[mbachelo@att.net]

Greeetings again all!

I came across a few things I thought I might share with the group. I was 
involved in a discussion on a message board, with some very technically minded 
people (I am only slightly technicaly minded - these people were way out of my 
league!). These people made a convincing argument about a problem with the 
Audio CD format. As one of the first formats made for CD's it was never meant 
to be copied using a computer, and can be more prone to error during 
duplication than other formats. Problems tend to occur during the READING of a 
CD. Listening to a clean copy, one might not notice anything. But as errors 
compund during copying and listening, pops and silences can become noticeable.

It's a plausible story, and the occasional POP I hear on a CD makes me think 
they have a point. They recommened a Program called Exact Audio Copy. (URL 
Below) which has improved error detection for reading audio CD's. According to 
these people using EAC to copy the CD contents to a hard drive as Wav files, 
and burning the WAVs to a disc produces a better copy than "On the Fly" 
(Direct disc to disc) copy. 

Here are a couple links to check out EAC. So far I have used EAC for my last 
CD copy. I ripped files from the Disc using EAC and burned the files using 
NERO. I could not tell a difference - But maybe someone a few generations down 
the disc's life will notice. Unless it's all a bunch of **** and the gullible 
dope that I am - I have fallen for it! 

Anyway - Here are some URL's

http://www.ping.be/satcp/tutorials.htm

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Take Care!

Michael