A to D to SACD to A: A Natural Progression?
I had a bunch of shelves to fit CDs and LPs built into the back wall of my rec room/listening room (click on my "All tube system" under system to see it), which uncluttered my rooms immediately. But I still collect a lot of ordinary redbook CDs and have got a lot that I listen to and love. I do not hate the sound as much as you seem to. I would build in some shelves along a wall, or add the bookshelf type racks that you can buy for CDs and LPs, or, if I really wanted to rid myself of them altogether, i guess look into one of the "tunebox" hard drive storage systems that some members here have written about in past threads. Linn has such a device and there are others. They are not cheap. Also, if the hard drive crashes, well, there goes your collection. |
Yes, take all the cd's that you only like one or two songs on and put them on your hard drive as wave files. Then you won't have to keep jumping up to change them every time songs come on that you don't like (which is a lot if you only like one or two songs). I have mine done that way and use a usb dac into my aux. input on my pre. You can down load a jukebox to store them all in on your computer for free and arange them by mood or style or anyway you want. The wave files sound as good as the cd's and the usb dac lets you bypass your sound card which will sound bad unless you have a really good one in your computer. You can get a cheap (but very good sounding)dac at stereolink.com but their are also lots of others in all price ranges. I use the stereolink for mine. |
What you suggest can be easily accomplished for about $2,300. Get an Apple iMac ($799), an Apogee Mini-Dac ($850 street price) and two OWC Mercury Elite 180Gb firewire hard disk ($340). The iMac will run the iTunes software, the Apogee has a USB I/O and a high quality DAC to connect to your preamp and a single 180Gb HD will store up to 300 CDs (use the 2nd HD as a backup drive). Hook up the iMac with an internet connection, start the supplied iTunes software and place a CD in the CD-ROM tray. Within 3-5 minutes the CD will be ripped onto your HD with the album info/song titles info. It will take you maybe 20 hours to fully rip 300 CDs. Once completed the iMac does not require an internet connection. iTunes has the ability to make multiple playlist so you will have enormous control over what music you want to hear. The sound quality will be approximately equal to a high end stand alone CD player. |
Onhwy61: Thank You!!! Exactly the advice I needed, and I can use the Mac for other things as well. I guess what I meant was: A to D to SACD to (SACD+A+HD). Reb1208: I am not an SCD-1 groupie, but I can't imagine its that bad on redbook and I think it sounds pretty good on a well recorded SACD. My Levinson didn't do it for me either. By the way, when can we do this just as easily with DVDs with good video performance? A high resolution movie jukebox! Now that would be cool. And also help me chuck more clutter. |
There is a company out that sells a easy to use all in one DVD ripper. They tried it out not long ago and said it makes exact copies. The only problem is that a lot of movies are to much data for one DVD. All computer DVD'r are the same size, a little over 4 gigs I think they said so some must be split to two DVD's. They said the program takes care of that for you. I guess this company brought out this program and filed a law suit against hollywood right off the bat under some fair use act or something like that. The tester was techtv.com which also has a cable channel for all things computer related. |
