I currently own hundreds of CDs and am to the point where I need to organize them...ideally by lossless ripping to some system that will also allow high quality playback through my audio system.
I see that many turn-key units cost several thousand dollars which is out of my price range. Are there any diY storage / playback systems available in the $500 and below range? It will need to be neat and contained in a box the size of a typical audio component (i.e. I am not willing to have my old tower PC sitting next to my gear).
Any thoughts on options?
THX
I see that many turn-key units cost several thousand dollars which is out of my price range. Are there any diY storage / playback systems available in the $500 and below range? It will need to be neat and contained in a box the size of a typical audio component (i.e. I am not willing to have my old tower PC sitting next to my gear).
Any thoughts on options?
THX
I have several thoughts for you:
1. Network Attached Storage. For $150 you can get a box from Western Digital or Seagate, with 2 terabytes that any system on your network can access. I have a WD one, and am happy with it.
2. Any computer attached to the network can access the files and play. Connect your DAC or use a good sound card. done.
or
3. MPD on Linux allows control via wireless tablet, etc. Runs on a low power PC. Linux. What I use.
1. Network Attached Storage. For $150 you can get a box from Western Digital or Seagate, with 2 terabytes that any system on your network can access. I have a WD one, and am happy with it.
2. Any computer attached to the network can access the files and play. Connect your DAC or use a good sound card. done.
or
3. MPD on Linux allows control via wireless tablet, etc. Runs on a low power PC. Linux. What I use.
Hi,
for NAS you can use any old (new) computer with freenas or nas4free. you can choose the array size raid type etc. i'm using a new computer with freenas, 6 hdds with raidz10. You can use it to backup you other files as well.
for render
1. any computer with linux and mpd. you can runnit from an USB stick and don't need any hdd on it, a good start if you don't have previous linux experience Voyage MPD | Voyage Linux or daphile
2. or an arm aproach with BeagleBoard.org - BeagleBone Black or in my case Wandboard - Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 Opensource Community Development Board - BLOG wandboard quad. For wandboard you can install debian and mpd or if you don't have linux experience Community Squeeze
I prefer the wandboard quad because is small, solid state, and consumes about 10 W (ussualy 2,5 W), therefor has a less IEM footprint. it is pretty easy to build a linear power supply, you don't have problem with ground loops and electrical noise also.
For wandboard there is a project for a HIFI carrier board in progress Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested? that sounds promising
Keep in mind that a lot of the comercial renders are base on ARM aproach.
The downside is that you cannot use brutefir for DRC.
I presume that the render will feed a USB DAC.
All of the above will cost you only hardware and some time to set them up.
For ripping:
EAC http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
and
tagging MusicBrainz Picard https://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_Picard
KR
for NAS you can use any old (new) computer with freenas or nas4free. you can choose the array size raid type etc. i'm using a new computer with freenas, 6 hdds with raidz10. You can use it to backup you other files as well.
for render
1. any computer with linux and mpd. you can runnit from an USB stick and don't need any hdd on it, a good start if you don't have previous linux experience Voyage MPD | Voyage Linux or daphile
2. or an arm aproach with BeagleBoard.org - BeagleBone Black or in my case Wandboard - Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 Opensource Community Development Board - BLOG wandboard quad. For wandboard you can install debian and mpd or if you don't have linux experience Community Squeeze
I prefer the wandboard quad because is small, solid state, and consumes about 10 W (ussualy 2,5 W), therefor has a less IEM footprint. it is pretty easy to build a linear power supply, you don't have problem with ground loops and electrical noise also.
For wandboard there is a project for a HIFI carrier board in progress Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested? that sounds promising
Keep in mind that a lot of the comercial renders are base on ARM aproach.
The downside is that you cannot use brutefir for DRC.
I presume that the render will feed a USB DAC.
All of the above will cost you only hardware and some time to set them up.
For ripping:
EAC http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
and
tagging MusicBrainz Picard https://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_Picard
KR
If you're prepared to get your hands dirty, something like this
Computer Audiophile - Geek Speak: How To Build A BeagleBone Black MPD Music Server
or a Raspberry Pi running Raspyfi.
I have a 1TB USB hard disk plugged into mine and it's set up as a Samba server so the ripped audio files can just be dragged and dropped onto it.
Computer Audiophile - Geek Speak: How To Build A BeagleBone Black MPD Music Server
or a Raspberry Pi running Raspyfi.
I have a 1TB USB hard disk plugged into mine and it's set up as a Samba server so the ripped audio files can just be dragged and dropped onto it.
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I have asus eeebox 1501 (not quite happy with it - it seems to be bad quality - optical defect, wifi antenna broken, asus software is lousy) with foobar2000. I use exact audio copy. But to honest I would prefer to buy dbpoweramp for ripping and tagging. I have ripped my collection now, but have also tried a trial version of dbpoweramp. This is really an amazing peace of software. My NAS is Iomega home server - also a mistake. This is the most louse NAS you can get. Very easy to set-up and use. But I (and many other users) need to restart the server every day.
I also have a HTPC with Zotac ITX in a Nexus Psile cabinet with Seagate Barracuda harddisc. This harddisc also failed. Remember to make back-up (I have backup
My experience is that you can have it very cheap, but the quality will also be "cheap".
I also have a HTPC with Zotac ITX in a Nexus Psile cabinet with Seagate Barracuda harddisc. This harddisc also failed. Remember to make back-up (I have backup
My experience is that you can have it very cheap, but the quality will also be "cheap".
Backup after every session on more than one disc. The 20 mins or so sat watching things update can save hours of grief later.I've found a tool that makes such backups automatic. "Syncredible". The home version is free, and you can set it to synchronize pretty much anything with anything else it can reach online. It runs when you tell it, in the background. You can configure it to delete files you've deleted, too.
I run it nightly to sync any new stuff on the music server to the NAS box.
I run it nightly to sync any new stuff on the music server to the NAS box.
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