I have started the project *eek!*

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Beat_Dominator

Beat_Dominator

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As I sit here contemplating what I have created...... I eat from my 3lb. bag of Haribo Gummi Bears that I got at Fry's electronics. Why was I at Fry's you might ask? I was there to buy a 400GB hard drive and an external enclosure that is eSATA compatable..... still trying to figure out what I'm up to?

I'm ripping every CD I own into the huge drive. I have been working on it for about 4 hours now, I am on CD #24..... of about 700. :eek:

I decided to go with FLAC as it is a leading lossless technology and many aftermarket devices are able to decode it, thus making this digital archive functional as well as a black hole sucking my time.....and thus life away from me.

By early estimates, it's going to take me about 2 months to finish..... someone pray for me, I don't think my bag of gummi bears is going to last that long :(
 
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Can you at least listen to it while you're stuffing the new disk full of music? That'd make the next two (or three) months a lot more bearable! :D
 
Beat_Dominator said:
As I sit here contemplating what I have created...... I eat from my 3lb. bag of Haribo Gummi Bears that I got at Fry's electronics. Why was I at Fry's you might ask? I was there to buy a 400GB hard drive and an external enclosure that is eSATA compatable..... still trying to figure out what I'm up to?

I'm ripping every CD I own into the huge drive. I have been working on it for about 4 hours now, I am on CD #24..... of about 700. :eek:

I decided to go with FLAC as it is a leading lossless technology and many aftermarket devices are able to decode it, thus making this digital archive functional as well as a black hole sucking my time.....and thus life away from me.

By early estimates, it's going to take me about 2 months to finish..... someone pray for me, I don't think my bag of gummi bears is going to last that long :(
Click to expand...

Hi,
Congrats on moving your music to a server based system. I think you'll find yourself listening to music you haven't for a while, simply because it is only a click away, instead of finding, and then digging out that same CD from storage.

However, I suggest you get some form of backup system (another hard drive, RAID, NAS, etc.). I've done the same thing, and had the hard drive die on me, and had to re-rip all my CD's a second time to a new drive (and you think it seems to take forever the FIRST time around...:)

Just my .02,
Peter
 
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Beat, those reticent among us are watching your progress intently! Does music from a hard drive really sound better than straight from your CD player?
 
I suggest turning into something akin to the "Bob Game" we used to play back in college. When the gummy bears run out have a shot of Bourbon for each disk as it ejects. Eventually you will pass the time completely oblivious to the size of the task at hand.
 
MiTT said:
I suggest turning into something akin to the "Bob Game" we used to play back in college. When the gummy bears run out have a shot of Bourbon for each disk as it ejects. Eventually you will pass the time completely oblivious to the size of the task at hand.
Click to expand...

:cheers: but then you may make the mistake of ripping the same disc twice. :banghead:
 
tonyc said:
Beat, those reticent among us are watching your progress intently! Does music from a hard drive really sound better than straight from your CD player?
Click to expand...

It doesn't necessarily sound BETTER, just much EASIER to access, build playlists, or randomly listen to tracks/albums that you previously forgot about! Throw in various internet radio streams (plus Pandora), and it TOTALLY changes your listening experience!
 
Beat_Dominator said:
I'm ripping every CD I own into the huge drive. I have been working on it for about 4 hours now, I am on CD #24..... of about 700... By early estimates, it's going to take me about 2 months to finish...:(
Click to expand...

I've been intermittently ripping my collection over the past year... now about halfway thru my 1000+ CD's. I keep a stack of "yet-to-be-ripped" CD's next to my home office computer, and rip them while doing other work (while listening to Internet Radio or previously ripped tracks). Really doesn't take much time, except for Classical albums, which I often custom tag.

I ditto that a good backup is critical. I bought a 500 GB Western Digital "My Book" external hard drive, and have it set to perform weekly backups. Ain't no way I'm gonna lose all that work!
 
tonyc said:
... Does music from a hard drive really sound better than straight from your CD player?
Click to expand...

Tony,

It can sound better or worse, depends on how the files were ripped and compressed and then how the playback chain is set up.

A checksummed rip, which guarantees you got the right bits off the CD, allows you to start with the optimal dataset. Then using no compression (16/44 .WAV’s) or lossless compression (FLAC, Apple and Windows Lossless codecs), you create the files for your playback devices.

Some of us rip and output multiple formats while doing this. I generate uncompressed 16/44 .WAV’s as well as highest quality VBR .MP3’s.

On playback the thing to watch for is to ensure your 16/44 path is sustained into your processor, or that the PC (or device) based audio chain is not resampling the data (most PC’s use 16/48 for their audio paths and the stock resampler sucks).
A good test is to rip a DTS audio CD and see if can play back unmolested into your processr. You’d be surprised at how hard that is to achieve. But if you can do it, then you’re guaranteed your audio path is lossless from a bits standpoint. Jitter, that’s another matter, and a reason why a good audio card is recommended.
Units like the SlimDevices do fine, especially the Transporter.

PC based, you need a good audio card, I use M-Audio products, and the right playback software. Personally, I swear by FooBar2000. This one has great audio quality, excellent resamplers, ASIO support and good DSP add-ins. Good file management is also included, so even ultra-large collections play well (mine is >1,200 CD’s, >24,500 tracks).

Using the FooBar2000 resampler, I’m able to play back at 16/88.2 into my Meridian processor. This sounds better than PC supplying 16/44 or than a transport (Denon 2900) supplying 16/44.

So in my case, I feel ripped, upsampled PC based playback is superior than any dedicated transport I’ve ever heard.
 
sleepysurf said:
...

I ditto that a good backup is critical. I bought a 500 GB Western Digital "My Book" external hard drive, and have it set to perform weekly backups. Ain't no way I'm gonna lose all that work!
Click to expand...


Agree with Sleepy and others, backup, backup, backup...

I create DVD's of batches of rips, then store the data on a RAID5 array in the server that then gets backed up to external drives.


500 Gb drives are really cheap these days and good insurance. Your time is surely worth $130 in backup HW.
 
JonFo said:
Tony,

It can sound better or worse, depends on how the files were ripped and compressed and then how the playback chain is set up.

A checksummed rip, which guarantees you got the right bits off the CD, allows you to start with the optimal dataset. Then using no compression (16/44 .WAV’s) or lossless compression (FLAC, Apple and Windows Lossless codecs), you create the files for your playback devices.

Some of us rip and output multiple formats while doing this. I generate uncompressed 16/44 .WAV’s as well as highest quality VBR .MP3’s.

On playback the thing to watch for is to ensure your 16/44 path is sustained into your processor, or that the PC (or device) based audio chain is not resampling the data (most PC’s use 16/48 for their audio paths and the stock resampler sucks).
A good test is to rip a DTS audio CD and see if can play back unmolested into your processr. You’d be surprised at how hard that is to achieve. But if you can do it, then you’re guaranteed your audio path is lossless from a bits standpoint. Jitter, that’s another matter, and a reason why a good audio card is recommended.
Units like the SlimDevices do fine, especially the Transporter.

PC based, you need a good audio card, I use M-Audio products, and the right playback software. Personally, I swear by FooBar2000. This one has great audio quality, excellent resamplers, ASIO support and good DSP add-ins. Good file management is also included, so even ultra-large collections play well (mine is >1,200 CD’s, >24,500 tracks).

Using the FooBar2000 resampler, I’m able to play back at 16/88.2 into my Meridian processor. This sounds better than PC supplying 16/44 or than a transport (Denon 2900) supplying 16/44.

So in my case, I feel ripped, upsampled PC based playback is superior than any dedicated transport I’ve ever heard.
Click to expand...

So let me get this right, passing the signal through a PC bus, the crappy cables inside the PC then have the PC upsample the signal (never been convinced by upsampling , personally) leads to a better signal than a good transport/DAC combo doesn't really seem, on its face, as a logical outcome.

My experience with audio in general, but not PC audio directly, is that the more you process it the worse it becomes. JMHO!
 
risabet said:
So let me get this right, passing the signal through a PC bus, the crappy cables inside the PC then have the PC upsample the signal (never been convinced by upsampling , personally) leads to a better signal than a good transport/DAC combo doesn't really seem, on its face, as a logical outcome.

My experience with audio in general, but not PC audio directly, is that the more you process it the worse it becomes. JMHO!
Click to expand...

I agree with that risabet. I often question how in a HiFi magazine they can tout the superior abilities of, say, the new 2-box Esoteric digital player to "extract more" from the source..... but then a month later, the quality of sending the signal through the air (where it is subject to interferences from all of our other wireless items) with a Sonos or SqueezBox and they say "sounds as good as CD". !?!?!?! Hmmmmm.....



On another note, I know I need a 2nd drive. I just don't plan to get it until a little later. I personally have built a lot of computers and never had a drive fail mechanically. I am still using a Seagate that I bought 8 years ago!
 
risabet said:
So let me get this right, passing the signal through a PC bus, the crappy cables inside the PC then have the PC upsample the signal (never been convinced by upsampling , personally) leads to a better signal than a good transport/DAC combo doesn't really seem, on its face, as a logical outcome.

My experience with audio in general, but not PC audio directly, is that the more you process it the worse it becomes. JMHO!
Click to expand...

Risabet, yeah, if doing analog inside the PC, and/or letting it resample on its own, it can get quite bad.

BUT, if you use the right tools, it's actually fine.

Next time you are in a recording studio, you might want to notice the Mac or PC running ProTools HD that's recording all the tracks that go on the CD you put in that high-buck transport.
Oh and the firewire DSP devices, hard drives, etc. There are more 'PC's in a recording studio than you can count.

So, when I put together a PC based solution, it's done right, with pro-quality boards, ASIO interfaces (bypass kMixer in Windoze) and the best software.

Keep in mind a PC is designed to retain data integrity, so the bits aren’t getting corrupted by some cheap cable in the box.
The secret is to also maintain timing consistency (AKA jitter) in the delivery of the SPDIF stream to the processor. Again, the right card and setup can do this.

It might worth reinforcing that the PC is a Digital signal source, not an analog source in my setup.

But one can do pretty nice analog out with something like this Digidesign MBox2 Pro: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MBox2Pro

Even has Phono inputs ;)

As for upsampling, well it’s a well studied process and a simple 2x sample rate is hard to screw up. The upsampling to 88.2 is done in the $15K Meridian 800 transport, the Meridian G series processor and the 568 I use as well. So it must be good for something if the leading digital audio high-end firm uses it.
That and my listening tests show a subtle, but noticeable improvement with upsampling.

Actually been listening all afternoon in the HT to my upsampling rig, no complaints here ;)
 
Update! I am at about 200 CDs right now. I have listened to a few of them and they are sounding great, no pops or anything from PC/software hiccups so far.
 
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