I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but with the demise of the Naim Core and the Innuos Zen Mini, there no longer appears to be a ‘reasonably’ priced ripper/server available…….
Time to start brushing up on the NAS and media app skills then.
We ripped many of our CDs using quite a generic USB CD drive from Amazon. £20.
It’s on the drive database for AccurateRip (Innuos demand the same) and was uber reliable. Read some badly damaged discs our CD player wouldn’t handle.
I don’t think the ripping is the problem. I can easily rip a cd using itunes with an inexpensive cd drive attached to my Mac. Works great.
The issue is the hassle of managing a server. That’s what made the Core so amazing. You get a device that
a) easily scales to large capacity (i have an 8tb drive in my mine)
B) can rip or you can load your already ripped cd’s and downloaded music easily
C) looks great and great buld quality
D) sounds great
E) requires near zero IT skill to manage
It is (E) that is the issue now with the Core discontinued. Am i going to have to manage a NAS myself and figure out how to connect it to my Dac? That is a hassle i do not need.
If you get a NAS it will be connected by Ethernet through your switch/router. They don’t (AFAIK) have S/PDIF outputs. Only (some) music servers e.g. Innuos Stream 1 will be able connect vis S/PDIF. Others have USB outputs e.g. Melco.
A normal NAS can’t connect direct to a DAC - rendering software is needed. A streamer such as Naim’s products includes a renderer and a DAC (and online streaming service access software), and accesses music stored on a NAS.
For tge OP:
At least some Melco and Innuos products have rendering software built in, as well as incorporating a music store so not needing a NAS and can play direct to DAC.
For the moderately computer savvy something like a Mac Mini running Audirvana (library and rendering software, also offering online streaming access) can do the same as those Innuos or Melco devices.
And a newish kid on the block is a Wiim Ultra, with attached hard drive or SSD, can do likewise. This may be the most budget friendly approach.
Whether or to what degree there are audible differences between these will depend hugely on the DAC, of course as well as the rest of the system including room, and your ears.
As has already been pointed out, ripping can be done on any computer with a CD drive eithrr internal or attached e.g. via USB.
BTW, unless you fill it and need more room there isn’t really any routine managing needed of a NAS other than doing backups to an external device, which is wise to do with any store - including Core.
While the demise clearly hasn’t happened yet, a problem many manufacturers are facing is that optical drives for OEM are an increasing rarity with TEAC and Pioneer both leaving the optical drive (as opposed to single speed audio mech) market entirely. Those that remain are largely reserved for own brand products. For example Melco/Buffalo produce their own.
There are still some vendors like LG but the quality is dire (that word is’t strong enough sadly). So it leaves anyone who isn’t producing their own drives in a very difficult situation of scrambling for NOS or reverting to poor quality alternatives and attempting to design around those deficiencies.
I use roon, installing rock onto a pc is a breeze. The PC could cost 400 quid and still be awesome for the task and a lifetime roon subby and you are still quids in from 2k.
I rip all CDs with my MacBook and an external USB DVD player (less than 20€) in Flac with XLD.
Then put it on a little Samsung SSD, directly plug into the Nova.
(The Nova can be a server).
Simple and effective
PS: I also have a Nas with minimserver, but I prefer the SSD.
In the past I have an Aurender N100SC, and it detect the external USB DVD player. You can rip music on its internal SSD drive.