If you want the absolute best sound quality from your digital music files, they need to be bit-perfect rips from CDs stored in a lossless compression format. I recommend using dBpoweramp Music Converter (dBmc) to do this. This page describes how to configure dBmc (version 12 or 13) for the most accurate bit-for-bit perfect backup of an Audio CD (compact disc).
First, you will need to install the following dBpoweramp files:
- Install dBpoweramp CD Ripper and Music Converter. You will need to use either The PowerPack Version ($24; 3-week free trial) or the Reference version ($36; 3-week free trail.) I use the PowerPack version.
- Install the dBpoweramp FLAC codec (free)
- Install the ReplayGain lossless volume normalization plugin (free)
Note: It is possible to achieve the same results using the free software Exact Audio Copy (see this post for configuration details), but I find that dBpoweramp is easier to configure, is easier to use, has a fantastic file format conversion utility, and it has access to 4 total metadata providers for accurate tag creation. If saving $24 is more important than ease-of-use and time spent retagging files, EAC may be for you. Otherwise, dBmc is the way to go.
Once you have the programs installed, follow these configuration instructions:
A Note on AccurateRip Confidence: After ripping a CD, you will see and AccurateRip confidence number. This number represents the number of people that extracted the exact rip as you just did. So the higher the number, the better, but a low number isn’t necessarily bad. Here are some examples:
- If all tracks on a CD give a confidence of 12, except 1 which has a confidence of 0, then there is probably a problem with that zero confidence track.
- If all tracks are 0, either the disc is heavily damaged or the CD isn’t in the AccurateRip database.
Carlton,
Thanks for posting the dBpoweramp config setting How-to. One additional question regarding Flac compression. The default is dBpoweramp Setting is level 5. You suggested using the Setting level 8 although taking a longer time to encode. Can you tell if there is any more over head to decode the compressed file on playback given you must not first read the file from disk but secondly decode it?
Also, What should I be looking for relative to confidence in the Rip? The AccurateRip confidence range for the tracks I rip range from 5 to 9 for a single pass.
Thanks again.
Bob, there is no difference on the decode overhead for higher compression levels. The requirements for FLAC decode hardware are very minimal; encoding is the only CPU-intensive step.
For Accurate Rip confidence, anything great that 1 is good and the higher the better. The application doesn’t do a good job of explaining what that number means; it’s the number of other people that extracted the exact rip as you did. So if all tracks on a CD give a confidence of 10, except 1 which has a confidence of 0, then there is probably a problem with that zero confidence track. If all tracks are 0, either the disc is heavily damaged or the CD isn’t in the AccurateRip database.
Hello Carlton,
i can recommend another great cd-ripping software, which is free:
“exact audio copy” (www.exactaudiocopy.de)
regards
Udo
Hi Carlton
I would like to thank you first for all your help and patience in the past with getting me up and running with dbpoweramp. I now have all my CD’s ripped to Flac and am very pleased wih sound quality.
I would like to ask your expert advice today on another matter.I recently purchased a Ford truck with Ford sync and a USB input.I would like to burn music to a USB thunbdrive to use in vehicle unfortunatly the truck does not support Flac files only MP3,Wav,ACC and WMA.I would greatly appreciate your input on which one of these formats will give me the highest quality sound.I have a 16gb thumbdrive but will purchase a larger one if fie size is an issue. Sound quality is most important.
I will be making copies of my Flac files to convert to whatever would be best format and using dbpoweramp to do this.
Thanks again for your help
Keith
Hi Carlton
I would first like to thank you for all your help and patience in the past with helping me getting my CD’s ripped to Flac thru dBpoweramp. I now have all of my music on Flac files and am extremely happy with the sound quality I am able to have through out my house using my Sonos system as well as other equipment. Thanks again
I am reaching out to you today to ask you for some help with a question I have about music file formats.I recently purchased a Ford truck that has Ford sync as well as a USB input. I would like to download albums onto a USB thumdrive and be able to listen in my truck.Unfortunately the system does not support Flac files only MP3,Wav,ACC and WMA. I would appreciate any advice you could give me regarding which of these formats would offer me the best sound quality.
I have a 16gb thumdrive but will purchase a larger one if file size is an issue. Sound quality is the most important.
I will be making copies of my Flac files and converting them to whatever you suggest using dBpoweramp.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you again
Keith Johnston
P.S. I apologize if you are recieving this twice I posted earlier and it went missing when I returned to site
Keith, glad you found the info useful. At lower bitrates (128 kbps or less), there can be some significant differences between the compressed formats. However, if you encode them at higher bit rates (256 kbps or higher), you won’t be able to tell the differences between any of the formats; they all sound great.
You listed WAV as one of the options; this is also a lossless format. The problem with WAV is that 1) the files are big and 2) there is no universal tagging format, but it may work for you. There is also WMA Lossless format that may play back on your Sync system. Since SYNC is a Microsoft system, WMA and WMA Lossless are a Microsoft file formats, there is a chance they will work.
If you “just want it to work” without messing with it too much, I’d recommend MP3 encoded at 320 kbps. This should play on about any system out there and will offer very good sound quality.
Hope this helps!
Hi Carlton
Thanks for getting back to me so quick and thanks for advice.I cannot begin to tell you what a wondertful website this is and how great it is that you put your time out there just to inform and help people. Very rare these days Thanks
Just a few follow up questions 1. If I decide to go with the MP3 format using dBpoweramp to convert to 320kps the target in the encoder settings would be free format so I can get to 320kps as opposed to VBR or ABR or CBR? and under advanced would you force stereo as opposed to auto since I would be using higher bit rate or is there no need?
2.It appears that Sync does support WMA lossless so would that be the better choice? It appears that dBpoweramp will let me add this file codec as add on and allow me to convert to WMA lossless Finally any settings in WMA Lossless that you recommend.
Sorry for all the questions and questions and questions and thank you again for the knowledge and help.Will keep it to a minimum from here on.
Keith
Keith, CBR (constant bit rate) would be the most compatible and you could specify the bitrate (320kbps). ABR and VBR allow the bitrate to float based on the content of the music, so they are configured based on target file size or a 0-100% sound quality rating. For high bitrates / size / quality settings, you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the settings. Auto or forced stereo should result in the same 2 channel file; it’s really for detecting mono files (usually spoken voice.)
WMA Lossless would give the best quality (identical to FLAC), but not sure you could hear the difference and it would take more drive space. It will be a trade-off between quality and # of songs on a flash drive. There aren’t many settings to mess with for WMA Lossless, so just us the default.
Enjoy!
Carlton
Thanks again for your help. It’s great to have you out there to clear up the confusion. This is a great site and your a great person to give of your time.
Thanks again for the help past,present and probably future
Keith