2. pc-audio
  3. 119532-70365

Going to rip 2000 cds. Which software?

At 63 years old I've decided it's finally time to make the move to a digital library.  I've spent hours and hours on this forum reading about servers, streamers, music servers, nas systems and modded Mac Minis.  I'm more than confused.  I'm pretty much ready to just buy a new transport and be done with it. 

But.... I play "cuts."  I hardly ever play an entire record or cd and would like the ability to choose what's playing from the couch.

I know that the first step is ripping cds.  I have a couple of questions;

1.  Which software should I use?  I am concerned about speed and indexing.  I'm a jazzhead and have quite a few recordings by the same artists that have recorded multiple versions of the same tune.  I want to make sure they are indexed properly.  I would also like a program that doesn't take all day to make a copy.

2.  I can use either Mac or PC.  I would prefer Mac but would use a PC if it is more future proof.  I have a Macbook Air and a PC laptop and both have dual 2 terrabyte external drives.

3. I would also consider a Music Server with a nas rig.

If I do a music server with nas I'd like to keep the price around $2000.

Thanks to all of you.

--Bob


jzzmusician

Showing 1 response by rbstehno

rbstehno
1,406 posts
 
I have been doing this for years using Mac mini's. I would suggest using either XLD or MAX.
I configure the bit rate to a higher rate. I have used a few different playback software application (audirvana, pure music, others) and I prefer Audirvana 2.X with their iPad app to control playing music. I configure the ripping to store the music in AIFF format in iTunes, but I don't use the integrated iTunes mode in Audirvana. In Audirvana, I can have multiple disks/folders containing iTunes files, flac files, wav files, and Audirvana can read all of them. IMO, I think dedicated music servers are way over rated and way over priced for what they do. Remember the Sooloos system, all it was good at was displaying content. If you want something similar, check out roon. The problem with what I see with roon is that it doesn't sound as good compared to other well known playback software. Also I would stay with Macs using a Mac mini. To get better quality playback, don't hook up hard disks to your Mac mini. Purchase either a NAS device or hook these hard drives to a remote server so your music server won't have any disk drive noise or vibrations coming from these external disks nor will they compete on the same bus that connects to your external dac.
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