just purchased an Auralic Aries. This set up will require a cable between it and the DAC with asynchronous clocking. Not necessarily a bad thing, just one more step in the chain. It will be interesting to see how this set up works out.

FWIW I also own an Audiophileo USB converter. It's in the closet right now, but it served me quite well before I put all my eggs in the Ethernet basket.