Anyone know WMA?

Apple Lossless isn't a lossy compression scheme. If you get good rips out of EAC, which should be bit-perfect, you can create m4a files out of iTunes using Apple Lossless (not AAC!) that are reversible into bit-perfect WAV files. Just smaller by a factor of 2. You can even get EAC to call iTunes as an encoder using:

http://www.rarewares.org/files/aac/iTunesEncode46.zip

The kmixer issue is a playback problem, not a ripping issue. EAC should make sure you get perfect copies of your CDs. Using ASIO to bypass kmixer ensures PCs don't muck up the datastream before it hits the USB device.

I used to keep WAV files, but the lack of tags is a serious defect. Since Apple Lossless supported tagging, was smaller, and didn't result in a loss of audio quality, it was a no-brainer for me.

Hi Edesilva,

thanks for the information. Can you tell me how can I get Windows Media Player AND Meedio to recognize the tags from FLAC copmression? I don't use Apple Lossless because I have a PC and use Windows Media Player.

WMP will play FLAC but it won't classify album, composer, etc.

Ideally I would rip everything using Windows Media Player, but many people have told me that it's lossy, with audiable differences. What I like about it, is that it's very simple and it keeps the library clean - but what it´s most important to me is good sound.

Meedio on the other hand allows you to rip on WAV but I don´t trust it as a ripping system.

What do you recommend?

I'm not too familiar with FLAC, other than its lossless. I thought--without investigation--that there are some issues with the tags being standardized. I've also never used WMP or Meedio. The problems you may be having may be due to the nonstandard tags.

I highly recommend EAC as a ripper. In secure mode, there is nothing I'm aware of that will provide better rips. There are FLAC encoders that can be configured with EAC to generate FLAC rips instead of WAV or MP3. Takes a bit of time to get it set up, but once you do, it will automatically create a nice clean library as well--all my rips are stored automatically in /artist/album/trackno_song.m4a format. If audio is your principal concern, take the time to learn how to set up EAC. It really isn't that hard.

As far as playback, if you are committed to Meedio, your options appear somewhat limited. I just looked at their manual, and they don't claim to support FLAC as a format, just MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, APE, and AIFF files. Of those, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis are lossy compression schemes. AIFF is like WAV in that it doesn't support tags except under some kludgy nonstandard implementation. That leaves you with APE or WMA. APE (Monkey's Audio) is supposed to be good, but I don't think the decoders are broadly available other than on a PC platform. As an archival format, it leaves me nervous. WMA will ultimately succeed just because its MSoft. But, you have to make sure that you specify lossless encoding rather than lossy encoding since it will do both.

I noticed there is a Meedio foobar2000 plugin. If you are committed to Meedio, you might think about that, since foobar is a well respected player. The note on the plug in says something about mp3 playback, but foobar does FLAC natively.

Good luck.

Well then why don't you reccomend using Foobar as I am. You can tag the file with the FreeDB plugin after ripping to WAV format. You can rip with EAC or the foobar program. Kernel streaming with bit perfect output is no problem using Foobar. One does not have to use the ASIO plug in for bit perfect output with Foobar. Lots to choose from with Foobar for all your additional needs. It takes a bit of a learning curve, but once you understand the program it is very simple to use. Hard drive space is cheap today and I find no reason not to have the capacity to rip in whatever lossless format one chooses. If the rip is lossless it does not matter if you are a MAC fan or PC. All that I have posted is free on the net for your use from programmers like myself and others.

Sounded like Josep was committed to Meedio for whatever reason, otherwise I probably would recommend foobar, even though I actually find foobar's UI kind of a pain. The only other downside is that using foobar/WAV still leaves you with the problem that WAV doesn't natively support standardized tagging. That said, if you rip with EAC into a defined directory format, masstagger is great at recovering album/artist/track number information from the directory structure itself.