Ripping and streaming

mihifi2023

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Apr 7, 2023
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Hi, new here, I have 3000 cds and maybe 100 or so LPs. All in boxes, l never play them as nowhere to put them. I want to rip them all to hard drive/SSD to stand next to an amp and drive loudspeakers. I like good sound in my vehicle and want to download the lot to a good portable player, eg, Astell & Kern which then goes into the head unit I have been tempted to buy a Brennan B2/B3, but put off by negative comments and the fact that l am no good with tech. Anyone out there with some good ideas of what l should buy? I always buy 2nd hand, Brennans are around, £400 2nd hand, for something foolproof maybe l could stretch to 1k for a ripper/ streamer 2kb?? Thanks, Graham
 

JustinTime

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Jan 18, 2023
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Hi, new here, I have 3000 cds and maybe 100 or so LPs. All in boxes, l never play them as nowhere to put them. I want to rip them all to hard drive/SSD to stand next to an amp and drive loudspeakers. I like good sound in my vehicle and want to download the lot to a good portable player, eg, Astell & Kern which then goes into the head unit I have been tempted to buy a Brennan B2/B3, but put off by negative comments and the fact that l am no good with tech. Anyone out there with some good ideas of what l should buy? I always buy 2nd hand, Brennans are around, £400 2nd hand, for something foolproof maybe l could stretch to 1k for a ripper/ streamer 2kb?? Thanks, Graham
Not a Brennan.
 
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Cool Dude Ted

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Oct 13, 2020
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CDs - DBPoweramp software. FLAC and/or MP3 files created from the CD. Copied onto hard drive and streamed from there (in my case, Raspberry Pi4)
Vinyl - been there, done that, wouldn’t do it again (i.e. convert to digital files) unless I had vinyl which couldn’t be obtained in CD/digital form.
 

glenhb

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Feb 3, 2019
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My system:-
Using a Lenovo Thinkcentre i5 PC running Windows 10 (little tiny thing only (16x3.5x18cm).
Rip CDs to FLAC files on the PC using Exact Audio Copy
Use MP3 Tag to correct any errors in tagging and album art.
Cambridge 851N network streamer used to access the FLAC files on the PC and play.
 
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Cable Monkey

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I have never used one but I would have thought the Bluesound Vault is a possible way to go. It is a supported product and should plug straight into your HiFi. You can put anything it doesn't recognise aside and concentrate on getting that properly id'd and tagged using other methods later. The vault is a little out of budget but if you buy new and it fails during heavy duty use it will be under warranty.
 

t1no

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Depending on how comfortable you are using a PC/laptop, I would recommend a robust external CD/DVD drive (not one of those flimsy portable ones) connected to a PC and some CD copying software like EAC (Exact Audio Copy) which is fairly easy to use. An external drive is an expendable item unlike some of the more expensive items listed earlier, so if it breaks after churning through 3000 CDs it’s no big loss. Once set up, be prepared to go through the mind numbing process of inserting and copying CDs and crossing your fingers that they have no damage which makes them difficult to read. Thankfully CD drives can rip at many times normal speed so you can do a CD in a couple of minutes. Times that by 3000.
 

t1no

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PS … if you are thinking of going down the Astell & Kern route, did you know they do their own CD ripper? It’s very expensive but looks easy to use and cool looking.

 

Lancslinn

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Mar 13, 2012
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Chris
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Bluesound Vault 2i or Innuos Zen Mini mk3
I use a Zen Mini mkiii and am very happy with It. It is coupled to an Akurate DS though. Ideally you would want an external power supply if you are going to use the internal DAC. Or get a secondhand Akurate DS.
 

Lawrence001

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Jul 21, 2015
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Lawrence
HiFi Trade?
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I have never used one but I would have thought the Bluesound Vault is a possible way to go. It is a supported product and should plug straight into your HiFi. You can put anything it doesn't recognise aside and concentrate on getting that properly id'd and tagged using other methods later. The vault is a little out of budget but if you buy new and it fails during heavy duty use it will be under warranty.
Do you know how the software compares to that in the Innuos Zen? In terms of metadata/album art and ease of changing it manually?
 

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