X-CDex

This portable version of the popular Cdex application will easily convert audio CD tracks to other, more accessible audio formats, such as WAV or MP3. This way, users save disk space while still retaining good audio quality for the ripped files. Featuring a coherent interface, it provides a bundle of useful conversion tools that are meant to help those who require a software solution for efficient ripping of CD tracks with advanced settings and support for audio database identification.

This CD converter comes with a straightforward interface that is packed with essential ripping features and it offers its conversion tools both in the form of contextual menus as well as in appealing, large buttons, for rapid access.

Inexperienced users might be pleased to hear that X-CDex will automatically detect the tracks on their CDs immediately after disc insertion. The program will list them with information about their number, size, duration, etc., therefore increasing the speed of the conversion process.

Although its interface looks somewhat conservative when accessing its menus, users will discover that it’s far from basic and if offers numerous conversion options together with many other useful additions such as an ID3 tag editor and CDDB access.

The application offers a plethora of conversion options and users will be able to choose from formats like WAV, MP3, OGG, VQF, APE etc. Accompanying its conversion functionality are other useful features such as its analog input recorder, file comparison feature or the genre editor.

X-CDex offers an included media player, for easy playback of the audio files, but its interface is crude and it doesn’t offer more than the basic playback commands or volume control.

Its conversion speed is adequate, but its other tools such as the CUE sheet generation or pre-gap detection utilities might and often will be very slow and cause the application to either freeze or, in the worst case, crash altogether.

X-CDex could be a decent choice for those users who require an efficient and consistent CD conversion utility, but it might not meet the expectations of demanding users, in terms of both functionality and stability. This portable version will perform its job adequately, but it might display rather slow performance in its extra features or occasional crashes and, to add to that, its lack of a proper documentation could be bothersome for novice users.