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Divorcing..Splitting the cd collection..

Unfortunately my wife and I are divorcing. We have about 1000 cd's of which we both cherish very much.
We know splitting up the collection will be very hard if not impossible.
I suggested ripping ,if that is the right terminology ,to some kind of music server unit and make two copies so we both could enjoy the entire collection.As you probable can tell my knowledge in this area is very limited..almost nil.
Does this seem possible?
I am retiring so will have lots of time.
Any suggestions ,direction or sites that could get me started will be very much appreciated.
I should add I do not want to go the cheapest route as we/I (maybe) have a decent system and enjoy music very much.
thefalls1117
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,533 posts
 
You probably have some ripping and burning softwear on your computer, if you have one. Let us know if you do.

My first bit of advice is to buy quality cd-rs (Taiyo Yuden - made in Japan [the Japan part is important] or MAM-A [Mitsui]). You can buy these in large quantities on line at good prices.

Once burned, store them in an opaque container. Light will destroy them over time.
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
I am sure you have a computer, buy a large external hard drive and download iTunes from Apple.com (free).

use a search engine to learn how to path your iTunes library to the hard drive (v easy actually, so don't sweat it), set your iTunes to rip all CD's to AppleLossless files.

Then, just start loading your CD's one at a time. iTunes will prompt you on all of it. Soon you will have all of your music in bascially the same format as your CD's. If you buy a good DAC to decode the files, it will sound every bit as good, or better, than any CD player.
lapierre
547 posts
 
LaCie network drive should allow you to save all your CD collection from your Mac or PC using iTunes or other ripping software. Then you can decide to provide the spouse with a duplicate copy or split the CDs.

Computer Audiophile is a good site to get you started.

Are you splitting up the stereo system?
rakuennow
81 posts
 
Since you stated you wanted to do this right, there's a couple things you should look into, and I'll list them here briefly:

1. A RAID storage, preferably network attached so it doesn't have to attach directly to your computer or player (they're noisy). Ex. Netgear ReadyNAS

2. A CD burner. Plextor is a good model, although any name brand would do (it's not important which one, as long as it works).

3. A CD ripping software. Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is, by consensus, the best one.

4. A music management software. There are many, both free and not free, although that isn't an indication of quality. Ex. ITunes, Foobar2000, J. Rivers, Media Monkey

5. USB/DAC to connect your laptop to your system.

So what do you do with all this? Easy, in one sentence: EAC rips the CD through the Plextor CD burner, then stores the music in .WAV or .FLAC lossless format into the ReadyNAS RAID storage device, which could be accessed by your music management software and played back through a USB/DAC.
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