Ripping CDs and playback advice

Streaming Audio
1

Hi I would like some advice on ripping CDs and playback. Currently I have a Nova and 250DR and use both Tidal streaming and CD playback via an older Meridian Transport. I have good wifi in the house and rely on this rather than ethernet for Tidal as it would take some effort to install the latter in my house. I have started to rip CDs to lossless level 5 (default) Flac using dBpoweramp on my iMac. The files go automatically into the Music Folder on the iMac and have the correct titles in alphabetical order. I have not worked out how to set up a Nas drive and probably don’t want to go down this route because of the added complexity of ethernet cable choices, switches etc so I am proposing to load the ripped files on to a USB drive and plug it into the Nova.

My questions are:

1 Is the choice of flash drive important or do they all perform the same?

2 Would a portable hard drive be better than one or more flash drives?

3 Is USB 2.0 ok or should I go for USB 3.0?

4 Would music from a USB drive sound noticeably worse than from a Nap drive, switch and ethernet cable?

5 If I join Roon and install the core software on my iMac will it automatically find and include the music files which I have ripped to the iMac?

Finally, do dedicated rippers such as those from Melco and Innous deliver a higher quality music file to the streamer (Nova) or is it more about convenience? Long term I hope to move up to an NDX2 or ND5XS2 and I assume they play a big part in maximising the sound extracted from music files

Thanks for looking and hopefully giving advice as I have been unable to fully find out the answers

2

Hi, I have had no problem using any old cheap USB stick, or a cheap WD USB HDD in my Atom. Whether or not a more revealing system would show shortcomings compared to any other server, I can’t say, as my older NDX doesn’t work this way.
Roon cannot access music on a drive attached to a Naim streamer, so you would have to use the drive elsewhere on your network.
You will find a wide variety of opinions here on the merits of various proprietary servers, NAS/servers etc. My own experience is that they all sound pretty similar, with only subtle differences in sound quality.

3

Hi Chris
Thanks for your speedy and helpful reply. The original rips will remain on the iMac (unless I go down the Nas route) so I assume Roon could access them there
Bob

4

Yes, Roon can be given access to multiple music libraries, including any on a Mac or NAS.

5

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.