CD Ripping
CD ripping is the copying of audio from a compact disc to files on a drive or computer. In Hi-Fi it lets owners keep a lossless copy of their discs and play the music from a server or streamer, while the original disc stays on the shelf as a backup.
John Makovsky
FiiO DP11 – CD Player with Ripping Function
What CD ripping is & why it matters
A ripper reads the digital audio on the disc and writes it out as files, usually WAV or FLAC, without lossy compression. A good rip matches the disc bit for bit, so the file is a full replacement for the original. Once ripped, an album can be stored on a NAS (network attached storage) or USB drive, tagged with metadata and played through any network player. Some CD players now do this without a computer.
What you'll find in this tag
Product news on the FiiO DP11 fills this tag - a desktop CD player that also rips discs. The story explains how the unit works as a dedicated CD transport, as a player with its own DAC, or as a source wired straight to active speakers or a power amplifier. It covers the Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chip and the way the ripping function writes files to external storage.
Key models & features to know
FiiO DP11 - rips audio CDs to a USB drive as lossless WAV files with no computer involved. The drive must be FAT32 formatted and no larger than 32 GB. Its USB input also accepts PCM up to 32-bit and 384 kHz and DSD256. Outputs include RCA, coaxial, optical and AES digital connections. Control comes from front panel buttons or an infrared remote, and an amber LCD shows track data.
Related topics & where to go next
See CD Transports for disc players without a DAC, and USB Audio for computer playback. Streaming & Network Audio covers playing ripped files over a network. The catalog groups CD players with other disc sources.