Best Converter / Ripper to WMA

JoeyGS

Well-Known Member

Jul 9, 2011

50

0

313

Laguna, Philippines

• Jul 27, 2011

• #1

I am in the process of building my digital archive and I have decided that the file format shall be WMA. Now, I would like to ask for opinions and sharing of experiences on which is the best converter or ripper of CD audio in to WMA. I am currently comparing dbpoweramp and Itunes. Does it matter? Is there any difference in sound quality depending on the converter / ripper you use?

 

V

Vincent Kars

WBF Technical Expert: Computer Audio

Jul 1, 2010

860

1

0

• Jul 27, 2011

• #2

Most rippers do a good job today.
When using iTunes check you enable secure mode.
dbPoweramp has an extra.
After the ripping it can calculate a checksum and compare this with the AccurateRip database.
This gives you the option to compare your results with the results of others and therefor enable you to verify the accuracy of your rips.
dbPoweramp also is a very fast and reliable format converter.
For tagging dbPoweramp uses 4 different sources including AMG
iTunes use Gracenotes only.
In case of troublesome CDs dbPoweramp might yield better results.

Bit more detail can be found on my website: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/Ripping.htm

WMA comes in many flavours. I assume you rip to WMAL (Lossless).

 

JoeyGS

Well-Known Member

Jul 9, 2011

50

0

313

Laguna, Philippines

• Jul 27, 2011

• #3

Thanks Vincent for your guidance. I have observed in some of my CD rips using dbpoweramp that the accuracy was only less than 10% when compare with the AccurateRip database. What does this mean?

 

V

Vincent Kars

WBF Technical Expert: Computer Audio

Jul 1, 2010

860

1

0

• Jul 27, 2011

• #4

Is 10 your accurate score?
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/Help/dMC/CDhelp.htm

 

JoeyGS

Well-Known Member

Jul 9, 2011

50

0

313

Laguna, Philippines

• Jul 27, 2011

• #5

Yes 10..... and after reading the info on the link you provided, now I understand ..... 10 means:

The rip had no detectable errors and agrees with 10 other people (they have ripped the same track and had the exact same result), an agreement from AccurateRip ensures an error free rip.

All the while I thought that the ripping was only 10% accurate. So, unless Accuraterip reports an error in the ripping then the result would be error free.

 

J

Jay_S

WBF Founding Member

Apr 20, 2010

309

5

16

San Francisco - East Bay

• Jul 27, 2011

• #6

Why WMA for your digital archive? Why not lossless?

 

JoeyGS

Well-Known Member

Jul 9, 2011

50

0

313

Laguna, Philippines

• Jul 27, 2011

• #7

I am using WMA lossless (WMAL)

 

JoeyGS

Well-Known Member

Jul 9, 2011

50

0

313

Laguna, Philippines

• Jul 28, 2011

• #8

How about Exact Audio Copy? Is it at par with dbpoweramp and Itunes in ripping to WMAL?

 

V

Vincent Kars

WBF Technical Expert: Computer Audio

Jul 1, 2010

860

1

0

• Jul 28, 2011

• #9

EAC is the other Mount Everest of ripping software.
It is free.
Ripping quality like dbPoweramp
Common complain is that it is hard to configure.
Meta data support limited (probably FreeDB only)