dBpoweramp vs. EAC
 

What do you guys think about dBpoweramp. I decided to give it a spin after seeing it suggested as a possible replacement for EAC over at Hydrogen Audio, and the interface and ripping does seems much more practical and faster.

What I like about it the most is that it will automatically compare your rip to others if available in the AccurateRip database, and if it doesn't, it does a bunch of passes to ensure a good rip...CRC values are clearly displayed as well.

EAC is insanely slow and dinosaur in comparison.

Yeah, I'm sure EAC just slows down the ripping process for shits and giggles.

I use EAC for ripping CDs and converting waveforms to mp3, whereas I use dBpowerAMP to check the bitrates and tags on mp3/lossless files as well as to convert mp3 or APE/FLAC to WAV. Sure, EAC is slow, but patience is rewarded: Ripping CDs with Test + Copy ensures the best results and gives you a 1:1 copy.

I don't think I could be working with music on here without either program, to be honest.

What exactly is the difference? Is EAC strictly for burning CDs?

No, EAC is strictly for ripping digital audio from compact discs. You can use it also for burning discs but the primary function of EAC is audio ripping, period.

What many people seem to forget is that faster audio extraction from compact discs always leads to higher possibility of audio degradation. There is no fully reliable way to get audio data from a compact disc after it has been written. That's simply an effect of the way the data is stored on the media. You can't be 100% sure that the data your drive gives you during extraction is the data that was originally written to the disc. But what you can do is to push the possibility of a incorrect extraction below some threshold by repeated extractions. And that's whats taking so long when ripping your discs.
That's especially true when dealing with problematic media.

I'm not saying that dBpoweramp produces inferior results than EAC when dealing with perfectly mastered media where the drive has no trouble to read sectors.
BUT if you have some bad media and want an accurate rip you better use the program that does a slower (and more reliable) extraction, and that's EAC.

Also think about that: You only rip your discs once, but you listen to the rip multiple times. Seems fair to invest some time into the ripping process.

Exact Audio Copy is for making exact 1:1 copies of a cd. dBpoweramp is an all around tool that knows a little of everything but is not really professional at any of the things it does.

And Foobar2k already does everything that dbpoweramp can.

From what I understand, a 1:1 copy of a CD is impossible anyway, unless you have a writer like a Plextor that reads and writes in an advanced manner, which I don't really know enough to elaborate on.

I'm going to try EAC again and use burst mode and test+copy...apparently it's an alternative for secure mode, but you might have to rip the disc multiple times.

But we're talking about the ripping process here. Writing is something completly different and one could probably create a new thread just to discuss what features a good writer should have and where the problems with accurate replication of the data sent to the writer are.
But again, that's an entirely different story. And probably not a good topic for this board (better check out the CDFreaks board for this kind of information).

It's no real alternative to secure mode because it does no multiple reads. Also applying this multiple reads on your (user) level does not get you the same reliability you would get when EAC does it. According to my information EAC does (can) not detect stream losses in burst mode, so if the drive desyncs (and there is this possibility when using a multitasking operating system) EAC won't detect this, leading to eaten or duplicated samples.

cdparanoia has some bits of information about the usual problems with DAE, you can find the FAQ here:
CDDA Paranoia Frequently Asked Questions

We wouldn't have such problems if we switched to DVD-Audio completly.