CD Audio vs WAV

[davidk]

I remember using an earlier version of Roxio to copy CD's for listening to in the car. They didn't sound the same as the original, so I played the copy/orginal on some high-end equipment and the difference was quite apparent. I found Roxio was converting the CD's to wave files before writing them back to CD.

So I switched to Nero, which produces an exact bit-for-bit copy, with no sound degration or distortion - and have been very happy since.

That was until last week, when some CD's I ordered from YesAsia (Japan) arrived. They have a copy-protection mechanism on them (Cactus-200) which basically tries to trick your PC into thinking it's not an audio CD. Very nasty, ineffective, and subsequently dropped - apparently, a lot of audio CD players couldn't read the disks. The CD player in my car being just one example.

Not a problem, I thought - just copy the audio tracks off it with Nero. Not so, Nero either wants to copy everything or nothing.

Then I found dBpowerAMP CD Writer, which offered to copy .cda files (as found on audio CD's). I thought CD->HDD->CD, and keeping the file in its native format will result in a perfect copy. However, I was wrong. The copied music sounds noticeably inferior.

So, I looked at the temporary files it created - and they're wave files :-(

Which kind of explains the crap quality. :vmad:

Am I missing something here? Is there some hidden setting in the program to create a bit-for-bit identical copy of the music?!?!

[LtData]

Re: CD Audio vs WAV

Ummm, wav files are lossless. If your getting corrupt-sounding wav files, the problem lies elsewhere. Note that .cda files just point to where the actual data is on the CD. CDA files themselves are useless.

[Wayne]

Re: CD Audio vs WAV

As Lt. Data says the WAV files should be an exact copy of the original audio. Even Eaxct Audio Copy which professes to create the best copies still uses wav format files.

What speed do you normally use when burning the tracks to CDR? Slow speeds usually result in better quality recordings.

Wayne

[davidk]

Re: CD Audio vs WAV

I usually use disks labelled as audio CDs, which tend to have a lower speed rating than data CDs - so usually tell Nero to write at 8x, plus do verify.

I accept your argument that wave files are lossless and should be the same as the audio on the actual CD, but I have found otherwise. The difference is not very noticable on low/mid-range audio equipment, but on anything decent, it is quite apparent.

I suppose there could be a flaw in the algorithm Roxio uses to convert audio CDs to wave files - which might explain the drop in quality.....

OK, will continue with the DAC burning process and carefully compare the CD it produces with the original disk.

Thanks for your replies and will let you know what I find.

Cheers
David

[LtData]

Re: CD Audio vs WAV

Mabye try ripping the CD with dMC? Or mabye Roxio makes compressed WAVs which are NOT lossless.

[neilthecellist]

Re: CD Audio vs WAV

Whoa! I have personal experience with this one. I used Roxio (latest version) at my dad's workplace once to convert CD audio to WAVE. Then I ripped it with dMC. Opened both up in Audacity. They both had different wavelength thingys (what are those blue lines called?) That told me Roxio did something wrong.

My hypothesis is that Roxio doesn't use an accurate form of ripping, whereas dMC does it near-perfectly, if not perfect already.

[skane]

Re: CD Audio vs WAV

This is a 12-year old thread, I know. But the Google indicates that it's still widely read. So, just thought I'd point out that the ".WAV" format is simply a container format, and while it usually contains uncompressed, lossless audio, it doesn't have to. In fact, dBpoweramp itself offers users the option to create highly-compressed MP3 audio files encoded within the WAV format, ending with the .WAV extension. For details see the following webpage from dBpoweramp's own help pages, and experiment with that option yourself. (And, btw, "WAVE" is not a newbie misspelling of WAV. As I understand it, WAVE is the full name of the format, and WAV is the standard filename extension it uses.)

For details: https://www.dbpoweramp.com/Help/dmc/wave.html