dBpoweramp CD Ripper produces different files on different computers...?

[danthemusicman]

I conducted an experiment recently involving ripping CDs on both my old laptop (Sony VAIO VGN-S360P) and newer laptop (Alienware M11x).

The same external CD drive was used both times (LG Portable Super Multi Drive model GP10NB20) and the files were ripped directly to each computer's hard drive in Wave (.WAV) format.

I ripped with dBpoweramp's Ultra Secure, Secure, and Burst modes. In this case, the files are identical as long as they are ripped on the same computer. When I do it on the other computer, this is not the case.

According to foobar200's bit comparison utility and Exact Audio Copy's WAV comparison tool, there are basically two categories of the extracted digital audio:

*One where foobar2000 tells me that it is bit identical to the original CD and Exact Audio Copy also says all the files are identical...

...including files ripped to the Alienware laptop with foobar2000, iTunes, Winamp, PlexTools, CDex, and Audiograbber, as well as files ripped to the Sony laptop regardless of the program (dBpoweramp, Exact Audio Copy, foobar2000, etc.)

*And the other where foobar2000 tells me that it is *not* bit identical to the original CD (with millions of samples of difference found) and Exact Audio Copy says there are repeated samples...

...only when I rip to the Alienware laptop with dBpoweramp and Exact Audio Copy.

I repeated the experiment by uninstalling and reinstalling the two programs, ripping again, and even ripping another time in safe mode (with Fidelizer software in Extremist mode to further focus the system processes), but the result is the same.

Now I am trying to figure out why the files are different when ripped with the same software and settings but on different computers, and what I should do to fix the problem.

I have already ripped my music collection multiple times, with various software programs and hardware setups - that's thousands of CDs and months of work - so I would like to do it right this time.

I appreciate any insights you can offer as to what is going on here, and what I should do to be able to use dBpoweramp on this laptop and rip files that are bit identical to the original CD.

[Spoon]

Re: dBpoweramp CD Ripper produces different files on different computers...?

Different cd drives have different offsets, that means the first track or last track (depending on offset) would be different across computers which are not able to overread to get the data outside of the offset.

If you check track 2 it should be identical on all machines.

If you install PerfectTUNEs you can check the tracks against accuraterip again, this will ensure the information is 100% correct (with the offset taken into account automatically).