Ripping CDs to Create a Music Server

[dogz]

Hi All,

New to this audio stuff so after a bit of advice

Myself and the wife have a collection of several hundred CD's which have been sat in a corner gathering dust

I'm thinking I might rip them and create a music server (possibly Roon Nucleus One) which would allow us to play them on the Sonos speakers we have or the KEF LS50 wireless 2's I have in my office

I've had a quick look at ripping CD's and EAC or DBPowerAmp are recommended but it's going to take me an age to get through them all plus I'll need to buy a CD player so they can be ripped

Any suggestions on the best way forward or am I best just subscribing to Tidal and saving myself hrs and hrs of pain

Thanks in advance

[miniman]

Just sign up for Tidal or Spotify.

[tog]

I did about 500-600 CDs some years ago. I just kept a small pile on my desk and when I was working could pop them in and let it run. It was set to automatically upon insert of an audio CD to get track names, rip and then eject. They were all ripped as Apple Lossless into iTunes and done over the course of a year or so was no real hardship.

[Mr E]

EAC and multiple drives in the desktop PC. Have it eject when it’s done and every time you walk past just put a new disc in.

I did this.
I now have Spotify and the NAS is retired.

[mikef]

I ve only ripped obscure and foreign CDs that aren t available on Tidal or Apple Music, prob around 20 in total, which all fits on a USB stick plugged into my wifi router

[lufbramatt]

Dbpoweramp is a great bit of software. A big part of doing this properly is getting all the correct metadata attached to the music files. Otherwise the tracks won’t be divided up into the correct albums, artists etc. Dbpoweramp is great for this.

When I did mine I set up two workflows, so it would automatically rip to Apple Lossless and a high bitrate mp3 and put them in different folders. Lossless for home listening and the mp3 for loading on to usb sticks etc to listen in the car or for the kids mp3 players.

[Tymb]

Of the two I found DbPoweramp a lot easier to use than EAC when I ripped all my cd’s years ago. As above just had a pile of cd’s and swapped them over when passing. Had it rip into flac and 320bps mp3 at the same time. I’ve been using streaming the last few years but recently realised I could put them all on a usb thumb drive and plug into the car, I’ve been enjoying just being able to select an album and then listening to it all the way through.

I don’t think you need a music server for Sonos just a network attached folder. I have an old Western Digital NAS that’s worked fine for years.

Could look at the Brennan kit, they do some all in one, player, ripper and stream to Sonos units. I think you can just play a CD to Sonos without ripping if you want. Not sure if they present as a network attached folder for streaming to your other speakers.

[ninepoint2]

Spotify

[Sparky137]

ninepoint2 said:

Spotify

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to pay a subscription for Spotify or put up with adverts?

Why would you want to do that if you've already paid for the CD's?

[cookie1600]

https://brennan.co.uk

[simon_harris]

lufbramatt said:

Dbpoweramp is a great bit of software. A big part of doing this properly is getting all the correct metadata attached to the music files. Otherwise the tracks won t be divided up into the correct albums, artists etc. Dbpoweramp is great for this.

When I did mine I set up two workflows, so it would automatically rip to Apple Lossless and a high bitrate mp3 and put them in different folders. Lossless for home listening and the mp3 for loading on to usb sticks etc to listen in the car or for the kids mp3 players.

This is the way, when I did mine I ripped to lossless and then re-ripped to Apple lossless and two versions of MP3 (high and low) for different devices (back when dedicated mp3 players were a thing) we litterly had a stack of CD's in the dining room and whenever someone noticed the drive was ejected they put the next CD in.

[dan98]

Only you can decide if it's worth the money to pay a monthly fee for streaming instead of ripping them. It'll take a few minutes per disc.

For me it was definitely worthwhile - streaming older CD releases sounds very different from the originals due to aggressive re-mastering over the years.

Re. ripping, you can spend less than 20 quid buying a new CD USB drive and use software mentioned above. Personally I would throw the CDs in the attic rather than trying to monetise them, just incase.
I'd use Flac is it's arguably more universal than Apple formats - you could always batch convert later to something else if needs be.

[Gren]

DB Poweramp and an external CD drive for £20 was the only money I spent. Takes a while at around 5-10 minutes per CD but chunk it down and it's not so bad. Mine now sit on a NAS with Plex serving it to Hifi/Apps etc

I also have Spotify which now has lossless so I have the two options depending on what I want to listen to. Spotify is still worth it for when I'm out and about and for discovering new music. Every now and then I also play the actual CD

[JEA1K]

I ripped every CD and have a hard drive with these plus all my downloads on ... 1000's of albums which I have organised in iTunes. Streaming wasn't a think when I got my first iPod back in 2003 ish so ripping was the only way. That same music has been transfered from one hard drive another and onto various NAS drives.

Its only a matter of time before iTunes in discontinued on iphones ... so all my playlists will disappear which will be hard to replicate. Over the past 4/5 years I've been using Tidal and building playlists and adding my favourite music which has been a big shift mentally ... but I'm happy using it so when the time comes, I won't be lost trying to work out a solution.

Although I bregrudge paying subscriptions, if you listen to a lot of music, I think Tidal makes sense (or Spotify if thats your thing).

[psi310398]

If I recall correctly you can hook up a CD/DVD drive to the Nucleus and it’ll rip them for you.

[RotorRambler]

I recently integrated a windows laptop, to appear on Sonos.
Very happy with it, rock solid too.

As an aside, a lot of Album Art was missing, on the 20Gb of music we copied etc over the decades. I used “ MusicBrainz Picard” to sort that out. Free & worked a treat.

[gbbird]

I ripped my entire collection of circa 1000 CDs a few years ago. Used Musicbee as the ripper with a decent asus cd drive in the PC. No probs at all. As others have said, rip away whilst working, a pile of discs at a time. You will get there in the end, and it is quite satisfying.

[mikef]

I started ripping my vinyl albums about 2 years ago, I’m still on the first box

[Panamax]

I ripped my CDs onto an expensive server. Complete waste of time. The server doesn't sound as good as playing the CDs on the CD player. And the whole lot is available for streaming in any event. Avoid.

Never, never never, believe that it's digital so everything sounds the same.

[markiii]

Always depends on the source but my lms system sounds better than my cd player and is more convenient