Bluesound Vault 2

Peporter
I sold of my analog rig but still had a few albums left that I used as a support for my Vault2 on my equipment rack.  It made the Vault2 sound more holographic 😀
  on a more serious note, the only way to add vinyl to the Vault2 would be to make a digital version of lps and then play them back from your HD via the Vault2.
To digitalization lps, there are many Phono stages or turntables on the market that off usb outputs, and there is free software to edit.  You can then use the Bluesound Software to create a playlist of your digitalized lps.  

I have a Vault 2i - I find that ripping take 6-7 minutes per CD, with the exception that some of my 24k gold masters seem to rip slightly faster and really scratched or scuffed CD's can take longer. But the average is definitely around 7 minutes. I am ripping to WAV, I believe FLAC would be similar - FLAC may take longer due to the compression involved? In retrospect, I would have chosen FLAC due to its inherent better tag management and reduction in size. But I chose WAV as the purest, rawest form of storage.

The rip is supposed to be very good - bit perfect. I have also found that some CD's are whisper quiet while others are noisy as heck while ripping. Looking at some of the data generated, it appears that this is because of jitter and things like that - where the CD is out of round, or other problems with production.

Keep in mind that all of these CD's play perfectly fine in my car and home CD players, which means that a CD player is able to "rip" these on the fly without any perceptible flaws. So the end result from the Vault is probably pretty good if it is spending this much time with it.

I have a LARGE CD collection from 30 years in the radio industry, and many of them as a music director. I have some impressive collectible CD's and some of them are irreplaceable. 

On one hand, I find it a bit time consuming, but on the other hand I hope that I am getting high quality rips of these cd's.

One VERY POSITIVE aspect of this is that I am now able to take these files and move them to any format, including thumb drives, and backup my files and I should no longer have to worry about my CDs deteriorating - which some of them are starting to do as oxygen enters the sides of the plastic and causes the aluminum to oxidize. My 24k gold CDs are not experiencing this of course. Also, some of the CDs have become very brittle with one of them breaking in two when I tried to remove it.

I also want to be able to free up the tremendous amount of space that these CDs take up in my home.

I have not tried to rip and play a CD at the same time, but you can play other songs that are ripped while you are ripping another CD.

Also, I believe you can import vinyl but I am not certain of the logistics there. I will say that Bluesound has a very robust and competent help forum and Tony W. is an excellent resource if you have questions. Honestly I do not know how they do such a good job of customer support - they are quick to answer and very helpful. I'm fairly impressed with the company.

THAT SAID, this is definitely a work in progress. The hardware is pretty solid. The software is rough around the edges. There are some un-intuitive menu items, and some things don't work how they should. And the app/program isn't very graphical. It is kind of like DOS or a command line based program rather than a GUI. 

But software can by updated, the hardware is pretty good. Lots of options for connectivity and I'm not knowledgeable about DACs and whether this is a good one or not. I have tried to find out more about it, but it is suspiciously difficult to find out details about the DAC - I suspect that means that it is not something they are wanting to put out in the open.

However, I am learning that compared to other equipment in this genre, that you get a lot of hardware for the money and it compares favorably to equipment that costs four or five times the money. Definitely a neat way to enter into the high end of this technology without spending a fortune.

I have posted a lengthy review and comment followups on Amazon.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RK3JMDHTGNVYO/

I love my Vault 2i.... amazing what it can do.   It has great sound quality and convenience.  I also have it connected to my DAC but it sounds good in it's own right .    It's like the Swiss Army Knife of digital playback.   Bi directional Blutooth is a great feature too.   Today I used it to play my Magnum Dynalab tuner in another room via Blutooth.   Tonight I' m streaming Tidal .   It's an awesome machine that does everything and sounds great.  

Hello, I am considering to buy Vault 2i. I would like to use it as CD player too. But not sure if this is possible. Is it possible to use it as CD player (not to rip the cd, just play it)? thx for your help

Vault 2 cd drive is designed to rip cd’s only. While streaming quality is very good without an external DAC, the files stored on its internal drive sounds flat and dull to my ears. I highly recommend an external DAC if plan to playback ripped files.