Ah - I checked. It was dbpoweramp’s suite of software I used.
See the thread on loudness wars. There can be good reason to rip some of your older cds if they have better mastering. Also you don’t need to rip every disk. Just ones that you can’t find on Tidal or sound better. Either way enjoy,
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Another good reason to start out light. If you already have a pc, dbpoweramp cd ripper and asset upnp on trial is a good place to experiment.
I would have to agree with your dealer, he seems like an honest chap/chapess.
If you do go down the server route then my personal opinion is do just that, get a server, not a hifi manufacturers box. put it in the garage or at least somewhere well away from your hifi.
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Not everything is available on streaming and I worry that they might try to copy the constant price rises of tv streaming eventually so I prefer having my own collection. It’s also cheaper since I just added asset to my pc, my costs are just when I buy a “new” album (air quotes because I buy second hand cds on eBay if that’s cheaper). I technically have YouTube music because I have YouTube premium so I use that to test wether I like a cd first.
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I think I’d seriously query your dealer on those assertions. In certain systems I absolutely could not distinguish between local and streaming or Qobuz/Tidal but changing amplification made those differences very clear indeed in all sorts of ways. If you had to pin me down on differences between Qobuz and Tidal at CD or high res I’d struggle to articulate anything concrete… but I prefer Qobuz and generally find the mastering on CD quality better than for high res.
The difference between local and streaming is reducing but differences there most certainly are. Nevertheless in some cases I prefer the CD rip and on others the download or stream. As you can take many of these devices offline there are further gains to be had when streaming locally.
At present anyone who says they’ve cracked all this is winging it. It all remains an inexact science. Some systems benefit from a switch. Some absolutely don’t. There are lots of things you can do but nothing that you absolutely have to.
I auditioned Aurender v Innuos and the latter won. The device is ludicrously easy to use and the app superior. Your thoughts on Zen v Zenith are your thoughts. There tensions a string argument that the Zen is the sweet spot in the range and there’s not much difference between the two sound size. All true but I went for the Zenith.
The argument you have more flexibility and better edit meta data with a PC, ripper and some software is all fine and dandy but you’ll be doing that for 3k of CDs whereas with the one box solution you’ll find that around 2,800 rip with fully accurate data and you’ve only got to edit 200. Given the time it will take to rip your collection I’d only go the latter route if you have retired; have nothing else to do for six months and strongly feel that accurate meta data will be life enriching.
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How about a server in the cloud / at a hosting service? 
(Sorry, could not resist.)
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Here’s a thought. I know you think the Core doesn’t play nice with the rest of your equipment but it’s a fabulous one-box, bit-perfect ripping/tagging device. You can point it to a NAS which you then use to serve your Lumin. 3500 CDs is a lot and the Core will make light work of it.
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Hi MoonDrifter, I have the same streamer as you (P1) and agree with your dealer. The only difference is I use Qobuz, not Tidal. To me Qobuz sounds better than CD rips I have on a hard drive that I used to plug into the back of the Lumin.
I use a fibre connection to my P1, coming from a Cisco 2960.
I actually removed the hard drive because I never listened to my CD rips anymore, and thought it may degrade the sound by being active, who knows?
Qobuz 24/192 high res is the best sound quality I have heard since owning the P1.
I just added Townshend podiums to my speakers, which was a nice uplift. I know a guy that uses a P1 that swears by the Shunyata Altaira grounding system that I may pursue one day.
Good luck.
I don’t have a desktop PC in the house and only a very old medium spec Dell laptop with no disc drive, my wife and I use Samsung Tablets for internet use etc and I’m not really too interested in buying a PC or laptop to just to rip and store my CD’s and from feedback from @mikehughescq it would be very time consuming with the metadata management etc.
I have a very demanding job and use PC’s a lot at work, so I’m very time poor and don’t really want to spend more time on computers in my private life, which is one of the reasons for looking at one box ripper/server solutions that would be very easy and quick to use, however, I appreciate that if you have the time and patience then the PC route would be beneficial cost wise.
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My dealer has mega spec and expensive music servers, streamers, pre-amps, power amps and speakers in their demo rooms and many years of experience, I don’t think I’m in a position to really further question, challenge or doubt their experience and advice, however, I will look at doing a demo for myself to see if I can hear any significant difference, but I doubt my ears are better than the guys working in the dealers.
Thanks for the feedback @NO-QUARTER, I’ve previously back to back tested Fleetwood Mac Rumours on my CD Transport into the P1, Hi-Res Tidal, Hi-Res on a loaned USB Drive into the P1 and Hi-Res BluRay Disc into the P1. The Hi-Res’s were slightly better than the CD, could not really tell any difference between Tidal and USB Drive and the BluRay sounded a bit better than the other Hi-Res mediums, but it was, at best, very marginal.
Now, I’m not really too sure if there is much benefit in ripping my CD’s and buying downloads in the future, especially considering the cost outlay and time and effort involved to do it.
I could buy a lot of CD’s and Hi-Res BluRay Discs (historically and currently what I have done) for the cost of a very good CD Ripper/Music Server, appreciating that a PC based system would be a lot less money but far more time consuming and also the sound quality difference between a PC based system and a ripper/music server is a point of difference between forum members also.
You mentioned a couple of posts up that you work all day with computers, so really have no desire to do it when you get home. This is why I would forget about a local library right now, just try and get the best sound from Tidal that you can. Very rarely have I not been able to find what I am looking for with Qobuz. Spend the money on better Power, or isolation if you have money burning a hole in your pocket.
You list so many things in your profile, it’s hard to tell what gear you are actually using the P1 with, is it an SN3? What are your speakers?
Thanks for the further feedback and advice.
I’m using the P1 for everything - CD Transport (AES/EBU input), BluRay Player (Coaxial Digital and Balanced Analogue inputs), AV Amp (Un-Balanced Analogue input) and TV (Optical Digital).
I currently don’t have any digitally stored music to feed into the P1.
My speakers are Focal Electra 1038Be’s on IsoAcoustic Gaia’s driven by the Lumin Power Amp.
I’m very happy with my main system (SN3 is now a second system), but thought about getting into digitally stored music, but its proven to be not very straight forward and potentially very costly.
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You can’t really go wrong with either innuos or melco.
I have had a few melco’s along the way and all have worked, sounded fantastic.
I would even say the baby N100 is fine, especially if all you want is storage.
But you can certainly pick up bargains, especially with a budget off £5000. As right now that will get you a x demo N10 with the SSD. Yes it’s a 2 box, but it’s only the same size as one.
Plus if you have a fraim rack it will fit on it nicely and no cables foul the rear leg, unlike others.
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@MoonDrifter. Apologies in advance but just thinking have you considered using a CD ripping service?
I’ve met dealers like that before. As you say listen and judge for yourself but I would never trust a dealer who tells rather than shows,
I would trust a dealer who in this instance didn’t just sell the guy something.
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I did look into getting someone else to rip my CD’s, not too much choice in Australia and expensive at about AUD 2 per CD, so more cost effective to buy a CD ripper/music server and do it youself, although that takes a lot of time of course, but could be done slowly over time.
Good idea though.
Im a bit put off the Melco’s because you still need to buy a separate CD ripper and the Melco D100 is not cheap.
I only have the space for one full size box in my AV Rack hence the Innuos and Aurenders were looking better options for my set up.