Ripping cd's

[ZincAlloy]

Lots of stuff on here about how to get all those 1's an 0's from a device to a Devialet, bit perfect, via very nice cables. But how to get them onto your hard drive in the first place?

I tend to buy cd's an rip them on my PC. My very neat "all in one" PC, has what I believe is possibly the worlds worse cd transport. Check the part number, it is a Samsung item that can be bought retail for £12, or about the price of one single cd......

My old cd player has a transport that is built like a modest house, but I am ripping with my £12 special plastic drive. I figure that investing in a better (external) drive would be worth while? (one dealer I spoke to insists that Panasonic drives are best for PC's). Also, I tend to rip using iTunes. Devialet themselves state on their website that this is as good as anything. Is this true? Rip with a Naim unitiserve or similar, then that's £2k please. Worth the money? I am thinking that I need to upgrade my PC with a better cd transport, and I know of many options for software for ripping cd's.

Any ideas out there?

Hi - I use MediaMonkey on a PC for ripping. It supports AccurateRip, which checks the result of each rip against an online database to ensure that it's been ripped correctly. Assuming that it has, you won't need to upgrade your CD drive on your PC. There's a free trial version available, so you can check the out. I found iTunes screwed up my library, and the way it handles Compilations and Album Art laughable. I also hear good things about dbpoweramp, but have never used it. Key thing - make sure whatever you use supports AccurateRip.

ATB, Ken