2. digital
  3. 143519-91205

Does a cheap cd transport create poor digital copies?

I want to load some CDs onto the hard drive of a music server via a USB port. I have a quality USB cable, but I’m wondering if using a standard issue external CD drive ($50 type thing) as a transport will imbed the common cheap player problems onto the stored music (jitter, etc.)...or does it simply create a digital copy of the original onto the player?

I’m not going to run out and buy a transport as my CD collection is limited, but I am curious about this and maybe it will help others. Anyone know the technical facts or have an opinion?



glow_worm
agrippa
32 posts
 
"I suspect a CD can be read poorly intruducing errors"

The point of using a program like EAC or DBPoweramp is that, if you choose, error won’t be accepted. If the disc can be read, a perfect copy will be made. If it can’t be read, a copy will only result if you’ve chosen settings which allow errors, hence allowing one to be made.

My own experience, with a thousand CDs or so, indicate that CDs which cannot be copied perfectly are very few and very far between. Off hand I believe I remember having trouble with 3.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Hey, anyone know why CD copies can sometimes sound better than the original or is that an old wives tale?
mahler123
633 posts
 
That argument goes both ways.  I used to think that CDRs sounded better than the originals, and that CDs from aHD bested the originals, but with the improvement in DAC technology over the past few years I’ve swung the other way.  I’ve seen reports that copied CDs have either more or less jitter, sometimes from the same writer...
Post removed 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
I am referring to plain ordinary CD copies, no fancy editing or upsampling or whatever.
More to discover