I want to rip all my CDs onto a hard drive and use that as my main hifi source. Its really important to me that it doesn't sound any worse than my current CD player - Cyrus SE with Cyrus DAC XP. I don't need streaming and am willing to pay up to £2k. Any suggestions very gratefully received. Thanks
Server/ Hard disc player
- Thread starter Jeremy Allen
- Start date
may i ask what is the rest of your system ?
(amplifier, loudspeakers and cables).
Al ears
Well-known member
abacus
Well-known member
Check if you have a USB socket available on your equipment that will read media files, if so you can plug the HDD into this.
Use EAC to rip your files to the HDD and save them in the lossless FLAC format. (Format the HDD using FAT32 for best compatibility with older models)
To be honest you would be better off with a NAS to store your media and use the matching Cyrus streamer to play them if you have 2K available. (It would also mean you could also play them on your phone/tablet/computer from anywhere in the world if you want)
NOTE: Streaming will give you the exact same quality as a HDD plugged in direct.
Bill
Use EAC to rip your files to the HDD and save them in the lossless FLAC format. (Format the HDD using FAT32 for best compatibility with older models)
To be honest you would be better off with a NAS to store your media and use the matching Cyrus streamer to play them if you have 2K available. (It would also mean you could also play them on your phone/tablet/computer from anywhere in the world if you want)
NOTE: Streaming will give you the exact same quality as a HDD plugged in direct.
Bill
this ?
Al ears
Well-known member
The latest version is the N100 EX, it's had a major software update. Top end of budget I know.this ?
However he could do away with the computer by buying the Naim Uniti Core or the cheaper Bluesound Vault 2i, however I have no idea as to this ones sound credentials
NOTE: the Naim Uniti Core and Vault 2i have their own CD drive
However, wary of his requirements for sound quality, the Melco is the best digital music library with excellent software.
Hi - Thanks for your interest. I have a Cyrus amp and Spendor A5 speakers and good quality chord cables. I appreciate that this is all quite ancient now but it still sound good to me so I have not felt the need to change it.
thanks agian
No USB port I'm afraid
I'm really surprised to learn that streaming can give the equivalent sound quality. I have pretty poor internet where we live however, particularly in lockdown when everyone else is downloading!
Al ears
Well-known member
Understood. I thought you were looking for a hard drive music storage facility for ripped CDs, which this is. I didn't mention changing anything else.
Thanks for the Melco suggestion. Do you reckon this would sound as good as the CD player I have. Does this machine also rip CD's?this ?
i'm not much use i'm afraid as i have no knowledge of this melco machine. i just put the link up of the what hifi review as it had been mentioned although it was the wrong model.
i believe you want to connect to your amplifier via rca / analogue connection. hopefully this info should help others suggest what you need.
Al ears
Well-known member
This device does not have its own CD ripper it's simply a digital music library / server. However:-
CD import using any USB connected optical disc drive with metadata and album art added from Gracenote database. Compatible with MELCO D100 high performance CD loader.
They Naim Uniti Core does have a CD ripper built in.
i currently play cds on my laptop that feeds a pair of "powered" loudspeakers. its a temporary system !
(the laptop is a compaq presario cq57 purchased in 2012 so hardly the latest technology in computers !)
the laptop is connected to a pair of m audio av40 speakers (rrp £100) from the headphone out socket via a 10m long 3.5mm to phono cable that cost about £2 !
i've just ripped, for the first time ever, the latest album by autechre "sign" to my laptop and...it sounds better when i play the cd "live" in the laptops cd drive.
the ripped version sounds slightly mushy in comparison so basically not as good...
the point i'm making is that you might find that playing a cd via a dedicated cd player into your amplifier may sound "better" to you than a ripped copy on a hard disk player etc.
i'm not sure if this video is relevant but john darko seemed to prefer cd player playback too in this instance :-
In all honesty I struggle to suggest streamers when a simple chrome cast audio does it all better software wise and I don’t hear 2k of difference between the chrome cast and the higher end options from the likes of naim Cyrus and the rest.
If you have a 2k spend have a usb dac and you want a tidy solution with good looks buy a Mac mini with some attached storage and Audirvana . Which can be used headless from a phone or tablet with the use of an app. Good enough for Paul from ps audio in his music room one. Good enough for us.
If I went for an audition I’d take the little chrome cast with me and see if the 2k options beat it. If I’m a betting man I think you’ll truthfully struggle to hear the differences. And if it isn’t night and day I certainly wouldn’t spend the money.
I did it and me and a Friend could not tell the difference/ reliable tell the difference. But it’s a hard pill to swallow.
If you have a 2k spend have a usb dac and you want a tidy solution with good looks buy a Mac mini with some attached storage and Audirvana . Which can be used headless from a phone or tablet with the use of an app. Good enough for Paul from ps audio in his music room one. Good enough for us.
If I went for an audition I’d take the little chrome cast with me and see if the 2k options beat it. If I’m a betting man I think you’ll truthfully struggle to hear the differences. And if it isn’t night and day I certainly wouldn’t spend the money.
I did it and me and a Friend could not tell the difference/ reliable tell the difference. But it’s a hard pill to swallow.
abacus
Well-known member
If you rip a CD on a computer drive (Can be picked up for £10-15) using software like EAC, you will get a 100% copy (Assuming you save it in a lossless format) that will sound as good or better than the CD.
How can this be you say, well its simple, in most CD players (But not all) if there is an error reading the disc then the on-board error correction try’s its best to fill the gap, however with a computer it re-reads the disc as many times as needed to get 100% accuracy. (Error correction is not required)
So why do they sometimes sound different, (Assuming the CD player has not had to perform any error correction) again its simple, the digital data has to be converted to analogue for the human to hear, so the final sound will be determined by the DAC (And its associated components) used.
No magic, no mystery, just basic engineering that has been known for decades. (Long before the CD came out)
Bill
Many thanks for all your replies which have been really helpful. Plenty for me to go away and look into. Thanks again.
i honestly dont know !
windows media player i think ?
i just put the cd in the computers drive and clicked on the little rip cd to computer symbol. usually i just press play and play the cd as normal.
michael hoy
Well-known member
Definitely would not use windows media player to rip.
My personal recommendation would be dbpoweramp
WMP is ok but I think it defaults to low bitrate mp3, you need to select lossless in the menu. Plenty of free ripping software out there which does a better job and gives more options as to format: FLAC, WAV, etc., personally I use Exact Audio Copy. FLAC format is best for tagging/metadata.
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