Whats the best FREE MP3 ripper?

I have a portable PDA in which I have found an MP3 module for £3, I then added 64MB SD chip (which I will probably upgrade) so for £27 all in I have myself a brand new PDA, games consule and an MP3 player.

However the rips I have made sound a tad syntheised, its too trebely, I just wondered what software people used to make half decent quality MP3 files.

It will be easier when I am on holiday to have a device with all the songs in rather than taking countless CDs.

 

i use eac to rip to flac - it will rip to mp3 too. eac has various levels of rip quality from the lowest where it just reads the stuff as fast as possible to the highest where it reads stuff loads of times and does error correction etc.
lame is reputed to be the best codec.
cheers


julian

 

CDex is the best if you want an easy life and good quality. Has the lame codec built in, already configured.

 

Thanks I will try the sugesstions, if it still sounds no better I guess I will have to stick with CDs. It sounds like a synthesiser at the moment! But I have a strong feeling its the ripper I am using.

 

Well I am pretty happy with a large percentage (over 50%) of my MP3's through better equipment than a portable, so yes its likely to be the ripper.

 

Just tried it, its sounds fine for portable use, its not really HIFI but then I can't exactly lug a 5KG cd player and 6KG amp with me.

This what I have by the way

http://images.vnunet.com/v6_image/v6_products/prod_h/big/bg_cybiko02.jpg

Its an old product so they are dirt cheap, I paid £10 for the unit, £3 for the MP3 adapter from TG Huges, then just bought a £15 64MB SD card to plug into it. I will get the 256MB card for £30 so I iwll have a 256mb MP3 player for £43. I can also play games on it or do some word processing at the same time as playing MP3s. It has a 20Mhz Hitachi processor and 1.5MB RAM.

 

Get a rucksac and pad it up to take your CDP and amplifier.
On the move, they will sound as good as are on a Flexy and it will keep you fit.
:MILD:

 

try itunes and the apple lossless compressor

 

Remember the sound quality is dependant on the bit rate of the rip and the codec used.

After various experimentations and listening tests I am more than happy with 256 VBR mp3's and since I have an iPod also 256 AAC.

At a recent gathering I did an ABCX comparison of lossless vs 320AAC vs 320mp3 vs randon choice. The listeners were guessing and admitted it as to which was which, and this on very revealing system. So like a few here I will be going the HD route soon. Hence the 250Gb disk being formatted as I type

 

welcome to the club lee.
cheers


julian

 

I have found 196kbps to be a good compromise between quality and file size. I am going to buy a 256MB card and have done with it.

It sounds a lot better than portable CD in my opinion because when you're on the bus the CD vibrates a lot, this must effect the quality. Although it does sound a tad bright on headphones I thought were quite dull.

 

I have found it to be a total rip, if you will pardon the pun. Very soon I will be off the harddrive route for ever.

Beware here dragons lie.

 

I don't understand what you are saying Gary