A Paul Brady fan too I see, nice!
Peter
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Sounds like you have your procedure sorted.
I call it a process/procedure (ripping CDs) because thatās what it is. Get this right, using the right tools, the end result will be good and consistent.
Iām on a MAC so use XLD for ripping or converting formats, then add the files to āMetadaticsā to add/check metadata, then save. Itās ready for transfer to wherever itās going.
I use the web first to get the best album cover quality I can. Then add this using XLD before I start the rip.
Sorted!
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@MrDom @LSLFAN @daddycool @Orac
@MrDom Completely agree about thinking in terms of process / procedure - operations. Get into a groove, doing all the right things and repeat, a lot.
Way back, as part of my work, I spent a lot of time with Imerge, Linn Kivor, Meridian Sooloos and also Solos products. Including a whole bunch of network and software tools for music and servers. Even did a lot of database loads (for others). In fact, a lot of database builds 
Reckon getting into a groove is the best (only) way.
Dedicated music servers have come along such a long way in 10-15 years, since that experience. For me, the key thing is the user interface UI. Innuos Sense is pretty good. Most things have been thought through and work well.
One of the positive reasons one might go the direction of a music server is the ease of use. To be fair, you pay more for this. (Compared to alternatives, say an Apple Mac Mini, or any decent PC, with appropriate software, etc).
Although, Iām aware of such software tools and how best to use them, Iām also a bit of Luddite for my own home.
Anything used here has to pass muster with several users, (not just me). Itās a philosophical point, as to how much you use these things. As opposed to just using the utility of a music server (like the Innuos) and just getting on with it. Enjoying the music 
Iām going to look at kid3, XLD, DBPoweramp, plus some other things I know. We have PC machines here, connected to same whole house CAT6 network. So, later on in my project, I may start to examine ways to improve the metadata, check bit perfect, transcode, etc, etcā¦
One area Iām already thinking about is the genre # tags. Iām doing this as Iām going along. But may also come back to this with more a sophisticated understanding later.
Iām undecided on what to do with our archive of c.700 CDās in ALAC format, on a USB HDD. Thatās for another day.
Thanks all. All these thoughts are invaluable. Nobody, by themselves, knows everything and itās great a wider community is able to reflect and offer alternative thoughts. It also becomes a permanent record and a resource for anyone following on later.
Keep all these positive thoughts and ideas flowingā¦
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As a life long music lover, Iām finding that going through our album collection is also a journey through your own lifeā¦
Many of the albums or individual records are connected with something along the way. So many great memories.
As an example, take Mr. Lloyd Cole.
Weāve followed Mr Lloyd along his own life via a musical career. Starting with the Commotions. We have those 1980ās records on vinyl. Then later, these CDās.
The bottom one is his solo album Standards, (2013). This one was signed by Mr Lloyd himself.
Knowing our likes, a very close friend bought me two tickets - for a significant birthday - to see Lloyd Cole. My wife (and best mate) and myself went along and had a great night together. Including a brief chat with the man himself, after the gig. Signed copy was bagged. (Ticket paperwork keep for effect).
Listen to āMyrtle and Roseā and āNo Truckā.
Simple can be beautiful ā¦
(Heās lived in NY, USA for some time now and you see which direction this has taken him with his music).
Anyway, so many positive memories are found in your personal thingsš
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Totaly agree with your thoughts and the way you are approaching this task.
I decided to rip to WAV many years ago, as I started with Naims own ND5XS. Never had any issues with tagging them either. Decided to stay with WAV as disk space not an issue for me.
Everything gets transferred to Synology NAS. Decided on Minimserver back in the day due to my love of Classical music. Itās worked flawlessly for nearly 10 years.
My end result after ripping with XLD looks like this:
- Folder called Artist Name
- Folder called Album Name
- 01 Track Name.wav
- 02 Track Name.wav
- etcā¦
- folder.jpg
All gets transferred to NAS appropriate folder.
NAS folder structure is:
>CD
>Hi Def
>DSD
>Playlist
I browse by metadata, not folder structure.
I call this my master library that is fit for purpose now and whatever the future holds.
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I use a very similar format to @MrDom in terms of folder structure and use of Synology NAS and Minimserver. I however am in the PC world as opposed to MAC so use a slightly different toolset to rip etc and also have all my files in FLAC. I have Minimserver set up to transpose to WAV on the fly; ie the flac files are transposed to wav by Minimserver as they are sent to player/dac (Naim units in my case). This is something easily set up in Minimserver and I believe a few folk on the forum do this as well.
As mentioned earlier you seem to have a process sorted - hope the ripping of your final CDs is successful and that you are enjoying finding those gems of yesteryear.
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Hi @ratrat,
nice thread, enjoyable reading with a real story to it. A couple of thoughts - donāt forget to use the Innuos backup regularly as you rip discs. A USB hard drive will do for backups, they arenāt too expensive. Innuos has a facility to review the metadata and edit it as you rip; this can be used for fixing release year, genre, cover art and track title spelling mistakes. I use the Innuos ripper most of the time. DBPoweramp is used for the few HDCDs I have because it can turn them into 24bit 44.1kHz FLAC format where the Innuos ripper will convert them to 16bit 44.1kHz WAV or FLAC.
Enjoy your music, M
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Thatās really good shout. Thank you for all those ideas.
Funny, Iāve been browsing the internet today and thinking about a back up disc. Itās on my listš
And thanks for reading the thread and paying a compliment. Thatās also much appreciated. Equally, hope itās interesting and entertaining.
I have been following this thread with interest.
Maybe a very basic question: is there a way to use a remote control for basic transport controls such as play, pause and skip or is this only possible using the Innuos app?
Very good advice - I managed to suffer a hard drive failure on my Innuos device before I had completed burning all of my cds. My grand plan had been to wait until I completed the burning before undertaking a single back up. I didnāt get as far as backing up a single cd and no data was recovered by Innuos - please learn from my silly mistake!
Peter
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If you mean Innuos Sense, with any of their servers?
First, to be clear, there is no separate IR remote control, to operate the Zen Mini.
Control (of everything) is via their Sense (UI) App.
This is downloaded onto a computer, tablet or mobile phone.
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Have any folks much more diligent than me compared to hear if there is any difference in audio quality when ripping a cd using an Innuos device between the default setting and the quiet option. I appreciate that the quiet option makes less noise and takes considerably longer, but is the end result exactly the same?
Peter
Itās got to be the same result, surely? Just takes less time and makes more noise. If itās not, then innuos need to place a warning. But itās got to be the same, hasnāt it???
You would like to think so but every single aspect of this digital stuff seems to throw up unexpected answers. I have an open mind but am too lazy to try finding out for myself!!
I have finally got to the point where I am now contemplating ripping my cd collection again and thought prudent to check if any folks here have discovered there to be differences of note. Hopefully not as the standard rip is significantly quicker, but perhaps all that energy creating more noise may impact on the quality?
Peter
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Hereās an image of a typical album pageā¦
(Apologies in advance, for poor quality snap)
As a user interface (UI) Sense is intuitive.
Once you have selected an album you arrive at this page.
You can see option to PLAY ALBUM (all tracks in order)
Also, if you just select a track, it immediately starts to play that track.
At the bottom, you can see pause, back (previous track) and forward (next track)
You can see the I> marker, showing track 1 : āDaydreamerā - is selected and playing.
Note : volume is controlled on your amplifier
Yes, that is what I meant. I sometimes to prefer to pick up a remote control instead of a tablet or smartphone for pausing or skipping music. Thanks for confirming.
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In our case, there are several iPads and iPhones around and you are never far from one. Often one of these is in the room or on a side table. So itās pretty straight forward in that environment.
Sense is more than a transport control. The most useful aspect is the access to artists and albums, in different ways, to allow the user to explore and select music to play.
Select Artist, from a screen of optionsā¦
Here is the page for Kate Bush
(Showing all CDās ripped and available for that artist)
From your chosen Artist page, then select an Album
In this case, selected ā50 Words for Snowā shown here
(Apologies for rubbish snaps)
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They are NOT rubbishā¦ Any picture with Kate Bush cannot beā¦ 
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Thanks for the explanation. I am currently using Roon which I guess is in some ways similar. Using an app is great for browsing and selecting using but for e.g. pausing the music I sometimes prefer to use a remote control. For Roon there is an extension that allows me to use my Harmony remote that controls the rest of my system as well.
No problem. Hope that was all helpful.
Just curiousā¦
Whatā digital source(s) are you using ?
How are you using the Waversa WStreamer ?