Exact Audio Copy (EAC) - Compression in Wav?

[SyncroScales]

Hi.

When Exact Audio Copy (EAC) compresses files, does it rip into Wav and then convert files?

I converted a Wav file into FLAC and was wondering about Ogg (I haven't done ogg yet).

If I rip from a CD will it be into a wav file first, then I compress it into the other formats? What about other converters/rippers/compressors?

Is there a reason to even think I can rip directly from a CD into formats other than WMA, AAC, MP3 or Wav? Do all the rippers rip into Wav or maybe AIFF first? Then convert?

Thanks.

[pandy]

Yes and yes.
Source is PCM so PCM data need to be buffered anyway and somehow before compression (even online).
And wav is container but i assume PCM data can be in raw and there is no need for any container use (as CD format is well defined).

[SyncroScales]

Thanks pandy.

If I were using a Mac, iTunes or another program, maybe Linux or Unix(?) would it convert into Wav or Aiff/ALAC?

I have my CD's ripped into Wav already, would there be a difference between using a converter/compression to turn the Wav/PCM into Ogg or FLAC (or other format) compared to ripping from a CD and letting the program turn the files into Ogg or FLAC? It seems there is none. The only difference is I now have to do metadata for the other format.

Is the difference just the quality of programming, coding of the converter/compressor?

Eg: Using Windows Media Player 11 or 12 will rip into mp3 and windows media lossless (or lossy). First PCM is ripped then the file is compressed/encoded. No difference from me ripping Wav/PCM and then converting myself?

[pandy]

If I were using a Mac, iTunes or another program, maybe Linux or Unix(?) would it convert into Wav or Aiff/ALAC?

AFAIR EAC can be configured to support any external encoder and as such CD can be converted to any format.

I have my CD's ripped into Wav already, would there be a difference between using a converter/compression to turn the Wav/PCM into Ogg or FLAC (or other format) compared to ripping from a CD and letting the program turn the files into Ogg or FLAC? It seems there is none. The only difference is I now have to do metadata for the other format.

AFAIK wav is capable to carry various data (metadata) side to audio samples. Good converter (wav to xxx) shall be able to use those metadata so i believe from user perspective results should be similar.

Is the difference just the quality of programming, coding of the converter/compressor?

Eg: Using Windows Media Player 11 or 12 will rip into mp3 and windows media lossless (or lossy). First PCM is ripped then the file is compressed/encoded. No difference from me ripping Wav/PCM and then converting myself?

Well... this is difficult question as this is comparison between particular applications functionality.
AFAIK EAC and similar software use well known codec implementations (trough libraries) - some application may use similar approach or they may use custom, closed, proprietary solutions (so compression quality may be different).
With current processing power seem any popular format can be compressed in realtime or faster so offline compression is not required.

[SyncroScales]

"If I were using a Mac, iTunes or another program, maybe Linux or Unix(?) would it convert into Wav or Aiff/ALAC?"

If I am not using EAC, what would these systems or programs do? I am unsuire if Unix can or does rip and convert audio, it probably can or did.

Thanks.

[pandy]

For sure there will be something similar as EAC on Unix systems... compression can be performed trough ffmpeg which is usually also available in most Unix.