I was wondering what you guys do with your CD’s for ripping to computer. Here’s my regime. I get my CD’s usually used on Ebay and i use this to brush any debris that might scratch them while cleaning first:
It has a nylon brush head. I found that certain brushes will actually scratch the surface of the CD. These seem to be fine. Then i use bounty paper towels and this:
I try to lightly clean the CD. i dont want to rub too hard for fear of causing more scratches. I heard a microfiber cloth is better at this but i haven’t tried them yet.
The paper towels will leave stuff on the CD so i use a LCD flashlight and my brush and i examine the surface of the CD for any dust or debris and brush them off.
Then i use DB Power Amp CD Ripper. I set it to “Secure Mode” to get the best possible rip. but if its taking to long on a track i will set it to “Burst Mode”
I used to use EAC but it would bug out on me too much. I also bought an external CD drive for this cause in the past ripping CD’s on secure mode seems to have ruined them. I bought this external usb CD drive on Amazon for 25$
So what do you guys do with your CD’s? i’m always looking for ways to improve my CD ripping procedure. Also what do you do when you cant rip a track?
When a disk is really dirty, I give it a wipe with a dry shop towel.
Optical media is hardended against data corruption. And even if the laser misreads a single bit, you can not even meassure that after it comes out of a dac.
I don’t clean them unless they are dirty. dbpoweramp is pretty flippin’ accurate. But those are some good materials. Thanks for the suggestion! I may try to get that stuff soon.
You know what else I am looking for? Some sort of cleaning wipes or something designed specifically for real leather that doesn’t degrade it or have chemicals that attack it in any way for wiping sweat and other oils and stuff off, for leather pads.
Ok i tried the magic fiber cloths and they scratched the CD’s. So i think a paper towel is best cause you can throw it away after using it and you dont scratch the CD with debris that gets on them.
Also theres a lot of info out there about refinishing CD’s using fine grit sand paper and rubbing compound if it wont read. which seems to work. but before doing that i would try using toothpaste or Vaseline.
Is ripping something like an SACD or a 20bit Blu-Ray the same or is there specific programs needed to get them sweet audio files? I’ve never tried, but have access to a few SACDs so may give it a whirl if its worth…
You need a hacked ps3 or a modded bluray player (specific models) in order to extract DSD audio streams out of a SACD, it’s more involved than just ripping a cd
i also found these magic eraser cleaning cloths: