[ffooky]

Right, I don't know how illuminating this is but I managed to find a disc that only produced some "edge" errors and ripped it with EAC, xACT (cdda2wav w/paranoia) and cdparanoia.

The drive used was 'PIONEER ' Model 'DVD-RW DVR-107D' Revision '1.21'.

Throughout here I've removed paths and (I hope) redundant text where necessary to make things more readable.

First I ripped with EAC

EAC extraction logfile from 1. October 2005, 11:39 for CD

Weezer / Buddy Holly (EP)

Used drive  : MS   Adapter: 1  ID: 0
Read mode   : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 0

Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines

                     44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

Other options      : 

    Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
    Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
    Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Track  3

     Filename C:\Documents and Settings\Waldo Jeffers\Desktop\Buddy Holly EAC\03 Surf Wax America (Live Version).wav


     Peak level 96.3 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Test CRC E38800B9
     Copy CRC E38800B9

     Copy OK

Track  4

     Filename C:\Documents and Settings\Waldo Jeffers\Desktop\Buddy Holly EAC\04 Jamie (Geffen Rarities LP Version).wav

     Peak level 81.7 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Test CRC 3618AA62
     Copy CRC 3618AA62

     Copy OK



No errors occured

End of status report

No error correction lights were lit during the extraction but the peak level value for Track 4 seems to show that re-reads were necessary.

Next up are three rips with xACT:

#Cdda2wav version 2.01a32_darwin_7.4.0_power-macintosh_powerpc, libparanoia support
using lib paranoia for reading.

100%  track  3 'Surf Wax America (Live Version)' recorded with minor problems

100%  0 rderr, 0 skip, 0 atom, 2 edge, 0 drop, 0 dup, 0 drift

100%  249 overlap(0.5 .. 1.125)

100%  track  4 'Jamie (Geffen Rarities LP Version)' recorded with minor problems (1.4% problem sectors)

100%  0 rderr, 0 skip, 0 atom, 265 edge, 0 drop, 0 dup, 0 drift

100%  265 overlap(1.125 .. 1.125)

Rip 02

#Cdda2wav version 2.01a32_darwin_7.4.0_power-macintosh_powerpc, libparanoia supportusing lib paranoia for reading.

100%  track  3 'Surf Wax America (Live Version)' recorded with minor problems

100%  0 rderr, 0 skip, 0 atom, 3 edge, 0 drop, 0 dup, 0 drift

100%  250 overlap(0.5 .. 1.125)


100%  track  4 'Jamie (Geffen Rarities LP Version)' recorded with minor problems (1.4% problem sectors)

100%  0 rderr, 0 skip, 0 atom, 264 edge, 0 drop, 0 dup, 0 drift

100%  264 overlap(1.125 .. 1.125)

and Rip 03

#Cdda2wav version 2.01a32_darwin_7.4.0_power-macintosh_powerpc, libparanoia supportusing lib paranoia for reading.

100%  track  3 'Surf Wax America (Live Version)' recorded with minor problems

100%  0 rderr, 0 skip, 0 atom, 2 edge, 0 drop, 0 dup, 0 drift

100%  241 overlap(0.5 .. 1.125)


100%  track  4 'Jamie (Geffen Rarities LP Version)' recorded with minor problems (1.4% problem sectors)

100%  0 rderr, 0 skip, 0 atom, 266 edge, 0 drop, 0 dup, 2 drift

100%  254 overlap(0.5 .. 1.125)

Note that the "edge" values and overlaps differ between all three rips.

Lastly, two rips with cdparanoia, which produced an identical output:

eMac:~ ffooky$ cdparanoia -B -- "-4"
cdparanoia III release 9.8 (March 23, 2001)

outputting to track03.cdda.wav

 (== PROGRESS == [                             -*| 046696 00 ] == :^D * ==)   

outputting to track04.cdda.wav

 (== PROGRESS == [------------------------------*| 066081 00 ] == :^D * ==)   

Done.

Note the constant jitter correction on Track 04 and slight correction for track 03.

Here are the results:

76ceab472c728fabbb5166d694ed13be  [shntool]  EAC_t04.wav
497017126cfc3255bee0efc35a90632d  [shntool]  CDP_rip01_t04.wav
497017126cfc3255bee0efc35a90632d  [shntool]  CDP_rip02_t04.wav
cda0c5e693b965bdd60d73735e8c9692  [shntool]  xACT_rip01_t04.wav
cda0c5e693b965bdd60d73735e8c9692  [shntool]  xACT_rip02_t04.wav
cda0c5e693b965bdd60d73735e8c9692  [shntool]  xACT_rip03_t04.wav

I've omitted the results for Track 03 as they were bit identical for all six rips which surprised me considering the Peak level, "edge" value and jitter correction results.

I then ran EAC's compare WAVs function:

EAC rip compared to xACT's gave "441 repeated samples 0:00:00.168" (on the EAC side of the comparison table).
EAC rip compared to cdparanoia's gave "96 repeated samples 0:00:00.176" (on the EAC side of the comparison table).
xACT rip compared to cdparanoia's gave "345 repeated samples 0:00:00.168" (on the cdparanoia side of the comparison table).

These are the sort of results I'd expect to see if I ripped with xACT etc and then compared with an offset-corrected EAC rip but I made sure to remove offset correction for this test (see EAC log).

I'd need to know what an "edge" value actually means to evaluate these results properly, in fact I'd like to know what all the values that cdda2wav gives mean. I already know that any "atom" value means "you ain't going to get a guaranteeable rip" but I'm at a loss with the rest.

The only conclusion I can come to is that I'm minded to agree with jazzbo that the cache is not flushed between reads with cdda2wav.

Bugger!