Distortion after ripping CD

[nmw01223]

Just found this forum, and as I have a problem I cannot explain, I thought I'd ask a question.

Using W11, I'm getting distortion after ripping CD track - the CDs are ones I created years ago, CD-Rs. Cannot remember what I did, but probably placed WAV tracks in a directory, created a .CUE file, and burned the CDs with I gBurn. What I find is, if I just play the tracks on the computer directly from the CD they are fine. But, if I RIP them (FLAC or WAV), then play them, they are distorted.

It first showed up when I was duplicating a CD for a friend using ImgBurn, and the copy was bad quality. But then I found that just ripping a track and playing it (Media Player, Windows Media Player) sounded just as bad, so it's the ripping, not the writing of a CD, that is the issue. Tried Exact Audio Copy, no different.

Cannot see why, it's the same CD drive, same computer audio. Very odd.

[Spoon-]

Many drives struggle to read CD-R audio, dvd has a smaller laser than audio cd players, and blueray has smaller again. Try different CD drives, older ones.

[nmw01223]

Try different CD drives

But it's the same CD drive for both playing and ripping? Exact Audio Copy reports no rip errors, and that same app playing it is fine, it is just the rip that is distorted.

[garym]

Does the EAC rip play ok? Not clear whether you have ripped with dbPoweamp? Have you and that rip is distorted?