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[Jay Fora]

I ripped a CD  to FLAC 6, and didn't enjoy the resulting sound quality. This was my first attempt using MC to rip a CD. The music on this classical CD has a quality and wide range between low and high notes that makes my brain zing and sends me to aural  heaven!
When ripped the resulting track reduced the range, so that instead the sound was like the sound track of a sleepy sunday afternoon movie. Like gooey caramel.
Is there a setting somewhere that would copy the CD with sound quality close to identical withe the original?
Or a completely different approach?
Thanks, Jay

[tij]

Ripping ordinary CD (Red Book) supposed to be lossless process - exact bit to bit copy of audio from CD ... with no DSP applied.

Maybe your CD is SACD? In that case your PC can only rip Red Book layer. DSD layer cannot be ripped from PC.

Ripping SACD is a complex process ... involving some compomised players hook up to your PC. There are some companies that can do it for you if you send them your SACD.

[AndrewFG]

Rip Disk | Options | Encoding | => select a lossless format (such as Flac, ALAC or Wav)

[EnglishTiger]

Check the case/booklet for that CD to see if it is a 24 bit recording - If it is then you may want to rip it with dBpoweramp with HDCD detection switched on so that you get a 24 bit Flac file.

[JimH]

I ripped a CD  to FLAC 6, and didn't enjoy the resulting sound quality. This was my first attempt using MC to rip a CD. The music on this classical CD has a quality and wide range between low and high notes that makes my brain zing and sends me to aural  heaven!
When ripped the resulting track reduced the range, so that instead the sound was like the sound track of a sleepy sunday afternoon movie. Like gooey caramel.

Could just be the volume setting.  Volume leveling, and other DSP can affect the volume and that will change how it sounds.

[Jay Fora]

Ripping ordinary CD (Red Book) supposed to be lossless process - exact bit to bit copy of audio from CD ... with no DSP applied.

Maybe your CD is SACD? In that case your PC can only rip Red Book layer. DSD layer cannot be ripped from PC.

Ripping SACD is a complex process ... involving some compomised players hook up to your PC. There are some companies that can do it for you if you send them your SACD.

How do I find whether it's SACD or not?

[Jay Fora]

Check the case/booklet for that CD to see if it is a 24 bit recording - If it is then you may want to rip it with dBpoweramp with HDCD detection switched on so that you get a 24 bit Flac file.

  If I no longer have the case booklet, is there any other way to find this out?

[DJLegba]

  If I no longer have the case booklet, is there any other way to find this out?

Many hybrid disc cases have rounded corners.

[Jay Fora]

Could just be the volume setting.  Volume leveling, and other DSP can affect the volume and that will change how it sounds.

I never use sound levelling, and am playing both the CD and checking the ripped file in MC with the same sound settings applied. So If I was successfully ripping bit perfect using MC, wouldn't the sound for both be the same? I am not succeeding in achieving this.

[tij]

If it’s SACD ... there should be SACD logo on the disc.

If it’s HDCD ... could be tougher to ID visually  ... there can be HDCD logo on the disc too. But some CD don’t even mark their CD is HDCD.

Theoretically, when you rip CD lossless - HDCD data is preserved ... HDCD is additional data present on CD that allows players to add this additional data to standard 16bit CD audio and construct 24bit audio from it.

MC can play HDCD ... but it must know HDCD is present ... for that you need to analyze your rip for HDCD data presence.

The way MC plays HDCD ... it creates 24bit audio on fly as it plays ... just as normal HDCD player would ... I prefer this way - as it preserves original CD data bit perfect

Alternatively ... as other suggested ... you can rip with dbPiwerAmo ... it builds 24bit during ripping and saves that ... I don’t like this approach (who knows - I’m the future they might find better way to combine 16bit audio with HDCD data to produce much better 24bit audio ... with this way - you are stuck with what dbPowerAmp did)

[Jay Fora]

Thank you everyone. I will try the free trial of DBpoweramp to see if that makes any difference. A friend has a copy of this CD set with the booklet still inside, so I will also look at that in case SACD or HDCD is mentioned.

[EnglishTiger]

Thank you everyone. I will try the free trial of DBpoweramp to see if that makes any difference. A friend has a copy of this CD set with the booklet still inside, so I will also look at that in case SACD or HDCD is mentioned.

Also look to see if anything like "Studio Quality" or "Master Quality" are mentioned as not all 24 bit recordings were made using HDCD.

[Jay Fora]

It turns out DBPoweramp was the solution in this case. However unlikely to need it for any other CD, so don't want to buy it. Will most likely rip with MC in future.

[jharrelljr]

CDs just sound slightly muffled after ripping. 

Tried Exact Audio Copy and that made a good rip, why can't JRiver do it properly?

[Matt]

I rip CDs often (to APE) and JRiver has worked flawlessly for me.  I recommend ripping in "Secure" mode so every sector is read at least twice.  At the end it reports any possible problems.

So if you're still having problems, please install the latest MC, pick secure ripping, and a lossless format like APE or FLAC.  Then let us know.