Need recommendation for FLAC ripper

[davef]

Hi Guys,

You all know a lot more about this than I do... I need to rip a lot of CD's to FLAC and these need to be of the highest quality. Any recommendations as to what I should use (windows PC)? I don't mind paying a few bucks...

Also, are FLAC files compatible with iTunes?

Thanks in advance!

[GirgleMirt]

I've always used EAC, works great: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ No idea about iTune's flac compatibility...

It's very nice of you to offer payment for this advice, I could always use a few extra bucks, I believe you have my Paypal, I'll let you impress me with the amount!

[curtis]

FLAC is NOT compatible with iTunes.

I used to use EAC to rip my CDs to FLAC. It is excellent, but I have recently switched to dBPoweramp.

dBPoweramp has more features, the big one for me being it automatically gets album art. I also think it is easier to use, but it does cost $38 as opposed to EAC being free.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

[GirgleMirt]

Every rip EAC asks me if I want to search for lyrics and album cover, I keep answering no, but I guess answering yes would be as easy... Maybe I should include the cover... No idea how it would be useful, but it costs about the same thing... So the last version supports it, it probably can be set to automatically d/l it every time...

[davef]

I've always used EAC, works great: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ No idea about iTune's flac compatibility...

It's very nice of you to offer payment for this advice, I could always use a few extra bucks, I believe you have my Paypal, I'll let you impress me with the amount!

LOL... check is in the mail

FLAC is NOT compatible with iTunes.

I used to use EAC to rip my CDs to FLAC. It is excellent, but I have recently switched to dBPoweramp.

dBPoweramp has more features, the big one for me being it automatically gets album art. I also think it is easier to use, but it does cost $38 as opposed to EAC being free.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

Alright, now I am angry... I think I am done supporting Apple -- I mean we have (2) iPhones + (2) iTouches + an iPad. Since Apple does not support FLAC, it basically means I need to keep (2) digital versions of each track?

Curtis, is there a lossless format that is supported by Apple and also supported by the majority of media players?

Basically, I will be setting up a NAS that offers cloud support so I can stream direct from our music collection regardless of our physical location.

[curtis]

Curtis, is there a lossless format that is supported by Apple and also supported by the majority of media players?

Basically, I will be setting up a NAS that offers cloud support so I can stream direct from our music collection regardless of our physical location.

For portable devices, I just rip things to MP3 and keep them on my PC for syncing.

For the media player hooked up to my main system, I rip to FLAC and store it on my NAS. It would be nice to stream FLAC from the cloud.

The Apple lossless format is called ALAC, and it is supported by Apple devices, iTunes, and other media players as well.

[Mag_Neato]

I'd like to use some sort of FLAC program also. I thought there were FLAC apps available for Apple devices from iTunes?

[Mag_Neato]

Found one so far....

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flac-...390532592?mt=8

[curtis]

I'd like to use some sort of FLAC program also. I thought there were FLAC apps available for Apple devices from iTunes?

Yes, there are FLAC players available for Apple Devices, but you cannot play FLAC files in iTunes or the native player on Apple devices.

The main issue on these portable devices is space, FLAC/ALAC files are much larger than MP3. Even if you have the space, it becomes a pain in the butt to sync.

[edmondwolfman]

I too use EAC and then I use MP3Tag to get the album art, etc. I know is has MP3 in the title but it works just fine with FLAC files. I like to tweak my own tags using MP3Tag. I don't want my music showing up in several places so I get rid of "composers" and a few other things and make sure Album Artist and AlbumArtist have the same thing, i.e. Willie Nelson and Willie Nelson as opposed to Willie Nelson and Nelson, Willie as those will show up twice if you are streaming as I am and using iPeng on my iPad and iPod to control Logitech Touch. I also installed the "unsupported" plugin on my Touch and it will stream 192K flac files as the standard Touch only supports up to 96K.