Ripped / Imported My Entire CD Collection... Almost...

[socialxray]

I can atest that a Squeezebox2 or 3 is the way to go. The Slimserver software as easy as iTunes to setup and is a lot more flexible. Not to mention is sounds good too. There are some bugs that advanced users may run into but for the vast majority of people the software is solid. It is also open source so if you have the skill you can customize it too. Just remember it is not a music manager (like iTunes).

For managing my music I use Media Monkey because it is free and I don't get pop-ups bugging me to upgrade to the paided version. It does a really great job of managing my music as well. I also use it as a tag editor which has many different options. One really useful one is to add tags to your music based on information from Amazon.com. This is useful if you download a lot of music with incomplete tags. Honestly it has a lot of great features for free. The only thing I have ever had needed that was only accessible in the paid version was a FLAC to MP3 transcoder.

I ripped everything to FLAC using REACT and EAC. REACT allows me to rip to different formats without having to reconfigure EAC. It allows me to change formats on the fly, apply replay gain so that all of my music plays at the same level, moves the files to locations on my hard drive depending on the format, and create tags for my MP3s and FLAC files. REACT is not exactly user friendly so it will require some experimentation to get it working the way you want it to work.

For MP3s that I have downloaded I use MP3Gain to apply replay-gain. With MP3Gain you can change the playing level of the file or simply store the playing level in the tag. I use the tag method and my Squeezebox3 is able to read this tag and make the adjustments.

For FLAC files I have downloaded I use the actual FLAC application to decode them and then encode them with replay-gain set. Again the replay-gain setting are held in the tag information and interpretted by my Squeezebox3 on the fly. The FLAC application does include a GUI and is very straight forward.

Since my family does have a few MP3 plays (Apple, Phillips) I use GX::Transcoder to transcode my FLAC files to create lossy MP3s for portable use. This also has a tag editor and a player as well but I do not use it for that since it is easier to use Media Monkey. This software is pretty straight forward to use as well but since the programmers are German it will take a bit of experimentation to get it up and running. The website does contain English instructions/help but you will have to search a bit for it.

Lastly all of this software is free and it is also free of the influences of their bigger corporate competitors such as Microsoft and Microsoft's Mini-Me (that would be Apple). Nobody is trying to force you into being dependant on their software. Just remember that when you buy downloaded music that comes with DRM you are perpetuating a fledgingly monoply. Sure, DRM is usually of minor annoyance but you are limited just the same. And the real music pirates are not hampered at all by DRM.

 

[Craig]

I'm also sold on the Squeezebox, thanks to Sleepysurf getting me hooked on it. I'm considering getting a second box for my second system. Not only do the ripped CDs sound great it also serves up internet radio, Pandora radio and few others I haven't explored yet. I've had it for about 4 months now and I just realized it has a headphone jack on the back. I'll have to try that out one I get some headphones or some of these high-end earphones that are available now.

I find it takes some time to get FLAC and EAC downloaded and setup but once you do the rest is very intuitive. The remote and Squeezebox display is very intuitive and feature rich.

I haven't given up my CDs and CD player yet but this thing has given me second thoughts about it.

This picture of this simple setup using the Squeezebox direct to a tube amp was only temporary while I was in the middle of a furniture move.

 

[Robin]

OK... now my head is really spinning...

Wow! Their are extreme amounts of choices and possibilities... I'm going to have my son read this thread from begining to end inorder to help me deside which way to go... It took me awhile, but I have resigned myself to the fact, I'm going to have to re-rip / import my entire CD collection again... However, I want the next time to be the very last time...

Thanks everyone for all of the valuable computer technology information. I will let you know what I deside to do later on..., once the room stops spinning...

 

[Steve]

Robin,

Please post your son's conclusion, and reasons for that conclusion. I am watching this discussion closely myself. I plan to convert all my CD's to some form of digital format, once my upcoming house and media room are complete. This is a great discussion.

As a side note, I'm also watching from a work standpoint. I work for a processor company actively focusing on embedded markets such as this. If I can create the perfect product at one of my target customers, it doubles the benefit to me!

Steve

PS - it's pretty funny that we have to rely on our kids to figure out new technology. This reminds me of setting up my parent's first VCR! ;-)

 

[Taz]

For managing my music I use Media Monkey because it is free and I don't get pop-ups bugging me to upgrade to the paided version. It does a really great job of managing my music as well. I also use it as a tag editor which has many different options. One really useful one is to add tags to your music based on information from Amazon.com. This is useful if you download a lot of music with incomplete tags. Honestly it has a lot of great features for free. The only thing I have ever had needed that was only accessible in the paid version was a FLAC to MP3 transcoder..

I have a question for you. I am burning all my CD's to my PC Using Easy CD-DA Extractor in the FLAC fromat. What do you mean by it does not manage your music and What do you need a music manager for? Sorry for the stupid questions

 

[jmschnur]

A painless way of doing errorless CD extraction with ID look up in bulk would be a great product.

WM10, EAC, and Media Monkey work but are not quite in the category of painless.

Joel

 

[Robin]

My son is not too happy with me...

Robin,

Please post your son's conclusion, and reasons for that conclusion. I am watching this discussion closely myself. I plan to convert all my CD's to some form of digital format, once my upcoming house and media room are complete. This is a great discussion.

As a side note, I'm also watching from a work standpoint. I work for a processor company actively focusing on embedded markets such as this. If I can create the perfect product at one of my target customers, it doubles the benefit to me!

Steve

PS - it's pretty funny that we have to rely on our kids to figure out new technology. This reminds me of setting up my parent's first VCR! ;-)

Steve,

Yes, I can relate, showing my mother how to program her VCR...

Unfortunately, my son is not too happy with me. Last night it took him a half hour to explain / show me how to create a play list for each of my "Theme" CD's, I've been making from my MP3 library. I do rely on my sons for their computer help/ advice for my computer soft wear and hard wear needs. From his point of view, my son thinks I'm barely computer literate. I sometimes think my son has forgotten more about computers than I will ever know... I think it frustrates him, when I can't follow what he is talking about. But I will get him to help me one way or another... I can be very persassive when I want to be, I have my ways... Rest assured, I will post what we plan to do, or have done.

 

[socialxray]

I have a question for you. I am burning all my CD's to my PC Using Easy CD-DA Extractor in the FLAC fromat. What do you mean by it does not manage your music and What do you need a music manager for? Sorry for the stupid questions

Not a stupid question at all. Many people do not realize that they need an application to organize, sort and manage all of this data (music). That is basically all a music manager does. (Some use the term audio jukebox instead of music manager) Think of a music manager as a Windows Explorer for music only. Some are better than others and give you more options. Windows Media Player and iTunes will help you organize, sort, maintain, and find your music. They also have other features such as burning music to a CD or syncing your MP3 player. They will even transcode from one codec to another (usually their own codec only). Example: iTunes will transcode your MP3s to AACs. Windows will transcode to WMA.

There are others as well such as Media Monkey and MusicMatch Jukebox. Usually these music managers provide most functions for free but require you to pay for the full version to get other features such as CD burning and transcoding and MP3 player syncing.

I find Media Monkey to be much more flexible than Windows Media Player or iTunes. Unlike WMP and iTunes it supports every audio format on the planet. It can sort by artist, album, genre, year, and location on your hard drive. It has a category for unknown when those pesky tags do not get set correctly. It is a decent tag editor as well which is a must if you are going to keep your music organized. While the graphics are not as polished as WMP and iTunes, I find the interface much easier to work with. Needless to say, there are a lot of featues in the application and it will take some time to learn and use them correctly but it is worth it.

Of course if your music library is small you may not need this at all but I have found that when I rip music, every now and then I need to re-edit the tag so the song information is displayed the way I like it. By far this is the task that I most often do via Media Monkey.

 

[lugano]

I think that I may go for the Olive Musica.. still deciding..
http://www.olive.us/p_bin/?cid=01_06_musica

In the mean time, I'm ripping with itunes AAC format at 160.

Still dreaming..

Mickey, check out this fresh Stereophile review:

http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/406olive/

(80 GB sux, IMHO)

 

[MickeyVee]

Mickey, check out this fresh Stereophile review:

http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/406olive/

(80 GB sux, IMHO)

Thanks! The review is quite promising and this seems to be a good solution for me. I'm also more interested in the 160GB version.

In the mean time, I'm slowly re-ripping my favorite music to 192 AAC (don't want to eat up too mhch space on my laptop, probably 15-20GB) and using Apple's AirportExpress. Results are quite acceptable for casual listening. I'm packing away most of my CD's except for the top 50 or so for serious listening.

 

[Peter Hogan]

I'm packing away most of my CD's except for the top 50 or so for serious listening.

Hi,
That's another one of the nice things about having your collection ripped to a hard drive, they are ALL instantly available. I've found myself listening to music I haven't heard in years, simply because it is just a click away, instead of having to dig out a dusty CD that's in that closet, or the garage, SOMEWHERE....

Peter

 

[jmschnur]

Better access to music

Yss that occurred for us as well. My wife is electronics adverse in general. However she said that ripping our collection to a hard drive has enabled her to choose to listen to things we had not heard for 20 years. She also noted that the lossless error correction process coupled with the Lynx DA sound board had truly improved the sound.

Joel

 

[DTB300]

She also noted that the lossless error correction process coupled with the Lynx DA sound board had truly improved the sound.

How did the Lynx affect the sound to make the wife like it better from the discs in your player? Less/More high end, Less/More bass, etc.

Dan

 

[jmschnur]

The sound is much much smoother. I think this is due to the eliminaton of jitter.The error correction ripping process also eliminated any skips that there might have been using a CD player. The lynz one is an older card but does 24/96 out very well.

Some reviewers (Sterophile I think) have said have said that the error correction lossless ripping porcess with a good sound card like the Lynx rivals the top of the ilne CD players in terms of Jitter etc. We do not have a top of the ilne CD player-only one of the better Sony's.

Joel

 

[Craig]

Some reviewers (Sterophile I think) have said have said that the error correction lossless ripping porcess with a good sound card like the Lynx rivals the top of the ilne CD players in terms of Jitter etc. We do not have a top of the ilne CD player-only one of the better Sony's.

Joel

I use a $300 Squeezebox 3 (SB3) playing lossless FLAC ripped CD files and the sound rivals that of my (much more pricy) Electrocompaniet EMC1-UP SE CD player. I still prefer the EMC CD player over the SB3 but the difference is slight. The SB3 comes very close. The difference is the CD player has better soundstaging and bass and I suppose it is because the 24/192 DAC and power supply in the CD player is superior to what is inside the SB3. But the SB3 amazes me at how good music can sound served wireless from a PC to my audio system.

I did have an opportunity to audition a Benchmark DAC thanks to Sleepysurf but unfortunately I didn't take full advantage to do any critical listening and A/B comparisons with it due to lack of free time. However, error corrected lossless files combined with a quality DAC and cabling has to result in some serious Hi-Fi.

The convenience of a music server blows away any CD player.

 

[Taz]

I can a test that a Squeezebox2 or 3 is the way to go. The Slimserver software as easy as iTunes to setup and is a lot more flexible. Not to mention is sounds good too.

Just got my Squeezebox 3 and I second this. Very impressed with the sound quality sending FLAC with no compression to the box and as for convenience and ease of use and setup it is top notch!!

PS. Socialxray thanks for the advice on MediaMonkey initial thoughts are great!!

 

[socialxray]

Glad to help Taz. Just remember that if you make changes to any tags don't forget to synchronize them or the changes will just be in Media Monkey's database and not actually written to the tag itself.

I am actually thinking about buying the full version of Media Monkey when I get a CD burner for my computer. I think if you buy the full version you get upgrades for life or something like that.

 

[Robin]

Considering my son's suggestion...

Well, my son suggested, I connect my computer directly to my Pioneer VSX 59TXi Receiver, using a Firewire or USB cable. The only problem is I would need a 75 - 100 foot Firewire or USB cable. He says the iTune program, which I'm using currently on my computer, would be able to transmit all my music out as Lossess - ALAC, in HD 7.1 (my computer has a HD Audio card). My son says, I could re-rip / import all my CD's on to external Hard Drives in Lossess - FLAC, but he says my computer (using iTunes) can send to my Receiver any song from my MP3 song library, converting my PM3 files to "Lossless - ALAC" for playing through my system. All I would need is a 100 foot Firewire cable. The only problem is 100 feet of Firewire costs about $2500.00 (USD).

So I'm considering his suggestions...

 

[sleepysurf]

Robin, I'm sure your son's intentions are good, but he's a bit confused about lossy vs. lossless compression. One wouldn't convert MP3's to ALAC.

If you have a computer network, I would give serious thought to the Squeezebox3 ($250-300)... either wired connection with CAT5, or alternatively wireless B/G. With the Squeezebox you get a high-res display and full remote capability AT YOUR LISTENING POSITION, regardless of where your computer resides. Have your son do some reading up on the Squeezebox. Here's a current review from Audioholics...
http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/SlimDevicesSqueezebox3MusicPlayer.php

Stereophile also has an SB3 review pending for their July print issue, with a preliminary impression in their eNewsletter here...
http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/306Bstph.html

Running USB or Firewire from computer to your Receiver is feasible ONLY if your computer is right at your listening position (in order to display and control playlist/internet radio).

 

[Robin]

Thank you...

Robin, I'm sure your son's intentions are good, but he's a bit confused about lossy vs. lossless compression. One wouldn't convert MP3's to ALAC.

If you have a computer network, I would give serious thought to the Squeezebox3 ($250-300)... either wired connection with CAT5, or alternatively wireless B/G. With the Squeezebox you get a high-res display and full remote capability AT YOUR LISTENING POSITION, regardless of where your computer resides. Have your son do some reading up on the Squeezebox. Here's a current review from Audioholics...
http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/SlimDevicesSqueezebox3MusicPlayer.php

Stereophile also has an SB3 review pending for their July print issue, with a preliminary impression in their eNewsletter here...
http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/306Bstph.html

Running USB or Firewire from computer to your Receiver is feasible ONLY if your computer is right at your listening position (in order to display and control playlist/internet radio).

sleepysurf,

I think you are right... I am going to go for the wireless Squeezebox3. His USB or Firewire solution is just not realistic or feasible for my HT and way too expensive as well. Well my son had good intentions anyway...
Thanks for your excellent recommendations and articles. I appreciate it. Your advise has been very helpful in assisting me to make up my mind on this thing.

Thanks again,