You could do worse than looking at dBPoweramp for ripping and setting up a NAS with Asset or Mininserver running on it. Not expensive, completely user configurable, scalable, non propitiatory and future proof. The technology is older than CDs and moon landings. There’s no reason to lock yourself into a propitiatory box. If you’ve got some time on your hands, it’s a good time to do some research.
It’s nice to hear of a CD5 still doing what it’s good at. A remarkably good CDP at its price point and wickedly good with an external power supply. I put a refurbished HiCap on mine. I can still remember the wow! moment when I switched it back on. I wish you and your CD5 many more happy years.
Bluesfan, Martin definitely sounds like a great guy. Just the kind of person that I like to do business with. I am glad that so many of you have seemed to benefit from his being local to you.
Harry, I’ll take your recommendation under consideration. I do have a bit of time on my hands, the amount of which might be ultimately determined by the lifespan of my CD5 as it is getting a bit long in the tooth. Whenever it finally begins to act up I have no idea how much it would cost to get it fixed. Regardless, it has brought me many, many hours of listening pleasure. I bought it used, liked it from the get go and I have never looked back even though I have no doubt that other players could do more of this or that. But just as with my Nait 5i, once I’m really happy with the way the music sounds coming from my system I don’t tend to bother myself with the “what if” type of scenarios all that often.
I certainly have no beef with those who like to constantly upgrade their systems. But in my case I look at my system very much in the same way that I might my favorite car or motorcycle. There are always others that will outperform what I’ve got, but that doesn’t keep me from enjoying what I have. Be it a car, a motorcycle or a stereo system, as long as I’m enjoying the things about it that drew me to the product in the first place then I’m happy. In fact I definitely take an extra bit of comfort and enjoyment in the familiarity that I’ve developed with such things.
To be honest, watching the rate at which technology changes within the realm of digital audio today does provide me with some cause for concern. Only time will tell how well I’ll manage to get along with the ever changing world of audio in this day and age.
On our “main” system, we have a Synology NAS drive with a couple of WD RED hard drives in it. This is connected to a Naim DAC-V1 via a mac mini running itunes with the Bitperfect app. All ripping is now done using dBPoweramp on the mac mini.
And you know what? It is cheap as chips and sounds brilliant.
So @Harry’s suggestion of a NAS drive and dBPoweramp really is a good one, especially as a first step into streaming.
I have for many years used Exact Audio Copy along wit mp3tag to rip my cds into FLAC format which is stored on a Qnap NAS. This combination works perfectly for me.
I have a Node 2i, basically a Vault without the hard drive, but same OS. I was tentative of getting one instead of the US, but again, price was about twice of what I paid for mine. That sounds like a good alternative and should be easily available over there, even Best Buy sells Bluesound.
I had another thread asking about whether I needed a uniti core.
And if course the answer was no.
I looked at Zen minis, but my dealer only stocked the mini and the Zenith. No full size Zen.
In the end I upgraded my NAS to a Synology ds218+ and added asset( my old Nas could add asset or minim.)
So I rip ( as I always have) via iTunes as Apple lossless. And store on the ds218+.
Yes, it can be a faff. But once you are set up it’s easy.
Hi Roberto, 100% agree, I started with ripping a few years ago, I went straight into Synology DS214 ripped with dBpoweramp via a few different DVD read/writers & a lot of CD’s later straight into the NAS. Big thanks to dBpoweramp software for their excellent metadata management as after loading up the NAS with all my CD’s a week or so before the NDX arrived, all rips were playable. I found it easy, not a faff at all, just a production line. Ripping the few CD I buy these days is much the same, slot it in, rip it to laptop, check the metadata (rarely if ever needs editing) then wireless upload to NAS - just so easy.
I have never found iTunes a good fit for me, maybe because I’m on a MS Windows PC & laptop. From the start I rip to WAV (I’ve since batch converted WAV to FLAC (except the DSD albums)) & for whatever reason every time I got involved with iTunes something was not right, so I avoid.
So at this point I have had my DAC V1 up and running for just a couple of days now. Somewhat sadly, I have not had much time to play around with it in a detailed manner thus far. But I have spent enough time with the V1 that I am getting a good taste for things. Along with the V1 I am using using a Sonos Port to connect to streaming services. I am not really all that sure that I would have gone with the Port had I taken more time to research matters up front (as I usually tend to do). But one reason for rushing into things more quickly than usual this time around has to do with the conditions we find ourselves living through as we wrestle with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As I mentioned before, while my family is being forced to spend so much more time at home together I was dealing with the realities of my wife streaming low-res files via Pandora through the headphone jack of her iPhone running into the Tape input of my Nait 5i. As someone who is fortunate to have a job that allows me to continue working from home I decided that I would rather address this situation earlier rather than later. Normally I would likely have spent months pouring over all of the information that I could get my hands on before making a purchase of this magnitude. It was under these circumstances that I turned to Naim (once again) for my DAC needs based on my familiarity and overall high satisfaction with the brand thus far in my past. The Sonos Port was chosen because it was the predecessor of the Port that was in use at the dealer at the time when I auditioned and purchased my speakers and I found the user interface very intuitive to use.
Thus far on the I have only experimented with the free trial of the Apple Music service. For that matter I have yet to figure out the specifications of the quality of the files as they are currently being streamed. Yet certainly as was expected there is quite an obvious improvement over using the iPhone’s DAC via the free Pandora service as was being done in the past. This is clearly the most excited that my wife has ever been about any of my hifi related purchases (that are typically either of no interest to her at all or actually even irritating at times given my tendency to obsess over all of the various details involved.
I am relieved to find this setup is already providing enjoyable audio quality. For the past couple of days by and large I’ve only had my system playing in the background while doing other things, (including participating here on this forum, lol) as opposed to listening exclusively for the sake of listening to the music. I’ll take a closer look things when I have some time to do so. Then I’ll know whether or not there remains any room for improvement as things sit now. At that point in time I’ll also be able to begin researching the numerous options I’ve been provided with by all of you previously in this thread. Those suggestions will no doubt be invaluable to me as I work to determine what will come next for my system in terms of ripping, storing and serving up the files local to me that I will supply the DAC V1 with in the future.
I realize that it is likely that I could have spent less money and obtained results on par or perhaps even better than what I am currently experiencing. On the flip-side, I also know it is possible that I could have easily spent more money and not have obtained as much satisfaction as what I am already experiencing now as a result. At a time when an increasing number of people are embracing vinyl based analog music playback (a format that I have continually been enjoying for well over 4 decades now and will continue to enjoy going forward) I personally am really looking forward to learning more about the digital side of music playback and the enjoyment that I can get out of this part of the equation.
To that point I would note that I have never been all that involved with the format wars that so many others choose to engage in. My approach to hifi over the years has always been centered around the music itself and the enjoyment that I get from listening to the music. As a result I feel that I have managed to establish a well balanced system that provides me with ample amounts of listening enjoyment regardless of the specifics of how the music signal is being generated before it reaches the speakers. I already feel confident that the DAC V1 will fit in perfectly with this approach and am excited about what the future holds in store for me with the V1 in place. Many thanks to you all for providing so many well thought out suggestions in response to my initial query. Working my way from a perspective of simply being overwhelmed to one of being well informed and knowledgeable benefits greatly from such suggestions.
In a similar situation. Got a synology NAS and WD hard drives arriving today. DBpoweramp downloaded and so easy to use. Streamer on way as well. But I’ve gone for the cheap Yamaha WXAD-10. If streaming works for the wife then will look at a naim streamer in the future. The Yamaha will then go to the child.
Similar process to me, dbPoweramp usually gets the metadata right and needs little, if any, editing other than perhaps reducing the artwork size. Exact Audio Copy does a good job too but dbPoweramp trounces it on rip speed. When you have a pile of CDs to rip the speed of dbPoweramp really does make a difference
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