Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

onestar reviewed v1.3 on Jan 25, 2017

Still the best CD ripping tool out there. One minor note: The latest version (1.3) isn't parsing ampersands and apostrophes correctl from the freedb. They're showing up as ' for apostrophes and & for ampersands.

Enlightenment reviewed v1.0 Beta 4 on Dec 19, 2014

I've been using it since 1998.

Not the most user friendly to setup, but worth it since it does the best ripping results.

dejavu reviewed v1.0 Beta 3 on Sep 22, 2011

Excellent!!! Five Stars!!!

anonswgeek reviewed v1.0 Beta 3 on Sep 22, 2011

good to see an update to this software. extraction speed seems to have improved in this version (at least for my cd drive).

tickleonthetum reviewed v1.0 Beta 1 on Dec 9, 2010

Been using for years now, going from strength to strength. Version 1.0 doesn't contain any malware...

ron_marz reviewed v1.0 Beta 1 on Dec 6, 2010

Great ripping quality as always, but the EAC 1.0 beta switched to a new database format which it fails to import all the titles from my old database -- a serious bug.

roj reviewed v0.99 Pre-Beta 5 on Jan 20, 2010

The installer contains malware.

No, I don't give a ratz azz about what the twits in the EAC forum say; the eBay adCrap is malware.

No, I don't care that it's optional.

It's MALWARE and should not be in an installer.

Get it the H - E - Double - Hockey - Sticks out of the installer or Betanews should remove it and BLACKLIST it.

I'm tired of this garbage masquerading as so9mething harmless and the stupid apologists defending or excusing it.

IT'S MALWARE.

ONE star.

iva reviewed v0.99 Pre-Beta 5 on Jul 3, 2009

Using this program seems to be a useful program but after ripping cd's to your hard drive in accurate rip is fine but what is needed is this program needs a cd burning capabilty so that it will burn these same files to cd. If this program had this it would rate highly but sadly it doesn't.

Fafner76 reviewed v0.99 Pre-Beta 5 on May 10, 2009

Used it a lot in the past, never used it in my new PC till today. Don't know what's wrong, but extraction speed is unbelievably slow for me although I'm using the very same settings I always used, doesn't even go past 2x where Easy CD-DA Extractor goes around 25x.

zollner reviewed v0.99 Pre-Beta 5 on May 10, 2009

Simply the best quality at any price.
A tiny bug: the extraction option "Create .m3u playlist on extraction" appears to be broken.

jorgosch reviewed v0.99 Pre-Beta 5 on May 8, 2009

Can someone please ban the spammer-pig below?

DudeBoyz reviewed v0.99 prebeta 4 on Sep 3, 2008

UPDATE 10-29-08: I had occassion to use this application in depth on a set of audio book cd's that were pretty scuffed up.

Bonk Encoder 1.0.9 does not have the type of error correction that EAC does, and though it was able to rip the CD, I noticed that there were actually small errors at the times where I saw the program pausing during the rip.

Used EAC and though it took about 4 times longer, the result was 100% error free when listening to the rip.

I'm glad this app is free, and I'm glad this app is out there.

It's one of those special use applications that you are really grateful to have available, even if the need for it is infrequent.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Basically, this particular app offers Better Error Correction Functions than the average ripper. It simply tries harder to ensure a top-quality rip. It doesn't take anything for granted or make assumptions, it just get's all up in the face of your hardware and says "Hey, you WILL do that extra work, so suck it up and get it done - the right way!"

Is it overhyped? Meh. Maybe.

Is the development too slow? Errr... Yeah.

Is it worth moving up from the ever-awesome AudioGrabber program? Mmmm... Ya Betcha!

Is it still worth using when you have an awesome solution like Bonk Encoder out there?

Well, that's a bit of a different situation there. But I do think using both will get you the best of two worlds.

Makes dbPoweramp look like a chew-toy, don't it? :)

Especially since it's totally FREE.

With EAC and Bonk available for no cost, why would anybody even want to consider paying coin for anything else? Throw in Audacity and MP3 Gain and you got yourself an unbeatable package of audio awesomeness, without spending a single hard-earned penny.

Save your money, blow on by those inferior apps (dbPoweramp is soooo "1980's Hair Band Fluffish...) and snag yourself a copy of EAC. It really is Just That Good.

To quote one of the greatest minds of our generation:

"Thank you, drive through."

halc reviewed v0.99 prebeta 4 on Feb 1, 2008

This is the best ripper for windows if you care about quality.

Others "do not understand" why EAC is better.

That is because they do not understand digital audio extraction of a standard (or non-standard) CD-DA disc.

Why EAC excels:

- configurable re-read options
- use or skip the internal drive C2 data for ECD
- Proper settings for lead-in / lead-out reading
- Calibration for reading/writing offset for any drive
- Configurable to be used with any encoder, using any command-line options
- All the basic features there: freedb query/submit, mp3 idv1/idv2 tags
- Stable, reliable and supports multiple interface (ASAPI, ASPI and Win Native)

There is _nothing_ that comes even close.

Many have tried and some have come far from their humble origins, but this software is still the best, if you know what you are doing and need the features (non-standard discs, copy protected discs, bad pressing, classical/mixed cds, scratched discs, etc).

If you do not need/understand this, fine, but bad that does not EAC make.

If you just need something simple and don't care about quality - look elsewhere.