Discussion
Advice please. I have 350 CDs which i no longer listen to. It would like to and I also need the space. Thinking of using Ripster to move to digital.
I would like to rip to a hard drive, but is there a recommended device which is both a hard drive and has the ability to airplay to a Bower and Wilkins Zepplin and has Bluetooth.
I don’t have a computer only iPads and iPhones, and I don’t want to buy a computer just for music purposes,
I would like to rip to a hard drive, but is there a recommended device which is both a hard drive and has the ability to airplay to a Bower and Wilkins Zepplin and has Bluetooth.
I don’t have a computer only iPads and iPhones, and I don’t want to buy a computer just for music purposes,
Matt. Thanks. I can do Tuscan mechanics but useless at the tech. So your NAS? does it sit remotely on your home WiFi so that you can control output via your Apple i.e what music you send to an audio source, in my case, the Zepplin?
If so, which NAS do you have? Did you also use a ripping service you could recommend?
If so, which NAS do you have? Did you also use a ripping service you could recommend?
You can rip CD's to any number of 'cloud services' including Spotify, the proviso being you have a 'thing' with a CD drive to get them there. It's a labour of love for sure, but only needs to be done once. You can also copy the files to an iPad or iPhone.
Maybe you can borrow a laptop or hijack a desktop PC/Mac.
As to NAS boxes, they are a small computer in a case with one or several hard drives. The basic choice is one box with one hard drive. More expense gets you two hard drives set up in RAID 1, which duplicates the data on both drives, and will (mostly) restore the data if one drive dies. It won't if both drives die. They connect over WiFi or Ethernet. The latter is usually faster.
Most of the NAS boxes support AirPlay and Spotify. The usual suspects are Qnap, Zyxel, and Synology. There are others from WD and Seagate etc.
You can also use a basic external USB hard drive to store the files, but whatever you go for you need at least one backup. So buy two hard drives, or backup online, or both..
There's also a trend to rip CD's to two formats: MP3 for compatibility with everything, and FLAC or WAV for lossless reproduction.
Maybe you can borrow a laptop or hijack a desktop PC/Mac.
As to NAS boxes, they are a small computer in a case with one or several hard drives. The basic choice is one box with one hard drive. More expense gets you two hard drives set up in RAID 1, which duplicates the data on both drives, and will (mostly) restore the data if one drive dies. It won't if both drives die. They connect over WiFi or Ethernet. The latter is usually faster.
Most of the NAS boxes support AirPlay and Spotify. The usual suspects are Qnap, Zyxel, and Synology. There are others from WD and Seagate etc.
You can also use a basic external USB hard drive to store the files, but whatever you go for you need at least one backup. So buy two hard drives, or backup online, or both..
There's also a trend to rip CD's to two formats: MP3 for compatibility with everything, and FLAC or WAV for lossless reproduction.
Edited by Slushbox on Tuesday 24th July 08:45
I've done something similar, as many of us will have done. To echo above I ripped to FLAC on my NAS which I use in the house when streaming via my audio systems, but upload to Google Play which I believe automatically converts to MP3? That's great for the car ad office (where I'm currently listening to it).
Don't rip to MP3, you'll regret it and end up redoing it.
NAS drives are cheap and common now, and lot quieter than mine is. Don't skimp and look at one that uses RAID (most do nowadays) as that will ensure you have a backup too; I think it's RAID 1, but you can check that out should you go down the NAS route. This basically duplicates the hard drives so if one fails the other should be good. Saves ripping it all again should you lose a drive.
Finally if you find a good way to store yet still access your discs, do post back, there's a good chap.
Don't rip to MP3, you'll regret it and end up redoing it.
NAS drives are cheap and common now, and lot quieter than mine is. Don't skimp and look at one that uses RAID (most do nowadays) as that will ensure you have a backup too; I think it's RAID 1, but you can check that out should you go down the NAS route. This basically duplicates the hard drives so if one fails the other should be good. Saves ripping it all again should you lose a drive.
Finally if you find a good way to store yet still access your discs, do post back, there's a good chap.
There are many ways to skin this cat depending on how audiophiley you want to get, how much you want to spend and what kind of interface/interaction you want to have with your music.
My set-up is files stored on a NAS. Mac Mini as a server. iPad as a remote pushing music to an Oppo UDP-203..
At it’s most basic you could go with a cheap and cheerful Synology NAS. Store your ripped files in an iTunes library on there. Then using your iPhone or iPad you can airplay the music to your Zeplin. The Synology just plugs into a port on your router.
1TB will be plenty for your collection in lossless quality with room to grow.
You can go with a 1 bay (no redundancy):
http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/26647-synol...
Or a 2 bay (if one disk fails you stay operational):
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/24060-syno...
Either way you should ideally have a back-up so one of these too:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Elements-Portable-Exte...
I can’t recommend a ripping service as I did that myself. There is free software to do it but you’d need a Mac or a PC.
When ripping it is worth considering file type. You want to rip lossless (CD quality). This is normally in FLAC format however if you want to use iTunes you’ll want to rip to ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec).
There are a few options other than iTunes to view, manage, interact with and play your content but they’d require a PC or Mac. The Mac Mini lends itself to this very well as it can be run headlessly (without a monitor) - mine is plugged into my TV via HDMI so if I want to use the Mac I as a computer I can. These can be had for not a lot of money - the current Mac Mini is the late 2014 model. Going down this route would mean you could dispense with the NAS and just plug a USB hard drive into the Mac (or use the Mac’s hard drive itself).
Roon is spendy but superb. You can flick through your collection viewing artwork, bios, reviews, lyrics etc. It even shows you when and where the artist is touring.
Cheap alternatives are available (server is free, app is £5) such as are Plex and Emby. Both present content well but lack the massive metadata and audiophile processing (DSP, room correction, volume levelling etc) that Roon provides. Again a PC or Mac is required.
Depending on your musical tastes the other alternative is streaming. No NAS, no ripping, no computer, just your iPad or iPhone steering music to your Zep. If you root around (I’ll try and find you a link) you’ll get a free 3 month trial. Sign up and see if they have your 350 albums and see if you like the quality. It’s £9.99 per month thereafter and you can listen to pretty much anything anyone has ever recorded.
You can upgrade to their lossless service which is £19.99 per month but whilst I’m sure the Zeplin is excellent the limitation will be airplay so I doubt you’d appreciate the benefit.
Last but not least there is this which is kind of what you originally asked for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNwB50bN0Do
My set-up is files stored on a NAS. Mac Mini as a server. iPad as a remote pushing music to an Oppo UDP-203..
At it’s most basic you could go with a cheap and cheerful Synology NAS. Store your ripped files in an iTunes library on there. Then using your iPhone or iPad you can airplay the music to your Zeplin. The Synology just plugs into a port on your router.
1TB will be plenty for your collection in lossless quality with room to grow.
You can go with a 1 bay (no redundancy):
http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/26647-synol...
Or a 2 bay (if one disk fails you stay operational):
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/24060-syno...
Either way you should ideally have a back-up so one of these too:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Elements-Portable-Exte...
I can’t recommend a ripping service as I did that myself. There is free software to do it but you’d need a Mac or a PC.
When ripping it is worth considering file type. You want to rip lossless (CD quality). This is normally in FLAC format however if you want to use iTunes you’ll want to rip to ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec).
There are a few options other than iTunes to view, manage, interact with and play your content but they’d require a PC or Mac. The Mac Mini lends itself to this very well as it can be run headlessly (without a monitor) - mine is plugged into my TV via HDMI so if I want to use the Mac I as a computer I can. These can be had for not a lot of money - the current Mac Mini is the late 2014 model. Going down this route would mean you could dispense with the NAS and just plug a USB hard drive into the Mac (or use the Mac’s hard drive itself).
Roon is spendy but superb. You can flick through your collection viewing artwork, bios, reviews, lyrics etc. It even shows you when and where the artist is touring.
Cheap alternatives are available (server is free, app is £5) such as are Plex and Emby. Both present content well but lack the massive metadata and audiophile processing (DSP, room correction, volume levelling etc) that Roon provides. Again a PC or Mac is required.
Depending on your musical tastes the other alternative is streaming. No NAS, no ripping, no computer, just your iPad or iPhone steering music to your Zep. If you root around (I’ll try and find you a link) you’ll get a free 3 month trial. Sign up and see if they have your 350 albums and see if you like the quality. It’s £9.99 per month thereafter and you can listen to pretty much anything anyone has ever recorded.
You can upgrade to their lossless service which is £19.99 per month but whilst I’m sure the Zeplin is excellent the limitation will be airplay so I doubt you’d appreciate the benefit.
Last but not least there is this which is kind of what you originally asked for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNwB50bN0Do
Not tried signing up but here's a link to a free 6 month trial of Tidal.
https://go.tidal.com/gb/reg/GB2001/gb061lXmiaSBlL1...
https://go.tidal.com/gb/reg/GB2001/gb061lXmiaSBlL1...
Thank you all for your help with this, I am leaning towards the tangibility of having a NAS sitting on my router running iTunes where I have my non CD library and will ensure I rip in the best format and back up. As you can tell, with a Zepplin I am no audiophile and I think this solution will suit my needs. Thanks again.
Looking on-line CD ripping seems to cost around 80p per disc. You could pick up a Mac Mini for £250 and do it yourself. Can always sell it for what you paid afterwards.https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Mac-Mini-Core-2-D...
2nd or 3rd recommendation for a NAS. I've had a couple and my latest is a Synology with 2 drives in Raid. Essential 2 identical copies.
Takes a while but I manually ripped to mp3.
If I want the best quality I'll get the disc out and play it directly.
I've taken all the cds SACDs DVDs blue rays out of their cases which are stored in a sealed box in the attic and popped them in one of these to save space:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ednet-208-Wallet-DVD-CD/d...
All alphabetically stored and it's quick to get any disc I want.
I think I'm the only person in the world that still buys discs?
Takes a while but I manually ripped to mp3.
If I want the best quality I'll get the disc out and play it directly.
I've taken all the cds SACDs DVDs blue rays out of their cases which are stored in a sealed box in the attic and popped them in one of these to save space:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ednet-208-Wallet-DVD-CD/d...
All alphabetically stored and it's quick to get any disc I want.
I think I'm the only person in the world that still buys discs?
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