Has anyone digitised their CD collection?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hawkeye said:
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....
Click to expand...

I listen to music alot but hardly ever from my own collection as there is no need due to music being so accessible, I just don't see the point in archiving an entire collection where most of it will never even get played.

I can remember my first CD, listen to it quite a bit but never in that format.
Anyway listening to music online etc gives you a world of delightful sounds you won't have ever bought or would have any intention doing so.

It's a great endless exploration.
 


Ben Gardner said:
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
Click to expand...

If you're going to spend all that money to get good sound, just buy a new cd player man. Even flac isn't as good as cd. If you want the sound to be pure but want the flexibility and lack of having to keep getting up to change the cd, you should rip as wavs or aiffs otherwise you're losing information in the rip.

A nas is just as likely to die as your pc's hard drive, so if youre planning on streaming over a network, using your existing pc is a lot cheaper than buying a new nas drive.

If you're wanting to back up your collection too, then by all means buy an external and have 2 copies of it all (bearing in mind the old warning "a backup at the same location isn't a backup") but a nas is very much NOT essential to a streaming setup, nor is an expensive streamer box if you already have a good tv, (which I'll guess you probably do if you've spent that much on hifi gear).

You're being advised to spend a lot of unneccessary money.

- rip CDs onto your computer using iTunes or other ripper
- install PLEX Media Server on your pc.
- buy Firestick for £25 and connect to your tv's hdmi port
- install PLEX on the Firestick
- connect TV audio output to hifi if it isn't already.
 
fyl2u said:
Even flac isn't as good as cd. If you want the sound to be pure but want the flexibility and lack of having to keep getting up to change the cd, you should rip as wavs or aiffs otherwise you're losing information in the rip.
Click to expand...

Uh? Surely FLAC is actually better than CD. It's a lossless format, so all of the info from the CD is retained, but because you rip to it rather than playing in realtime, the ripping process has a chance to re-read and correct any read errors on the CD.

Vinyl Score said:
The sound quality on Spotify is crap.
Click to expand...

This. Great for discovering new music but awful quality
 
Last edited:
I've got hard drive with 33782 mp3s, my PC has a Xonar Essence STX Soundcard this is plugged into my RCA ports in a now new Onkyo Amp through Mission speakers.

My PC is my Media Centre connected via HDMI to my TV playing movies and TV shows in SMPlayer.

The music of course is played in old school WinAmp...Let it rip!
 
gizmoganzee said:
I've got hard drive with 33782 mp3s, my PC has a Xonar Essence STX Soundcard this is plugged into my RCA ports in a now new Onkyo Amp through Mission speakers.

My PC is my Media Centre connected via HDMI to my TV playing movies and TV shows in SMPlayer.

The music of course is played in old school WinAmp...Let it rip!
Click to expand...

If you listened to them back to back you would be one sad bastard. :lol:
Was it you who mentioned WinAmp in a thread a while ago?
 
Look up Naim MuSo. I digitised the lot of my CDs & run them as FLAC through a NAS server & a MuSo. Wasn't cheap but beats any hifi I've had. You run it from your phone via an app. Massively recommended if you're willing to spend the £££.

Digitising the collection was no fun mind.
 
Roger said:
Uh? Surely FLAC is actually better than CD. It's a lossless format, so all of the info from the CD is retained, but because you rip to it rather than playing in realtime, the ripping process has a chance to re-read and correct any read errors on the CD.



This. Great for discovering new music but awful quality
Click to expand...


There's a bit of diminishing returns on this. FLAC vs CD = no difference to the ear unless you're trained & in a good room on good equipment. Mp3 320 vs CD isn't easy to hear but you can tell on decent kit. Anything below MP3 192 you might as well have on radio IMO.

gizmoganzee said:
I've got hard drive with 33782 mp3s, my PC has a Xonar Essence STX Soundcard this is plugged into my RCA ports in a now new Onkyo Amp through Mission speakers.

My PC is my Media Centre connected via HDMI to my TV playing movies and TV shows in SMPlayer.

The music of course is played in old school WinAmp...Let it rip!
Click to expand...

...I bet a few of these are nicked mind.
 
Thanks all.

Call me old fashioned but the thought of having to boot up my laptop AND a streamer AND a router AND switch on the amp is a right f***ing chew on.

Much rather just flick on a couple of boxes, choose the album and off we go.

Here man woman man, I still f***ing resent CDs, I was brought up on proper records. 7", 12" and LP!!!!
 
Did all of mine a few years ago, still buy cds as well as downloads & just keep it all upto date my hard drive has 68,600 :eek::) tracks on currently & aye ive got it all backed up on another HD just in case it went tits up ;)
 
Suomifinland said:
There's a bit of diminishing returns on this. FLAC vs CD = no difference to the ear unless you're trained & in a good room on good equipment. Mp3 320 vs CD isn't easy to hear but you can tell on decent kit. Anything below MP3 192 you might as well have on radio IMO.



...I bet a few of these are nicked mind.
Click to expand...
Sharesies between friends like...nee worries;)
 
Suomifinland said:
There's a bit of diminishing returns on this. FLAC vs CD = no difference to the ear unless you're trained & in a good room on good equipment. Mp3 320 vs CD isn't easy to hear but you can tell on decent kit. Anything below MP3 192 you might as well have on radio IMO.



...I bet a few of these are nicked mind.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by that? FLAC produces exactly (down to the bit) the same digital output as the original CD did, so it's impossible to discern a difference, because there isn't one.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top