CD drive improves HD rip quality?

I was wondering the same thing - I am up to almost 3000 ripped CD's (FLAC) and there have been plenty of errors and problems. It's mostly caused by older CD's with marks, scratches ...etc. I clean and inspect everything before I rip it now ... I use dBPoweramp to rip to FLAC and I watch for errors. I have switched drives four or five times. I use Plextor drives now and rip in "Ultra Secure mode" In the dBPoweramp software you can control the read speed so I keep it at 4X and use the built in C2 error correction that is part of the drive electronics. I started ripping music a long, long time ago. The software has improved but the drive quality went down hill. You can rip a CD using iTunes in 2 minutes and it looks perfect but is it? I started out using simple easy ripping software and it looked like a piece of cake. After going through the music … I found skips, clicks, pops. I switched to CDex and then EAC and I started to see the errors. For now I like Dbpoweramp but it’s not perfect. It a lot more tenacious but some discs are just too far gone. If you have a collection of PERFECT CD’s there are far fewer problems but I buy used CD’s and some of my older discs have spent time in my car (bad idea). Cleaning them has helped … and a little car scratch remover and car wax has cleaned up some as well. I have become much, much more careful with my discs but some are far from perfect. There are now local shops that will resurface your discs but the price seems a little steep. I hear if you bring in a bunch some of the small shops will cut you a deal … maybe $1 a CD. It’s cheaper then a repurchase.

I would like to see a Krell or Levinson type, audio only, USB CD external drive. Something with three beams, designed to specifically rip audio and recover from read errors. Then match it with software that lets you know in simple terms if there are errors in the ripping process and help you catalog and inventory it all. I did some research; I ended up on a forum that explained that "home audio" CD players and computer CD drives function quite differently and that is why the computer drives have issues ripping audio when on your home unit it plays just fine. So far, so good … everything I have tested is fine but I stay pretty diligent and it takes a lot longer. I work for a large community college doing IT work so I deal with this stuff every day. Plextor used to build great drives but now just OEM other manufacturer’s drives. Pioneer was on top for a long time but I have seen their quality slip lately – along with everyone else. The old Toshiba and Plextor 4X SCSI drives were as close to what I am looking for as I can find and they are long gone. I really, really only want to perform this task ONE MORE TIME but it seems like there is always a better format or some kind of error I missed. I’m not sure there will ever be a perfect transfer but I’m not about to give up my CD collection until I know it’s a perfect rip. Ultimately that’s what I want to do – have a big fat library on harddisk, backed up six ways from Sunday and not a plastic case in sight. Don’t let the Apple guys fool you into thinking that Apple has it all figured out … I ripped a couple of my friend’s collections who roll with Apple. Same problems, but even fewer software solutions. I work with computers enough not to be platform-centric I can use a G5 just as easy as an Intel box running Windows 7 beta. It’s not a platform issue … it’s more of a drive design and quality issue. I would love to hear from anyone who has this problem solved … I mean this in the most honest sense. I don’t have the time or inclination to keep trying solutions. I am looking for a lossless format with near 100% transfer reliability that is simple to use. I wouldnt mind if it would generate an inventory list in Excel as well.

I dont mind setting up a new Apple or Linux box but my family seems more comfortable in a Windows environment and frankly, I have very, very few OS issues with any of my computers. That being said, I would like to keep the number of machines in the house down to a minimum. I think if someone would build the right drive, the setup I have now would work perfectly.

Horseface,

I believe the software used to rip makes a big difference in rip time and efective error handling as well.

At first I used Exact Audio copy and FLAC. IT was complicated, problematic and fairly slow. I quickly dropped it and now use Windows Media Player on the Vista laptop with the built in Pioneer drive and it has been 100% smooth sailing.

The worst problem I have is some CDs not being identified on occasion via the web based service automatically.

Also, it is a very manual and time consuming to burn my vinyl albums to CD first when needed ( I use the Denon recorder on my system for that), but I do not know anyway around that issue.

I have no experience with FLAC.I have used Lite-on DVD drive this far,and EAC.I ripped WAV files only.I didn't have any problems with pops,or bad transfer.I have tried Easy CD-DA Extractor recently,and i like the option of choosing speed of the ripping.Very slow is only slightly better than max fast,but still it is worth it.
I was thinking about a Philips or Teac drive,as i know they make audio transports also.Still not sure which to choose.

""I would like to see a Krell or Levinson type, audio only, USB CD external drive. Something with three beams, designed to specifically rip audio and recover from read errors.""

Exactly.Or at least some PC drive that looks at least a bit more serious and with more weight.Any reccomendations?

Can you read non-music CDs OK without problem using your computer cd drive?

If so, your music CDs should be fine as well. All it has to do to rip to disk is extract data correctly. There is no sound production involved at this point (that comes later when streaming to the DAC). So I don't think there is much merit to an "audiophile" CD drive, at least for consumers. Vendors might be able to turn a pretty penny marketing such a thing though!

I think the software used probably makes much more difference. Recent versions of Windows Media Player for example work flawlessly as best I can tell.