EZ CD Audio Converter 13.2.1.1

EZ CD Audio Converter is a Windows app that does three jobs in one window: ripping audio CDs, converting between audio formats, and burning discs.

It is shareware, so the download here is a fully working 21-day trial and the software is paid after that.

Version 13.2.1.1 adds the Fraunhofer FDK xHE-AAC encoder and moves to FFmpeg 9.0.2, and the app itself is noticeably smaller than 13.1 was.

What You Actually Get for the Money

Three things, and it is worth being specific about them, because they are what the free tools in this category do not have.

The first is licensed Fraunhofer IIS encoders for AAC, HE-AAC v2 and xHE-AAC. The second is proper DSD support, encoding and decoding in both directions between DSD and PCM. The third is loudness normalization built to the EBU R 128 standard rather than bolted on.

Everything else it does, something free does too. That is not a criticism of the app, it is the honest shape of the decision, and the last section of this page names the alternatives.

Audio Quality, in Concrete Terms

The audio engine is 64-bit floating point, and every codec runs in high-resolution mode at 32-bit float or better, so conversions do not pick up extra quantization noise on the way through.

Bit-depth reduction uses RPDF, TPDF or noise-shaped dithering, whichever you pick. The sample rate converter handles anything from 8 kHz up to 3072 kHz, and lossless formats go to 64-bit if you have a source that needs it.

Conversions are bit-exact where the formats allow it, and gapless playback survives the trip, which matters on live albums and classical sets more than on anything else.

Formats It Reads

Effectively everything with audio in it. Lossless in FLAC, ALAC, APE, WavPack, TAK, TTA, Shorten and WAV variants including Wave64 and RF64; lossy in MP3, MP2, MP1, AAC, HE-AAC, xHE-AAC, Opus, Vorbis, Musepack, Speex, AMR, WMA and Real Audio.

High-resolution sources are covered too, including DSF, DFF, DXD and SACD ISO images. On the surround side it reads AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, DTS-HD and TrueHD.

It also pulls audio straight out of video files, so MKV, MP4, M4V, AVI, MOV, MPG, VOB, M2TS, FLV, WebM and DivX all work as sources. Cue sheets are read with sample-exact accuracy, which is the part that matters if you keep albums as a single file plus a CUE.

Formats It Writes

Metadata and album art carry through conversion rather than being dropped, and output folders and filenames can be built from metadata tags, which is the difference between a converted library and a folder of numbered files.

How the CD Ripper Works

The ripper reads each disc with error detection and a two-pass, sector-by-sector CRC verification, so a track that came off the disc badly is flagged rather than quietly written out with a click in it.

It also handles the fiddly parts of the CD standard that cheaper rippers skip. Sample offset correction aligns tracks properly for your specific drive, pre-gaps and pre-emphasis are detected and dealt with automatically, and CD-Text, ISRC codes and the UPC or EAN barcode are preserved rather than discarded.

HDCD discs are detected and ripped at their full 20-bit resolution. Every rip writes a log describing the disc and any errors found, which is the thing you want six months later when a track sounds wrong and you cannot remember whether the disc was scratched.

Worth reading alongside this: CDs are selling again and your laptop probably cannot read one, because an external USB drive is now the first thing most people need before any of this applies.

Loudness Normalization

This is the feature that separates 13.x from older versions, and from most of the free competition.

Alongside standard ReplayGain, the app does EBU R 128 loudness metering with two algorithms: Integrated, which uses the overall average loudness, and Top of Loudness Range, which bases the adjustment on the louder sections instead. The second one is the better choice on albums with quiet passages that a simple average would push too far up.

There is a peak limit from 0.0 down to -6.0 dB, set against either sample peak in dB FS or true peak in dB TP. True peak estimates the peaks that occur between samples, which is what actually clips a DAC even when the samples themselves look fine.

What Changed in 13.2

• Fraunhofer FDK xHE-AAC encoder added, alongside the existing Fraunhofer AAC and HE-AAC encoders.
• FFmpeg updated to 9.0.2, which brings updated decoders for various media formats plus new AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS and TrueHD encoders.
• Improved Discogs metadata parsing, with better handling of complex releases and multi-disc sets.
• The output format selection list was reworked, after 13.0.4 already taught it to scroll on high-DPI displays.
• Everything recompiled and re-optimised. All encoders, decoders and metadata handlers were rebuilt, cutting both the installed size and the memory footprint noticeably.
• Bugfixes: the in-app help link, an icon error in the main window after deleting album art, and a Microsoft Store icon problem.

What Changed in 13.2

If you are coming from 13.0 rather than 13.1, this is the release that added the loudness work described above.

• EBU R 128 Top of Loudness Range mode and the peak limit setting, with the sample peak and true peak options.
• Discogs search accuracy improved, including ignoring disambiguation numbers so that "Artist (2)" matches "Artist", and better track list parsing around headings and bonus tracks.
• Window and layout positions can now be saved for the Audio Converter, the CD Ripper and the File Explorer column layout.
• All 35 language files updated, along with the English template, and the installer gained an option to launch the app when it finishes.

What You Need to Run It

• Windows 10 or later. Support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 ended with version 13.0, so an older machine needs an older build.
• A 64-bit version of Windows. The 32-bit build was discontinued at 13.0 and is not coming back.
• An optical drive, if you want the ripping or burning half rather than just the converter.
• Nothing else. The Universal C Runtime was dropped from the installer because Windows 10 and later ship it as a core component.

Legacy Windows ACM codec support was also retired at 13.0, which only matters if you had an ancient third-party ACM codec doing something the app now handles natively.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

The clearest tell is your format list. If nothing you own is DSD, SACD ISO or xHE-AAC, and you are not normalising loudness across a library, you are paying for three features you will not open.

In that case the free options cover it. fre:ac is the closest free equivalent, ripping CDs and converting between the common formats with a batch queue and metadata lookup.

Exact Audio Copy is the free choice when ripping accuracy is the whole point, and CDex still works well for straightforward MP3 and FLAC rips although it has been dormant since 2020.

For conversion without any CD involvement, BatchEncoder handles queued batch jobs and FFMPEG Audio Encoder brings every encoder it needs inside the download.

If you only want one or two files done, the site's own Online Audio Converter does it in the browser with nothing to install.

The second tell is that you already pay for something similar. dBpoweramp Music Converter is the direct paid rival here and covers overlapping ground, so running both is money spent twice.

The third tell is a single-format job. FLAC Frontend wraps the FLAC tools if FLAC is all you ever touch.

exhale is worth knowing about for the same reason: it is the standalone Extended HE-AAC encoder that EZ CD Audio Converter bundles a version of, and it is free.

For disc audio specifically, eac3to pulls HD audio off Blu-rays, and FAAD2 and FAAC are the open-source AAC pair if you would rather not use a licensed encoder at all.

Quick questions

Where It Sits

This is the paid, high-fidelity end of the Audio Encoders category, and the burning half overlaps with the Burning Tools section if discs are what you came for.

It converts and tags but does not edit waveforms, so cutting, fading and repairing belong in Audio Editors. Organising the library once it is ripped is a job for Media Managers.

Two more worth knowing about: Audiograbber is the long-serving free ripper for simple MP3 and WAV jobs, and Free CD to MP3 Converter still rips although it can no longer look up track names.

The full feature list and the release-by-release changelog are on Poikosoft's own site, in the software details page and the version history.

Download EZ CD Audio Converter 13.2.1.1 and try it for 21 days, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.