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Greetings,
I've been thinking about ripping my CD collection onto a hard drive(s) to be able to easily access and play my music collection and I have a few basic questions regarding setup and gear.
First question is one that I'm most curious about and one that I must confess the most ignorant about, there are many formats available (AIFF, FLAC, WAV, etc...), my intention is to rip the CDs onto a HDD with as little to no manipulation to maintain its original integrity, no down or upsampling, no compression, no manipulation. Is this the preferred way or is my thinking flawed?
I also have a sizeable collection of SACD that I'd also like to rip onto a HDD along with my standard redbook CD and HDCD. I'm also looking into downloading hi-res (DSD) music. I'll need software to manage the collection and all of it's varied file formats, a friend suggested I look into Channel D (Pure Music) and Audirvana. Ease of access, convenience and archival storage are the main reasons why I'm beginning this endeavor and being able to access the music server via smartphone & tablet would be a plus.
Third question pertains to gear. I am of the tribe that less is more when it comes to my audio setup, and like to keep the signal chain to a minimum. My setup currently consists of a CD player and turntable into a integrated amp. This basic setup has served me well and I'd like to incorporate the server as seamlessly as possible. With my limited knowledge I think I'll need a server, software and a DAC (and associated cabling).
Guidance and advice would be most appreciated, thanks.
Follow Ups:
I got into CD ripping and hi-rez digital nearly three years ago, but I still feel like a beginner. If you want to get your feet wet without spending any money there are freeware programs available for ripping CDs and streaming digital from your PC to your DAC. That's how I got started and I've never felt the need to actually spend money on software for ripping and streaming digital. I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for ripping and Foobar2000 for streaming digital to my DAC. Therefore, I would recommend getting started with freeware to gain some experience before buying any software.After about a year of streaming from a PC computer, I decided I wanted to eliminate the computer entirely. I discovered the OPPO BDP-105D Universal Digital Player from reading about it here in the Audio Asylum and it looked like the perfect solution for me since I had my audio and video systems combined into one. The OPPO BDP-105D will play virtually everything digital including DVDs, blu-ray discs, CDs and SACDs. Additionally, it has three USB A ports to connect USB hard drives and/or flash drives containing digital music up to 24/192 PCM and DSD(2.8-MHz). It also contains the necessary software for streaming Netflix, Pandora, and a number of other internet media sources. It has become the heart of my audio/video entertainment system . You might want to check it out.
Best regards,
John Elison
Stay with what your familiar with - Windows. Download the trial version of J River Media to manage the music. Download dbpoweramp and Rip 15 or so CDs in FLAC format. Connect laptop to preamp via the simplest way possible, either by headphone to RCA cord or DAC to preamp. Spend some time just messing around, getting a feel for PC audio in general. Believe me, you'll catch on fast and start seeing the benefits in no time. The purchasing of the right DAC will end up being your most important step, but that's for later...
Since you are a Windows user I would suggest no longer listening to your friend (he/she recommened two MAc-only programs). :)You have several projects. Since you mention SACD ripping and hirez downloads you ought to look at DSD-capable DACs. There are hundreds; I have been involved with the DSD database, so look there for candidates at any budget level.
Second, those SACDs don't rip normally. You need a hacked older out of production PS3. We can discuss this offline (I wrote a guide several years ago); send me an email.
Third, your cd collection can easily be ripped using one of several products; I like dbPoweramp. It's like $40.
Fourth, hirez (PCM and DSD) files are larger than cd/redbook and will fill up a hard drive quickly. You might want to invest in a NAS (multiple discs, RAID failover, available to anyone on your home LAN, etc). I like Synology but there are others.
Window-based software players are mostly differentiated by their GUI features, although a few are meant for hard core folks looking to squeeze the last few % of sound quality (those include HQplayer, which although great-sounding, is not a player I'd recommend for the new user, currently, until Roon integration or a few months of user knowledge/experience). Of these GUI-friendly players the two that are most popular are JRiver and Foobar (with Roon catching up). I developed two 20 minute screencast videos for setting up JRiver, if interested.
I'd stick with uncompressed FLAC (not 0 setting, that is still compressed)
which is available in dbPoweramp. It has the merits of FLAC (lossless, full ID3V2 tagging that travels well to any player in Windows, unlike Wav, which can be problematic with some players tag reading) and yet has no compression artifacts (which some folks claim they can hear).Finally, I'd ask to move this thread to computer audio since it has more to do with that than SACD tech.
More questions but will wait on your comments....
This is starting to become a bit overwhelming and probably the reason why I just stuck to spinning CDs & vinyl for so long. I think I need to start by getting familiar with all of the different music file formats & equipment before I can make an informed decision. Is there a database that you can point me towards? Thx.
Does this help?
Let me offer my beginner's advice, since I'm a beginner too. JeffH gave good advice. Mine is a little different.
If you have a rather large SACD collection, then I would suggest not converting it to PCM. Use a DSD player. Converting DSD to PCM would be a last resort for me.
I don't think there is anything wrong with a beginner starting off with a beginner system. The Sony HAP-Z1ES is a superb beginner system. It plays DSD, and converts PCM to DSD on the fly. Hi-res PCM and RBCD sound great on this player. It's the best CD player I've ever heard. It beats my $4K vinyl front end in many ways. It's not easy for me to write that. The ES supports up to a 10T external USB hard drive. It's easy to use. It's less is more just like you were asking. You just replace your CD player with it. Plug it right into your integrated.
Some inmates will dog Sony. I'm sure they have good reasons, and it's their right, but it doesn't change the fact that the ES is a very fine sounding DSD player. It retails for $2K but I got mine new unopened for $1.5K from a discount retailer. You would have to be a good DIYer to beat it for that.
Try not to get overwhelmed. I have to try. Let some of the more esoteric stuff you read go for later. Not having stacks of records and CDs laying around rocks.
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Consider JRiver for PC.
I prefer .wav files. Less for the cpu to do during playback. I have no tagging problems using dbpoweramp for Cds and VinylStudio for Lps.
Do you use WAV files with ID3 tags or uncompressed FLAC?
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I use wav files. All I want is the album name, artist name, track number, track name and artwork. I get that when I rip to wav using dbpoweramp. Usually I get more: year, genre.
I don't know if the ID3 standard contains more data than that.
1 The crucial thing is that the format is lossless.
This allows you to convert to any other lossless format without loss.
WAV has some severe tagging issues:
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/WAV_KB.htm
2 Obvious you are on a Mac.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/OSX/Players.htm
3 The cheapest one is a Y-cable (3.5 > 2 x RCA)
Probably not the best solution but dirt cheap, gets you started
If the receiver has a Toslink input you can give it a shot as all Mac's have Toslink out
A asynchronous USB dac is the next step
Personally I don't believe in "servers" as they are PC's anyway but far more expensive.
Success!
desktop PC running Windows, not a Mac.
Audirvana and Pure Music are Mac only
Hence I thought you are OSX based
Maybe your friend has some more suggestions :)
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