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There was some discussion earlier this year about the software made by Emimius, designed to upsample & enhance Redbook CD, converting it to a 24/96 file that can be burned to DVD. I'd like to add my observations, having owned and used it for over half the year.
First off, early versions were a little buggy. Metadata would cause clicks and pops between songs if you used a wave editor or ripped with Nero. Later editions have corrected this deficiency and you can now edit to your hearts content. I do stick with EAC, but Nero works fine.
Some minor quibbles: First, the interface basically sucks. Your file of songs begins with every one checked, and you must uncheck then add each song you want. Once you do, the same songs are still checked and you must repeat the process over and over. Ultimately I simply gave up and began arranging the music in a folder, renaming & renumbering once the songs were ordered to my liking. Would it be that tough to allow you to drag & drop from within the folder like you can with Nero 6?
Secondly, the software uses some potent antipiracy protcols to keep you from sharing the software. Okay, I don't plan to steat or sell it, but sometimes minor system changes register as hardware changes, requiring you to contact Emimius for a new key. They always respond promptly, but it's still a pain.
Lastly, the software doesn't integrate a burning suite. It merely creates the file which you must burn with some other app. Again, a very minor quibble, but I wish they'd have created a bundled, self contained app. The upshot, I suppose, is that you can burn with any program you like and don't have to pay for parts you don't need.
Okay, there's a reason I list all my complaints first. This software rocks! I consider myself a pretty serious audiophool- I've got about $10,000 USD in my main audio system. I can say that every aspect of the sound quality is improved, and most things dramatically. In some instances the Redbook layer sounds as good or better when "remastered" by Eximius than the SACD layer of the same disc. In almost every case, you can hear an incredible amount of details that are obscured in the CD version. So far everyone I've demoed the material for has preferred the Eximius DVD to the original Redbook CD.
The degree of improvement seems to vary with the original material, of course. Oddly, some mono material isn't improved much. But most things are improved remarkably. It can be hard to listen to a regular CD once you've heard it "remastered."
In a way I wish I knew what the software was "doing" to the music. It certainly doesn't seem to be an EQ of any type, and there's no real downside (ie no tradeoff, nothing that sounds better at the expense of another aspect sounding worse). Maybe it measures bad, I dunno. I'm the kinda guy that likes my music with no euphonic coloration (eg no tubes, digital > vinyl, etc), but whatever it's doing seems to just let the recording "get out of the way" of the music and just lets it breath.
The demo is free, so I urge anyone into music to give it a try. I'm not in any way associated with the company beyond being an enthusiastic customer.
I have just two caveats. One, many players don't work well with some recordable DVDs. Pioneer players seem to be the most bulletproof, in my experience, but you never know til you try. And two, once you hear it, you very well may have to copy all your CDs. It might ruin you for regular Redbook permanently.
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