Can't rip CDs reliably in iTunes 10.5
I have been experiencing problems ripping CDs on my iMac. Many CDs appear OK, but some have just absolutely dreadful distortion. I have tried using different Macs, and even switching to Windows. Once I've identified a CD which won't rip, the terrible ripping performance is consistent across machines and operating systems. The one constant factor is iTunes 10.5.
I have successfully ripped one problem CD (Isserlis - see below) in earlier versions of iTunes, on both Mac OS X and Windows XP.
It makes no difference what output format is chosen - AAC, ALAC, AIFF etc. The effect is very different from CDs which have scratches, which may have some tracks which are difficult. This problem afflicts all the tracks on each affected CD
Also iTunes appears to rip the CDs correctly, identifiying the tracks etc. from the Gracenote database, and giving the correct track lengths. There is no way to tell whether a CD is likely to have this problem or not in advance, though mostly CDs from EMI, Universal (Decca, Philips) are UK, but I've had some problems with CDs which originate from BIS (e.g the Brilliant recordings of Martinu symphonies - 2 out of the 3 CDs have problems), and also with some of the CDs from the BBC Music Magazine. My test CD is the latest BBC MM disc, with Steven Isserlis playing cello pieces with Stephen Hough, Joshua Bell and the Bournemouth SO. BBC MM Vol 20 No 2.
This is a problem which should be fixed ASAP. To date I have seen maybe 10 CDs which have this problem, and of course, I can't be sure that all the ones which don't have the very obvious distortion, are OK. I know one problem CD - from the CFM (Classical FM Magazine) last month of Mahler 2 conducted by Horenstein has pre-emphasis, which should be decoded properly with a decent ripper, but whether that is a factor or not I do not know.
I'm not sure whether I need to cross post this on the iTunes Windows site - as the issues are there too.