CD Changers Out - Sonos System In

[GO-NAD!]

When I bought my Panny PJ and BDP 4 years ago, I also purchased an extended warranty for them, which I normally wouldn't do. However, if I never had to make a claim against the warranty over the 50 month coverage, I could apply the cost of the warranty to a future purchase. Coincidentally, my two Sony CD changers have been skipping far too much to tolerate any more. Now that the warranty has expired, the plan is to replace them with a Sonos Connect and Boost. I'll need to pick up a NAS, as well. I just can't go with a single CD player, as I have almost 600 CD's and storing them all in the living room in shelves or a cabinet just won't be happening.

 

[3db]

When I bought my Panny PJ and BDP 4 years ago, I also purchased an extended warranty for them, which I normally wouldn't do. However, if I never had to make a claim against the warranty over the 50 month coverage, I could apply the cost of the warranty to a future purchase. Coincidentally, my two Sony CD changers have been skipping far too much to tolerate any more. Now that the warranty has expired, the plan is to replace them with a Sonos Connect and Boost. I'll need to pick up a NAS, as well. I just can't go with a single CD player, as I have almost 600 CD's and storing them all in the living room in shelves or a cabinet just won't be happening.

Just keep the CDs packed in a box in case you run into hard drive issues. I'm about to store my CDs as well as I have most of them ripped to a hard drive and made available through the WD. I may need a better hard drive if people in my household want to stream different files concurrently.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Just keep the CDs packed in a box in case you run into hard drive issues. I'm about to store my CDs as well as I have most of them ripped to a hard drive and made available through the WD. I may need a better hard drive if people in my household want to stream different files concurrently.

Oh yes, I won't be getting rid of them. All the cases are presently boxed up. When I'm done, they will just contain all the CD's as well.

 

[KEW]

I don't know how much HD space 600 CD's takes (or what format you are using for the files), but I would be more inclined to back-up the HD. It seems like the time/hassle of ripping 600 CD's might be greater than the cost of a back-up drive.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I don't know how much HD space 600 CD's takes (or what format you are using for the files), but I would be more inclined to back-up the HD. It seems like the time/hassle of ripping 600 CD's might be greater than the cost of a back-up drive.

That has crossed my mind, but I don't know if I will go that route yet.

 

[3db]

I don't know how much HD space 600 CD's takes (or what format you are using for the files), but I would be more inclined to back-up the HD. It seems like the time/hassle of ripping 600 CD's might be greater than the cost of a back-up drive.

I agree...back disk drive first but keep the physical media even if its boxed.

 

[little wing]

What format do think you might want to rip your CDs in? I ripped maybe about 140 or so CDs in a WAV format and it currently takes up about 67GB of hard drive space.

 

[its phillip]

What format do think you might want to rip your CDs in? I ripped maybe about 140 or so CDs in a WAV format and it currently takes up about 67GB of hard drive space.

I use exactaudiocopy & flac encoder to rip to wav and compress using flac.

 

[KEW]

Using little wing's worst case of wav files, you could fit a 3TB drive - about $100.
Assume (you know better than I do), 3 minutes/CD X 600CD's = 1800 minutes or 30 hours.
These numbers indicate if you needed the back-up, you would be burning CD's for 30 hours at $3.33/hour.
And the other consideration is how difficult would it be to find 30 hours to burn the CD's?

Of course you may never need the back up, and keeping the CD's is effortless. (but store them at your or wife's work or with family/friend... theft or fire might get both your collection and the server)


Risk theory would look it as (if, for example, the chance of failure was 20% over the life you intend to use this drive). I also use $15/hr as the pay rate you would be willing to rip CD's for.

(Chance of failure/loss) X (cost of failure) = value of preventing failure
(0.2) X (30hr X $15/hr) = (0.2)($450) = $90
This (using my arbitrary assignments of 20%, 30 hours, and $15/hr) indicates the hard drive (which essentially prevents the consequences of a failure) is worth $90 in this situation.

Thanks for humoring my OCD tendencies!

 

[Adam]

That has crossed my mind, but I don't know if I will go that route yet.

Go that route. At least, that's my advice...as someone who ripped my entire CD collection to a hard drive and then had that drive fail. That was over 10 years ago and drive space was a lot more expensive then. Just do it.

 

[little wing]

Using little wing's worst case of wav files, you could fit a 3TB drive - about $100.
Assume (you know better than I do), 3 minutes/CD X 600CD's = 1800 minutes or 30 hours.
These numbers indicate if you needed the back-up, you would be burning CD's for 30 hours at $3.33/hour.
And the other consideration is how difficult would it be to find 30 hours to burn the CD's?

Of course you may never need the back up, and keeping the CD's is effortless. (but store them at your or wife's work or with family/friend... theft or fire might get both your collection and the server)


Risk theory would look it as (if, for example, the chance of failure was 20% over the life you intend to use this drive). I also use $15/hr as the pay rate you would be willing to rip CD's for.

(Chance of failure/loss) X (cost of failure) = value of preventing failure
(0.2) X (30hr X $15/hr) = (0.2)($450) = $90
This (using my arbitrary assignments of 20%, 30 hours, and $15/hr) indicates the hard drive (which essentially prevents the consequences of a failure) is worth $90 in this situation.

Thanks for humoring my OCD tendencies!

Just curious, are WAV files worst case because of the space WAV files take up? I use windows media player which doesn't support FLAC. I can create Playlists with WMP, and I'm just used to using it so I never felt the need to change playback software.

 

[slipperybidness]

I use exactaudiocopy & flac encoder to rip to wav and compress using flac.

+1

This is also my preferred method. I think phillip is the same person that suggested that I used that method.

 

[slipperybidness]

Just curious, are WAV files worst case because of the space WAV files take up? I use windows media player which doesn't support FLAC. I can create Playlists with WMP, and I'm just used to using it so I never felt the need to change playback software.

Yup.

FLAC is also lossless, but it compresses to a smaller file size than WAV

 

[little wing]

Yup.

FLAC is also lossless, but it compresses to a smaller file size than WAV

Ok, got it. My hard drive can hold over 900GB, and it's less than half full, so it's not really an issue for me. I thought there was maybe another reason flac was better than wav.

 

[slipperybidness]

Ok, got it. My hard drive can hold over 900GB, and it's less than half full, so it's not really an issue for me. I thought there was maybe another reason flac was better than wav.

Well, today it's not an issue, but in a few years it might be.

I prefer FLAC, smaller file and works good with FOOBAR.

The only drawback that I can see with my limited knowledge on the topic, it seems that if you want to burn to an audio CD, then you must convert the FLAC back to WAV. I could be wrong on that, but that's what it seemed like the couple of times that I tried it.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I hadn't really given much thought to the format I would use yet, but probably FLAC. And, I accept the advise to get a backup drive. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[3db]

I have a about 150Gigs worth of ripped CD in mp3 at 320MPS and they sound as good to ne as the original CD.

 

[little wing]

Well, today it's not an issue, but in a few years it might be.

I prefer FLAC, smaller file and works good with FOOBAR.

The only drawback that I can see with my limited knowledge on the topic, it seems that if you want to burn to an audio CD, then you must convert the FLAC back to WAV. I could be wrong on that, but that's what it seemed like the couple of times that I tried it.

Ok, thanks, I've heard of FOOBAR but I'm not really familiar with using it, I'll have to check it out.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Well, I'm getting psyched to get this project started. I figure I'll pick up a WD My Cloud 2 or 3 TB NAS (I'll get a backup drive later). Reading up on FLAC, it seems that there are different sources - Media Monkey, Exact Audio Copy, Foobar. Do they all work pretty similar? I'm a luddite when it comes to this, so user friendly is a big plus for me.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Well, since nobody responded to my last post, I decided to go with Exact Audio Copy. It seems to work well. After a few hiccups, I think I have it pretty much figured out. So, out of 550 - 600 CD's, I've ripped about 10 to the NAS. This is gonna take a while.

I also picked up the Sonos Connect and Boost yesterday. I have them set up and running. So far, so good.