"Ralph McClusky" wrote in message


question:
I want to find some software that will compare two 'identical' cd's
(or wav's) and 'measure' their audio quality against each other. Can
anyone suggest anything?

Both EAC and CDEX have file comparison facilities built-in.

I have a cd/lp/cassette collection and I have burnt the lp's and
cassette's to disk and it sounds ok (the lp's and cassette's are old
and not high quality). I decided to test burn a cd to disk as a wav
using EAC and then burn a copy to a cd-r to use in my car. The
resultant quality is poor. The audio sounds 'brittle' and not clear.

Probable cause - your car CD player is having compatibility problems with
CD-Rs. It's probably not the latest model, because car CD players have been
pretty consistently doing a good job with CD-Rs for the past 3 years or so.
I have two cars with CD players, and the older model is picky about the
brand of media I choose and the speed I burn it at. The new one is just a
few months old and could car less - it works well with everything I feed it.

The irony is I am partially frequency deaf (ie problems hearing voices
in a noisy, crowded room), so if I can hear the poor quality then
either I am imagining it or need to measure the burn against the orig.
Or is it the burn program?, the rip program?, the drive? etc, etc

Since your car's CD player is probably part of the problem, a separate
technical analysis is not going to give you a reliable answer.

I have been told that the software I use (EAC) is crap,

Don't listen to people who say this, EAC has an excellent reputation and has
been checked over with a figurative fine-tooth comb.

the burn CD's I use are crap

Could be they are inappropriate for your situation. I get the more
consistently good results with TDK brand blanks, for example.

, my hearing is crap etc etc..

The nature of the problems with a CD player that has marginal compatibility
with CD-Rs does not take golden ears to hear.

.thus my keeness to actually measure the various wav's against each other.

It turns out that your best evaluation tool is your ears, listening to the
actual player that is causing you problems.