To those with Digital Libraries - Some Questions...

I first got involved with digital audio and video files professionally in the early 90's but my primary source of digital music was CD based until the Covid lockdown when I purchased a Brennan B2 and ripped my entire catalog. I subsequently started downloading files from Qobuz but I still purchase CDs from Discogs (used) and Amazon (new), depending on availably of the versions I want and the cost (it makes little sense to me that I can have a new CD delivered for less than the cost of an equivalent download but sometimes it is). I've recently upgraded my digital player to an Eversolo T8. Before copying my files to an internal drive in the T8 I cleaned up the metadata with Mp3TAG so that I could sort consistently across the library. I now use XLD to rip files from CDs and then clean up the metadata in Mp3TAG before copying them over to the T8 drive. When I purchases files from Qobuz I download three versions of the files: FLAC for the T8; ALAC for my Apple devices and WAV as a backup incase I need to convert to some other format in the future.  I also maintain a backup of all files on a Western Digital desktop drive.

I started to build my local collection around 20 some odd years ago.  I transferred several hundred LPs and open reels to digital over the course of several years and also ripped many CDs.  I've bought only a few downloads, mostly off of Bandcamp which is a great source for Indy and less common stuff (Tuba Skinny anyone?). The local stuff is kept on my Qnap NAS. I use Wiim and Raspberry Pi streamers for playback.  I also use Qobuz.for streaming.  My biggest recommendation is to carefully check the album and song tags as you create the digital files. That's the key to having good access to a large collection (my local library is around 65,000. tracks.). Going back to fix bad tags after the fact is a real headache.  I also keep 2 offline backups on external hard drives. 

I move around a lot so file portability is king for me.  Make sure the format you use to rip discs will work for every player you might use.  Reformatting them can be a pain.  I use sd cards in my cars.  The cars can be really picky about the format.  I spent a solid week camped out at the computer ripping my discs.  Just sleeping and putting discs in and out pretty much.  lol  I only have about 700 discs.

Anybody got an interesting story about ripping all those discs?

Ripping takes time.  You get to physically own each CD you rip. 
 

Streaming is fast and easy once it’s set up initially.  You get to own a library but not the recordings. 
 

 

 

@jbhiller 

How do you like get your media? Purchase/Rip

I started off by ripping my CDs.  That was before streaming services existed, and before you could purchase flac files.  When I learned about ponomusic.com (went belly up), I started purchasing flac files.  Then I started purchasing from 7digital.com

How do you store them and access them? 

I store my flac files on my laptop's internal SATA SSD.

It is a ~10 year old i5 laptop, purchased just around the time that NVMe SSDs were becoming all the rage.  But for feeding flac file data to my DAC, that i5 laptop with a SATA SSD was overkill.  I use that laptop for nothing else.

I access my flac files via JRiver's Media Center.

I love that program.  But in the spirit of full disclosure, I have an old version.  JRiver was constantly releasing new versions.  After paying for several upgrades, I realized that I was using nothing new in the upgrades.  I am mentioning this, because I cannot vouch for JRiver's current Media Center version.  But I suspect that it is probably very good.

What have you learned that you wish you learned sooner? 

USB is not a good choice for streaming from a computer to a DAC.  I did it for years, and it sounded very good.  But after going the AES/EBU route, there is no going back.

So my laptop feeds a re-clocking box, via USB, and the re-clocking box feeds my DAC, via AES/EBU.  That was an expensive upgrade, between the re-clocker and the AES/EBU cable.

Like everything in life, prices are all over the place.  The better re-clockers cost more.  The better AES/EBU cables cost more.

One other item I learned, before the re-clocker upgrade:

My laptop was connected directly to my DAC via a mass produced USB cable.  It brought my stereo to its knees.  I replaced that mass produced USB cable with an Audioquest USB cable, and my stereo rewarded me with eargasms.  The re-clocker took the wonderful sound quality to the next level.

The last box that feeds your DAC (the box that is directly connected to your DAC) will have the biggest impact on sound quality.

What type of things make maintaining and using the library better? 

There is nothing for me to maintain.

And if I make a change to a Media Center setting, and I can't figure out how to undo it, I just restore the library.  Media Center dumps the library's settings, each time you use it.  So you just point Media Center to one of those dumps (files) and it will restore all of your settings from whatever was in that file.  You can also manually dump the settings into a file.

Do you see advantages to dealing with a certain format, vendor? 

Avoid lossy formats, such as mp3.

I have mostly flac files and wav files (the latter is not good for metadata, but Media Center has a way of storing the metadata somewhere).

So go with either flac (Windows / Linux) or alac (Apple).  Both will sound identical, because both are lossless, and both will store the exact same pulse code modulated bits, within.  You can convert back and forth, and they will sound identical, because the bits will remain identical.

Backups? I’ve notice Qobuz (maybe others) allow you to always redownload purchased works in case of a crash. "Anti-crash guarantee". 

Rely on no one for backups.

Since you will have the music files on your own computer, copy all of them to an external drive or a flash drive.

If your computer's drive fails, you will not have to download everything from the service, again.

Also, you cannot depend on any service to offer the files, indefinitely.  Several of my purchased flac files are no longer available for me to download from 7digital.  Why?  Who knows?  They did not renew a contract?

But I do not care, because I have the files, and made copies of the files.

Note that playing files that are stored on your own computer should sound better than streaming them -- so I have been told by people that I trust.  I have not confirmed it for myself, because I never connect my laptop to the internet.  I use it for a singular purpose -- to feed my re-clocker / DAC.

I purchase flac files on my daily driver computer, and copy my purchases to my laptop via a USB flash drive.

What I do takes more effort.  But I have peace of mind, and rely on no 3rd parties.

One of these days, I will subscribe to Qobuz, in order to expand my collection into other genres.  And I will probably find better sounding versions of many of my songs.