CD collection ..easy play ?

Cloudskip

Active member
Mar 30, 2025
3
1
25
Im sure this has been covered but Im afraid theres so much info its hard for me to decide what to do.

The issue is I have a few hundred CDs and I would love to just pick up my Ipad and instantly control/ play (somehow) any CD ….any track.

I want to rule out any form of streaming or online services.

My ideal would be a small box that rips CDs to a hard drive etc and a remote where you can dial up a cd and track..easily.

Oh….and of course I want it to be easy and not reliant on subscriptions or anything like that. No fancy bells and whistles ! Just to play CD tracks…

I know theres the Brennan items …but is there anything else ? Something reliable and simple ?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al ears


 
Im sure this has been covered but Im afraid theres so much info its hard for me to decide what to do.

The issue is I have a few hundred CDs and I would love to just pick up my Ipad and instantly control/ play (somehow) any CD ….any track.

I want to rule out any form of streaming or online services.

My ideal would be a small box that rips CDs to a hard drive etc and a remote where you can dial up a cd and track..easily.

Oh….and of course I want it to be easy and not reliant on subscriptions or anything like that. No fancy bells and whistles ! Just to play CD tracks…

I know theres the Brennan items …but is there anything else ? Something reliable and simple ?
No really cheap way of doing that I feel.
I use an external hard drive connected to my Oppo controlled by a tablet
Brennan probably easiest and cheapest
 
Im sure this has been covered but Im afraid theres so much info its hard for me to decide what to do.

The issue is I have a few hundred CDs and I would love to just pick up my Ipad and instantly control/ play (somehow) any CD ….any track.

I want to rule out any form of streaming or online services.

My ideal would be a small box that rips CDs to a hard drive etc and a remote where you can dial up a cd and track..easily.

Oh….and of course I want it to be easy and not reliant on subscriptions or anything like that. No fancy bells and whistles ! Just to play CD tracks…

I know theres the Brennan items …but is there anything else ? Something reliable and simple ?
Hi,

What existing equipment do you already have? 250 CDs will take up about 128GB of space and quite a few machines amps/blue rays /cd players etc will accept thumb drives also some will have airplay built in.

Any Bluesound node will accept a thumb drive in the rear and appear in the blues app for control from phone or pad or laptop and I think nodes can be had quite cheap now s/hand or exdem due to a new range being launched
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al ears
Hi,

What existing equipment do you already have? 250 CDs will take up about 128GB of space and quite a few machines amps/blue rays /cd players etc will accept thumb drives also some will have airplay built in.

Any Bluesound node will accept a thumb drive in the rear and appear in the blues app for control from phone or pad or laptop and I think nodes can be had quite cheap now s/hand or exdem due to a new range being launched
He's also going to need an external DVD / CD drive to connect to something to rip them in the first place.
Assume he has computer or laptop.
 
Thanx so much for quick replies….much appreciated. Some of the costs of these things are eye watering ! I wonder why they are so expensive ?
But AL ears….YES 250 CDs would be more than enough for me if I could use the thumbnail idea ? Even MP3 would be good enough .
Ive tried making a library on ipad Music but yesterday after trying to add more Albums , my whole collection disappeared in a second. A lot of work, time and effort lost. Files totally deleted. I didnt do anything !!!!
But having say 50 albums on my ipad would work for me even if I have to stream to my HI Fi provided i could make them safe from however ipad music works.

What is the best way to rip and store and use ? I rip via PC . Transfer file to Mac air (no cd crive and I wont connect my dedicated music PC to the web) ) via flash drive then connect ipad to the Mac and hope it sees it …despite top quality connectors it somtimes takes hours to get the ipad recognised. Then i can add albums but Im so wary they will disappear on a whim . The Music app on ipad is hardly reliable.
 
Im sure this has been covered but Im afraid theres so much info its hard for me to decide what to do.

The issue is I have a few hundred CDs and I would love to just pick up my Ipad and instantly control/ play (somehow) any CD ….any track.

I want to rule out any form of streaming or online services.

My ideal would be a small box that rips CDs to a hard drive etc and a remote where you can dial up a cd and track..easily.

Oh….and of course I want it to be easy and not reliant on subscriptions or anything like that. No fancy bells and whistles ! Just to play CD tracks…

I know theres the Brennan items …but is there anything else ? Something reliable and simple ?
Hi, which hifi do you use for listening. Amp, speakers...? And how good sound quality would you like to have, hear from your ripped CD collection? Any idea of budget for this device? BR.
 
Thanx so much for quick replies….much appreciated. Some of the costs of these things are eye watering ! I wonder why they are so expensive ?
But AL ears….YES 250 CDs would be more than enough for me if I could use the thumbnail idea ? Even MP3 would be good enough .
Ive tried making a library on ipad Music but yesterday after trying to add more Albums , my whole collection disappeared in a second. A lot of work, time and effort lost. Files totally deleted. I didnt do anything !!!!
But having say 50 albums on my ipad would work for me even if I have to stream to my HI Fi provided i could make them safe from however ipad music works.

What is the best way to rip and store and use ? I rip via PC . Transfer file to Mac air (no cd crive and I wont connect my dedicated music PC to the web) ) via flash drive then connect ipad to the Mac and hope it sees it …despite top quality connectors it somtimes takes hours to get the ipad recognised. Then i can add albums but Im so wary they will disappear on a whim . The Music app on ipad is hardly reliable.
So you have the CD's on your MacBook air? Why are you connecting your iPad is that plugged into your amp? You can leave the CD's on your air and stream them via airplay to any other airplay device. Turn on sharing in music and download iTunes remote on the iPad and select you mar airs library
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2025-03-30 at 16.32.56.png
    Screenshot 2025-03-30 at 16.32.56.png
    382.8 KB · Views: 2
  • Ipad.jpg
    Ipad.jpg
    96.2 KB · Views: 2
Last edited:
Thanx again for replies and help.

When I say rule out streaming I said online streaming or rather being reliant on a streaming /subscription service where you dont own any hard copy of the music.

The Mac air has faults and wont upgrade and so a lot of things are “unavailable “ so I hardly use it. I need to probably take to a computer shop for fixing. Besides i prefer the handiness of the ipad.
If I could get say 50 albums on there (even in MP3) that would solve my problem so far as I would probably get a new ipad with much more Ram just for the music. But as mentioned , when using the Music app on the ipad, it can (and does) delete albums at the drop of a hat for no reason. Accept anything bought on iTunes which is always safe. Could that be by design ?

I wonder if anyone has any link to How to rip CDs and download file albums to ipad ? Plus editing artwork etc etc. I think Im probably doing things wrong. But yes, this would be a better solution for me rather than having a dedicated costly unit that I dont really need.
 
Novafidelity n15d can rip cd's onto a onboard ssd drive.( which you usually buy separately) I'm not sure how good the file sorting is though as I only tried it the once....but it's a great wee device...I just sold mine on eBay for a couple of hundred quid....I already had my cd's ripped to flac and I prefer to use Roon, hence it wasn't a feature I was needing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al ears
Thanx again for replies and help.

When I say rule out streaming I said online streaming or rather being reliant on a streaming /subscription service where you dont own any hard copy of the music.

The Mac air has faults and wont upgrade and so a lot of things are “unavailable “ so I hardly use it. I need to probably take to a computer shop for fixing. Besides i prefer the handiness of the ipad.
If I could get say 50 albums on there (even in MP3) that would solve my problem so far as I would probably get a new ipad with much more Ram just for the music. But as mentioned , when using the Music app on the ipad, it can (and does) delete albums at the drop of a hat for no reason. Accept anything bought on iTunes which is always safe. Could that be by design ?

I wonder if anyone has any link to How to rip CDs and download file albums to ipad ? Plus editing artwork etc etc. I think Im probably doing things wrong. But yes, this would be a better solution for me rather than having a dedicated costly unit that I dont really need.
Thanks for clarification.
To me, if it isn't hard wired it is streaming..... 🙂
 
If MP3 would be good enough wouldn't bluetooth?

You'd just need a bluetooth receiver to play from your phone or laptop, assuming your amp doesn't have it already. Then you'd just rip in the usual way.

I could do this personally using the bluetooth on my Majority tuner, but don't, because the original CD sounds better...
 
You said you’re using pc to rip your cds? Once complete, copy file structure to some kind of usb disk. Get a raspberry pi. Install minidlna program & plug the usb disk in to the pi. Get a “streaming” app e.g. mplayer. Don’t worry, you’re going to use it locally. In the app find the dlna share, browse and play!
You might even be able to skip the pi stage and share your pc music to your local network as dlna, and use mplayer or vlc or whatever (there are hundreds of apps that can browse & play dlna shares)
 
Thanx so much for quick replies….much appreciated. Some of the costs of these things are eye watering ! I wonder why they are so expensive ?
But AL ears….YES 250 CDs would be more than enough for me if I could use the thumbnail idea ? Even MP3 would be good enough .
Ive tried making a library on ipad Music but yesterday after trying to add more Albums , my whole collection disappeared in a second. A lot of work, time and effort lost. Files totally deleted. I didnt do anything !!!!
But having say 50 albums on my ipad would work for me even if I have to stream to my HI Fi provided i could make them safe from however ipad music works.

What is the best way to rip and store and use ? I rip via PC . Transfer file to Mac air (no cd crive and I wont connect my dedicated music PC to the web) ) via flash drive then connect ipad to the Mac and hope it sees it …despite top quality connectors it somtimes takes hours to get the ipad recognised. Then i can add albums but Im so wary they will disappear on a whim . The Music app on ipad is hardly reliable.
I use my Mac Air to rip music it works fine can store it on the Mac or external drive play via the Mac .

I use a external CD drive via USB on the Mac you can choose to store the music in iTunes or create a folder.The Art work is hit and miss not always available but you can add your own to each album.

If the mac is faulty reinstall the software version Apple help has lots of good guides how to do this .
good luck .
 

TRENDING THREADS