Cd storage / backup

Music Vault from Neal @ Sound Science. 

I used a Mac computer to rip all my CD's to FLAC using xAct audio software.  I use a Google wireless network (3 piece) which employs a mesh network between its devices.  This is much better than traditional routers and extenders.
I copy all Flac files to NAS devices (wired) from my Mac.  From here I have another mac in my media room that runs Roon.  Roon does a great job of creating a library , getting content related to your media and presenting it.  

i have several systems running Roon compatible devices.  For critical listening I use an Auralic Aries and OPPO UDP-205 for lossless  and HI-RES playback.  For whole house and party mode I have several Sonos devices which also work with Roon.  The Roon software itself runs on any computer, tablet or smart phone.    

Bluesound vault II works very well.

Whatever you choose as a storage device have a second device of the same capacity as a backup. I helped manage personal computer systems for a large publishing company and part of that job was doing grief counseling for people who never backed up their work. It's not a question of whether a hard drive will fail, it's when it will fail. It will fail eventually.

My digital library is about the same size as yours would be, with the addition of a couple of thousand photographic images, and I have three backups. One is kept in a waterproof, fireproof safe that itself is inside a locked metal cabinet designed as a gun safe. Another is kept at my daughter's house. With an inexpensive program that does incremental backups, keeping current with the backups is a painless process.

You’ve gotten some good suggestions already. I could add to it as I have over 4000 CDs (in addition to the 20 Terabytes of flac/shn files stored on external drives). You can kill two birds with one stone, depending on how your CDs are currently stored. Most people use/need/want the fancy jewel case any store bought commercial CD would come in. If you sell your CDs as you plan terrific for you, but in all likelihood you wont find a buyer for all of them, unless your price is such that you’re practically giving them away. So.... throw out the jewel case and store them in 100 pack spindles, like this https://www.amazon.com/EMPTY-CAKE-SPINDLE-100-DISCS/dp/B0089Y6WPG Then, after ripping, retain them as "backup" to whatever hard drive you rip them to. Of course, store as a flac or shn, not wav. 500 CDs takes very little space, as in less than 400 Gig. Practically any external drive would suffice. Best of luck.

EDIT:

If accurate ripping is of utmost concern, you want to use this http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

+1 gdhal, I've got several boxes of my ripped CDs in my basement. I think I'll stack them on spindles, retaining the liner notes, and toss the jewel cases which are a giant PITA anyways. To add to that, reselling the CDs while retaining the ripped copy is unethical at best ( the artist does not get paid for his intellectual property) and technically illegal.  Ripping them to a hard drive is perfectly OK under the fair use doctrine which allows you to make copies for your own personal, non-commercial use but not to sell the original. 

I saw this a few days ago:
Acronova Nimbie USB Plus

I don't know if it's worth the cost but for those with huge CD collection, it may come in handy.

All the best,
Nonoise

Hi @bsimon,

I use and really like this system for storing CDs.
https://mmdesign.com/Music/cd-storage.php
Keeps the liner notes and the physical experience of looking through your library while saving A LOT of space. 

As for ripping everything, has anyone used The Brennan B2? It looks pretty rad:
http://www.thebrennan.com

And as others have said, ripping your library and selling the CDs is illegal and not nice to the artists. 

Cheers!

Hey All

I’m new to the forums. So - hello!
I personally have trepidation putting the master cd in a spindle. That might not be the best look. There is a high propensity they might get scratched. Yes I’m a firm believer in Murphy’s Law. 
My collection of cd’s probably averages 400 plus. 
I have purchased the booklets too store the cd and liner notes. The jewel cases neatly go in my closet. The cardboard sleeves are carefully placed in a credenza. I could not fathom selling my collection. Too much research. Definitely a emotional connection here. Though your mileage may vary. 

I’ve ripped most of my collection on a 2 terabyte SSD MacBook Pro. The laptop feeds the DAC via a mid range usb. The DAC preamp jumps to a integrated amp. All hardwired. Wireless is the future. I’m just not there yet 

I hope this info helped. - I’m still new to the crossover of laptop/servers as well. I think eventually I’ll go for the “Channel D - Pure Music” software  for Mac OS. 

Best of luck!!!

J

There is a high propensity they might get scratched.

Hi jred. Welcome to the forum!

If a disk is used often, the propensity to becoming scratched is always present, regardless of how it’s stored. Storage on a spindle becomes particularly viable in scenarios where one is "archiving" the media for backup, as the OP conceivably would do. For disks that are used regularly, naturally it can be more convenient if the disk is individually packaged in its jewel case.

As for aesthetics, that of course is a personal preference. If "art work" (booklet that accompanies the CD) is a necessity, obviously that too has to be dealt with accordingly and can to a certain extent dictate storage options.

Invariably though, the larger ones collection of CDs becomes, the more compelling it becomes to find a solution that does not involve jewel cases. In fact, at some level when ones collection grows into the many thousands, one can become compelled to get rid of CDs altogether and instead just store the data on an external drive, in a compressed and lossless format.

Point is, for those with seriously large music collections, physical space and scalability of space is definitely an issue to be reckoned with.

Not to muddy the thread by going off topic, but this is a big reason I don’t have/use vinyl albums but use digital in the first place. Space!

And for those with the "Crème de la crème" in audio - reel-to-reel tapes - where 30 minutes of music is on media larger than a frisbee, typically these folks have relatively few reels (and hence not much music) or they are extremely wealthy and have significant dedicated "library" space.

@gdhal 

Thank you for the welcome !!
I concur a 100% with your prior post. 

The reason I ripped practically my entire collection is because It was growing very rapidly. The second factor - As you mentioned. The more one plays a cd One is cruising to a slow death. 
By purchading a 2 terabyte, I knew I was off to a good start. 

Ideally I would want to burn the master the first time, then store it. I have a hunch this forum listens to some low key music, as well as the classics. 

I know now for a fact regarding many cds in my personal collection as well as members in this forum will never see the material repressed, streamed,  or cross over to a digital download. 

Hence. Preservation, and the convenience factor of going through a digital library saves time, etc. I’m sure you have heard all of these mentions before. 

Though——

By keeping the cds in a booklet. Carefully  stored. The chances of any damage is minuscule imo. That’s my inherent goal.

Friday!! Enjoy. 

2.5 K bit perfectly ripped CD into NAIM Uniti-Serve
Synology NAS with 2 x 4 TB drives in a raid 1 config
usb hard drive to back the raid up

The Bluesound is probably best bang for buck

If you're looking for a simple solution, Murfie.com can handle most aspects of this for you: https://www.murfie.com/send-collection