Download EAC from the official website (exactaudiocopy.de). During installation, let it install the if prompted; this helps with accuracy.

Exact Audio Copy is a powerful software tool that has revolutionized the way we create digital copies of audio CDs. Its advanced algorithms and techniques ensure that the copied audio is bit-perfect and error-free, making it an essential tool for music archiving, mastering, CD ripping, and audio restoration. With its free and open-source nature, EAC has become a popular choice among audio enthusiasts and professionals alike.

What sets EAC apart from standard media players like iTunes or Windows Media Player is its "Secure Mode." Standard rippers often ignore read errors caused by scratches or dust, simply interpolating the data to fill in the gaps. EAC takes a different approach. It reads every sector of a CD at least twice. If the results don’t match, it re-reads the data up to 80 times to ensure accuracy. If the data still can’t be verified, the software alerts the user exactly where the potential glitch occurred.

Most rippers just asked for data. EAC first demanded a precise "sample offset" correction. It knew that every CD drive starts reading a split-second too early or too late. EAC had a database of known drive offsets (and used a reference CD to calibrate yours). This ensured that the first sample of track 1 was exactly the first sample of the audio.