Music from the clouds

[Dr. Bob]

My CD collection is getting older and I'm starting to realize that if I don't do something soon, less and less of it will be playable as they accumulate scratches, etc. The first step seems obvious - I need to save everything onto my hard drive. (Actually, it would be even better if I had a CD player that automatically saved a digital copy of each disc, but I don't think such a thing exists.)

I want to maintain the highest fidelity, so I want to avoid MP3 compression and its cousins. CD quality or better!

My question is twofold:
1) What's the next step? and
2) What equipment do I need?

It seems like the solution might be to put everything onto some kind of cloud service. So then my question is: what service? Are there free services that are any good? Or do I have to pay a monthly fee?

Then comes the second question: Are there AV receivers that connect directly to the cloud? I would like to be able to do this without needing to have my computer or cell phone on. (Actually, I don't even own a cell phone, so anything phone based is out.) Is this possible with current technology? And what would the AVR need to have in order to do this?

Not sure if this is even the right section for this question - if not, let me know!

 

[its phillip]

I rip my cds to flac (a lossless codec) using exact audio copy.

Here's a guide to configure eac if you are interested:
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=EAC_Configuration_Wizard

 

[jotham]

As the previous poster said, I also rip CDs to the FLAC format. It's a good archiving format to preserve CD quality.

This is my approach for what you are suggesting.

1. Use DBPowerAmp to rip to both FLAC and MP3 (highest setting) at the same time (but different directories). It's a nice frontend for ripping CDs.
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

2. Use Crashplan to back up my FLAC rips to cloud. It took me a lot of time to rip all my CDs on the first pass so I save to cloud to avoid a hard drive crash from taking me out.
http://www.code42.com/crashplan/

3. I stream FLAC using my Logitech Squeezeboxes but they are discontinued. If you buy a new receiver with FLAC support, you could probably hook up an external usb drive and use the receiver to pick the music. That might be the simplest, most cost effective approach.

good luck,

Jotham

 

[Dr. Bob]

Thanks, Jotham, that's very helpful. So a new receiver with FLAC support would talk directly to the cloud? I could browse my music library without needing to be connected through a computer?

Is Crashplan like Dropbox? Is that all I need - not something like Google Play Music or Audiobox?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

 

[Lulimet]

I don't know of any receivers that can play music from cloud services like dropbox or Google Music.
The best solution in my opinion is to get a simple 1 or 2 TB NAS (Network attached storage) like the WD MyCloud. Coonect the NAS to your router, transfer all your music files to it and your receiver will be able toplay them with no problem using the network feature.

 

[little wing]

I use Windows Media Player to burn and rip CDs and create playlist. I set WMP to rip CDs in the WAV format, which is lossless. The one drawback to the Wav format is that it takes up more space on your computer's hard drive then the FLAC format. This wasn't a concern to me as my computer's hard drive has lots of space. Then, to get the music to my system, I hooked up my media player to my wireless network, and stream the music from my PC. Even though it is wireless, it still sounds good. However, if you do it this way, your computer must be ON to stream music to your system. A separate network storage device that others have spoken about would solve that problem of having to keep your computer on.

I wouldn't worry too much about a cloud service. All you are doing there is basically renting someones storage space to hold your music. This might be useful if you need to access your music from different places. FLAC and WAV formats sound as good as CD.
Hope this helps.

 

[jotham]

Thanks, Jotham, that's very helpful. So a new receiver with FLAC support would talk directly to the cloud? I could browse my music library without needing to be connected through a computer?

Is Crashplan like Dropbox? Is that all I need - not something like Google Play Music or Audiobox?

A new receiver with FLAC support will be able to stream music from your local network or a usb attached hard drive/thumb drive. Most cloud music services do not stream FLAC and usually their quality is lower than CD quality. I'm not very familiar with cloud music services so I'll defer to others. Since you specified CD quality, I focused on some form of local storage for your music.

Crashplan is more of a backup solution, DropBox is more of a file sharing solution. CrashPlan has unlimited storage capacity to the cloud(if you pay for the plan). I use it to back up my computer files and music. The classic "if the house burns down" solution. You can also test out CrashPlan for free by backing up to another computer that you might own. Won't help if the house burns down though...

My question that I don't know the answer to, is how well do most receivers allow browsing of music from a network or usb drive? Is the interface fast and easy to use or slow and painful. I think the newer receivers are better at it but I'm not sure.

 

[Dr. Bob]

So it sounds like my options are:

1) Stream from my computer
2) Stream from a NAS
3) Copy everything onto a thumb drive and plug it into the receiver

It doesn't seem like there's an advantage in having an always-on NAS as compared to simply leaving my computer on.

The big disadvantage of (3) would be the need to re-copy every time I add new music. Otherwise this is a nice, simple solution. Does anyone know the answer to Jotham's question about how easy it is to browse from these new-fangled receivers?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Dr. Bob]

It does seem like some receivers (http://www.audioholics.com/av-receiver-reviews/yamaha-rx-s600-slimline-receiver) support Airplay, which is Apple's streaming service, and which uses Apple Lossless codec. So maybe the cloud solution is still an option?

 

[Lulimet]

Still, even with AirPlay your music has to reside either in your PC or in a NAS which has iTunes serving capability.

 

[Dr. Bob]

OK, here's what I've found out, in case anyone else is interested:

Yes, it's possible to stream directly from Dropbox. I have streaming set up now using Couchy Play. This works even if my computer is turned off, so it's just what I wanted. Unfortunately, my audio, even in MP3 form, take up more space than I have in my free Dropbox account (about 3.5 GB). Also, I had to give Couchy Play access to my Dropbox account. This makes me nervous, though at the moment I don't have much on Dropbox other than music.

Streaming from the computer works well using Plex. And my OneDrive has lots of storage room (1 TB, free!) But it seems that there's nothing like Couchy Play for OneDrive, yet.

Jotham, thanks for the tip about dBpoweramp. I've been using it to rip my CDs to FLAC format and it's been great. I just rip them directly into a OneDrive folder - automatic back-up!