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?

[nmw01223]

If:
I rip it with EAC it is distorted, but playing it with EAC is OK
I change EACs setting to quality over speed (default was the opposite) it won't rip it at all
I rip it with the dbPoweramp trial it is distorted like the EAC speed over quality
I rip it with Media Player, Windows Media Player legacy etc, it is distorted as with EAC

One thing I note is that it rips at 10 to 20x times speed, whereas playing is obviously 1x. Couldn't find an EAC option to try ripping it at 1x.

One further thing, I tried duplicating the disk on a Linux system using d3b - that was OK. Different CD drive of course.

[nmw01223]

ADDENDUM: I eventually got EAC to rip it in quality over speed mode. It took over 2 hours for a 6 minute track. But, the result was distorted, just as before.

[nmw01223]

Think it might be sorted - or at least explained. Found this on Google:

If you are using an internal SATA CD/DVD drive (especially on a newer AMD Ryzen motherboard), this is a known compatibility problem. Motherboards can struggle with audio data extraction (CD-DA) when relying on internal SATA, resulting in digital static or crackling. [1]

• Solution: Switch to an external USB CD/DVD drive. Users on Unraid Forums and Reddit note that using a USB drive bypasses the motherboard's SATA controller quirks, generating a flawless rip.

Using an external USB drive on a Dell W11 laptop with an Intel Core i7, the CD ripped OK. On the PC that distorted, the CPU is a AMD Ryzen 5 7600 on an ASUS Pro A620M-C motherboard. The other PC that managed the RIP OK (see comment above 8:53 17/7/26) was an Intel Core i7 7700k on an ASUS Prime Q270M-C motherboard running Ubuntu 26.04, and using K3B for disk copying (SATA internal DVD drive). That worked OK. So, seems to be the 'newer' motherboard / CPU / SATA DVD drive combination. Digital crackling is just what it sounded like.

[GBrown]

Same issue as posted here.

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/forum/dbpoweramp/cd-ripper/330864-new-computer-with-windows-11-getting-inaccurate-rips-every-time