Has anyone digitised their CD collection?

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Ben Gardner said:
And that's not some sort of geeky euphemism.

CD player has given up and I realise I have to "go fully digital" which apparently means converting my c. 400 CDs to 16-bit FLAC (better than MP3, allegedly), then transfer said files to a NAS drive.

That's not enough, I then have to buy a f***ing "streamer" to pull the digital FLAC files from NAS drive and covert them to analog sound to push through to me amp.

Am I over-complicating this or is it always a genuine f***ing chew on?

I've learned a whole new language of acronyms in the last day or two, and I'm none the wiser.

Any tips or advice? And yes, I've already formatted the fucker.

NB: I'm not simply replacing the CD player with another one as it won't be long before I move abroad and would rather take a couple of boxes than the whole CD collection. Also, I like "easy access" to my tunes instead of piss-farting around with them jewel-boxes.
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Started to but then Spotify happened.
 
Get that Brennan thingy: "Stores 1100 FLAC or 5000 MP3 CDs (Add speakers and Bluetooth separately)

Price - GBP469.00

Postage - £10.00
Total - £479.00"
 
Have been through your pain.... have some 500+ cd's.. not to mention vinyl etc, which soon mounts up!

Ignore the idiots suggesting usb sticks etc... you only want to do this once.... will take a bit of time, but things are not that difficult these days as many of the ripping softwares will look up all the details etc etc....

I first ripped my cd's as the best quality mp3...... then heard about flac... flac is unquestionably better if you actually listen to music - if you just want crap to play on your walkman, phone etc, then going to flac is a waste of time..... if you want to play it through a decent setup then flac is the ONLY way to go.... what's more I would recommend investing the $35 for the DBPoweramp software - you plug in a cd to your computer, it looks up all the album and track details, plus album art, then rips it all to whatever format you want, namely flac.... and it will batch convert to any other format - such as mp3... so you can get a "portable" version of your music too....

Sadly, you will need lots of disk and yes a NAS is essential, coz you don't want to loose the files once they're ripped! I use a Synology NAS which I've found the best - especially for music stuff... although it will do lots more... safe place for your photos.... will run web and ftp server stuff etc etc.... but these days, well probably £150 for a NAS or so... plus another £100 for a couple of disks, depending on size..... and you want to "raid" them together to give you complete redundancy against failure......

Took me about 6 weeks to rip my entire collection......

Streamer?.... yes, well if you're running an amp and speakers then you need some way of getting the music to it..... I use a Cambridge Audio one,,, think Pioneer to a good one too... but I also have an old Archos portable box that does the same using UPnP - which is/was included in the Synology setup... costs, well Archos was about £80 ages ago.... the CA was about £400!.... think the Pioneer was in the middle... have a look on the what-hifi web site for what is the current best....

Other advantage after you have it all together is that you can go to something like a Sonos and stick it anywhere in the house and then stream music to it..... I have one in the kitchen.... but then you take it out in the garden or garage if you fancy some tunes out there.....
 
Hawkeye said:
I first ripped my cd's as the best quality mp3...... then heard about flac... flac is unquestionably better if you actually listen to music - if you just want crap to play on your walkman, phone etc, then going to flac is a waste of time..... if you want to play it through a decent setup then flac is the ONLY way to go.... what's more I would recommend investing the $35 for the DBPoweramp software - you plug in a cd to your computer, it looks up all the album and track details, plus album art, then rips it all to whatever format you want, namely flac.... and it will batch convert to any other format - such as mp3... so you can get a "portable" version of your music too....
Click to expand...
Forgot to say that I use Exact Audio Copy to rip my CDs. As well as downloading the album details, it has various error detection/correction thingys in it to prevent glitches and deal with slight scratches. Does DBPoweramp do that as well nowadays?
 
Hawkeye, thanks for taking the time to type all that, I do appreciate it.

I'm not a snob but I am conscious about how compressed MP3s are and, as you say, fine for walkmans and phones... but I've spent probably £2k in total on amp, speakers and multi-strand cabling to ensure the best sound is possible (for the budget).

Although the Brennan machine is uniquely clever, it looks shit. My hifi gear is situated below the telly so it's seen much more than it's heard. Hence the wa arming towards the Pioneer NP-01 but I realise it will need a NAS.

QUESTION: would a NAS be better connected via Ethernet and server or straight into the streamer via USB?
 
Rip to FLAC with (FREE) Foobar2000. Store on whatever (harddrive, usbs) with backup. Play on PC with Foobar2000 either using the computers DAC or a better standalone DAC or DAC equipped Amp. Sell your CDs on Discogs to pay for the DAC (if you choose that upgrade)

The sound quality on Spotify is crap.
 
Pants said:
Forgot to say that I use Exact Audio Copy to rip my CDs. As well as downloading the album details, it has various error detection/correction thingys in it to prevent glitches and deal with slight scratches. Does DBPoweramp do that as well nowadays?
Click to expand...
Hi Pants... I tried EAC initially but found it a little difficult to set up back then..... DBPoweramp provides various error "modes"..... from memory, ultra secure ( re-rips about 8 times and compares rips for differences - and compares something like checksum from other rippers for whether it's right or not - I think!), and a couple of others, so that you can eventually rip anything regardless of scratches etc...

Ben Gardner said:
Hawkeye, thanks for taking the time to type all that, I do appreciate it.

I'm not a snob but I am conscious about how compressed MP3s are and, as you say, fine for walkmans and phones... but I've spent probably £2k in total on amp, speakers and multi-strand cabling to ensure the best sound is possible (for the budget).

Although the Brennan machine is uniquely clever, it looks shit. My hifi gear is situated below the telly so it's seen much more than it's heard. Hence the wa arming towards the Pioneer NP-01 but I realise it will need a NAS.

QUESTION: would a NAS be better connected via Ethernet and server or straight into the streamer via USB?
Click to expand...

don't wanna brag, but got about £8K in my system.. when I compared the best mp3 with flac on that I could clearly hear the difference (as opposed to those that say otherwise!..)....

Problem with the Brennan, and I've seen others, is that you get tied into their systems... and they charge you a fortune for what is simply generic computing at the end of the day.... Olive used to do something similar..
This is a good site to see the variety of stuff: ... https://www.ripcaster.co.uk and no, I'm not necessarily recommending them!.... :)

As per your question..... it's a lot different than streaming video, which has huge bandwidth issues..... streaming flac, mp3, whatever as music files is well withing the normal "modern" wi-fi speeds... b/g/n... I stream flac around the house over wifi and never have any problems...... Nas is directly attatched to the router....

Happy to answer any questions!.... I've been through it... and happy to pass the info along!....

Cheers!
 
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Cheers fella.

So, EAC is free ripping software but is difficult to set up. DBPoveramp, is that also free? I've looked after my CDs and pretty confident they won't need ripping more than twice. I 'get' error correction, now.

I also understand harmonics so appreciate the importance of higher frequencies n that. Although my eyesight is shit, my hearing compensates for that and I'm confident I'll notice the difference, too.

My sound system is 7.1 with a great sub-woofer so I look forward to hearing the difference at volume.

Didn't realise Brennan was a subscription service for the GUI, that makes it untenable for me.

I asked about feeding the music to streaming machine (and then amp and speakers) via Ethernet simply because the only USB input on the Pioneer NP-01 is on the front. Aesthetically, it's better in the rear (if you'll pardon the expression)

So far, I'm seeing ...
  • Rip CDs on to laptop using EAC or similar
  • Transfer all files to NAS
  • Plug NAS into router / server thing
  • Plug that into streamer (currently the £209 Pioneer)
  • Toslink optical cable into amp
Is that about right?

Thanks in advance
BG
 
Hawkeye said:
Have been through your pain.... have some 500+ cd's.. not to mention vinyl etc, which soon mounts up!

Ignore the idiots suggesting usb sticks etc... you only want to do this once.... will take a bit of time, but things are not that difficult these days as many of the ripping softwares will look up all the details etc etc....

I first ripped my cd's as the best quality mp3...... then heard about flac... flac is unquestionably better if you actually listen to music - if you just want crap to play on your walkman, phone etc, then going to flac is a waste of time..... if you want to play it through a decent setup then flac is the ONLY way to go.... what's more I would recommend investing the $35 for the DBPoweramp software - you plug in a cd to your computer, it looks up all the album and track details, plus album art, then rips it all to whatever format you want, namely flac.... and it will batch convert to any other format - such as mp3... so you can get a "portable" version of your music too....

Sadly, you will need lots of disk and yes a NAS is essential, coz you don't want to loose the files once they're ripped! I use a Synology NAS which I've found the best - especially for music stuff... although it will do lots more... safe place for your photos.... will run web and ftp server stuff etc etc.... but these days, well probably £150 for a NAS or so... plus another £100 for a couple of disks, depending on size..... and you want to "raid" them together to give you complete redundancy against failure......

Took me about 6 weeks to rip my entire collection......

Streamer?.... yes, well if you're running an amp and speakers then you need some way of getting the music to it..... I use a Cambridge Audio one,,, think Pioneer to a good one too... but I also have an old Archos portable box that does the same using UPnP - which is/was included in the Synology setup... costs, well Archos was about £80 ages ago.... the CA was about £400!.... think the Pioneer was in the middle... have a look on the what-hifi web site for what is the current best....

Other advantage after you have it all together is that you can go to something like a Sonos and stick it anywhere in the house and then stream music to it..... I have one in the kitchen.... but then you take it out in the garden or garage if you fancy some tunes out there.....
Click to expand...

How many of those do you actually listen to?
 
joemcdokes said:
How many of those do you actually listen to?
Click to expand...
Sorry... but I'm rather mystified by the question?.....
I can remember the first album I ever bought.... and probably name the next 3 or 4 after that... with full track listings!.... I listen to a wide variety of music.... some to just ease me through the day, but then some I listen to over and over and that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.... some old, some new... depends what I'm in the mood for... and who is with me at the time....
Sounds to me like you really don't "listen" to music if you ask a question like that...... no offense....
 
Upload all the FLAC files to drop box. Safe and can stream directly from there. Keep a copy a USB stick. Chromecast Audio connected to your amp would do the job.
 
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