CD ripper/storage/player options

ski2xblack

ski2xblack

Audioholic Field Marshall
So, I'm cursed. Both my old POS laptop "music server" and retro CD player being used as a DAC took shits simultaneously. The laptop took a couple thousand ripped discs with it (I still have the shiny discs in storage).

Is there anything out there similar to a Bluesound node or the Brennan jukeboxes that doesn't cost a fortune?

Needs/wants:
Ripper
Player
Storage, but doesn't need to be networked
Analog output (to accommodate rigs with retro front ends)

Prefer to stay away from an overcomplexified hodge podge of devices (separate CD drive/DAC/NAS).

Any one box solutions to this out there?
 
mono-bloc

mono-bloc

Full Audioholic
Look for a free program called "ANY BURN" It should do what you want
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
No backups? Whut? My preferred method is to continue to use my laptops to rip but have multiple backup drives so I don't have to spend that time again. I've not shopped for another drive to rip with in a while, still even have one I took out of a laptop that died for other reasons.

ps fwiw for discs that are a pain to rip (bluray, multich sacd) I just keep using stand alone players and keep those optical discs on the shelves instead of in binders as backup. Good luck in finding what you want. Seems many like the convenience of the Bluesound gear....
 
ski2xblack

ski2xblack

Audioholic Field Marshall
Yeah, no backups, aside from some thumb drives. Yeah, serves me right for being lazy. Fortunately, external CD/DVD drives are pretty cheap, so I'll probably go that route and use this laptop, which has more memory and no spinning hard drive to break down.

Mono-block, I plan to use EAC unless there is a compelling reason to use ANY BURN, but I appreciate the suggestion.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
At least you have some thumb drives?! I have several of those in addition to dual hard drive backups....and dual laptops. EAC has been my go to since I started ripping. I got a usb adapter for an old laptop's drive particularly (bluray capable unlike many newer laptops)....
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Yeah, no backups, aside from some thumb drives. Yeah, serves me right for being lazy. Fortunately, external CD/DVD drives are pretty cheap, so I'll probably go that route and use this laptop, which has more memory and no spinning hard drive to break down.

Mono-block, I plan to use EAC unless there is a compelling reason to use ANY BURN, but I appreciate the suggestion.
Besides Bluesound, a forum member did a review on the CocktailAudio X45.

I still use EAC. Only software I know of that checks for accuracy of your rips.
 
ski2xblack

ski2xblack

Audioholic Field Marshall
The Cocktail piece is even more expensive than the Bluesound vaults!! Thanks, all the same.

El cheapo hp CD drive on the way. El cheapo Panasonic br player unphased by scratched up silver discs this holiday morning. Playing DJ will be more of a hassle today, but we have music.

Hope everyone feels thankful, loved, and full (satiated with good food and music) today!!
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
The Cocktail piece is even more expensive than the Bluesound vaults!! Thanks, all the same.

El cheapo hp CD drive on the way. El cheapo Panasonic br player unphased by scratched up silver discs this holiday morning. Playing DJ will be more of a hassle today, but we have music.

Hope everyone feels thankful, loved, and full (satiated with good food and music) today!!
I would add an el-cheapo external backup hard drive to back up your rips this time. ;)
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
I'm going to emphasize this: Being cheap on a audio front end will leave you very disappointed in the long term.

That is, Bluesound and Sonos cost a fair bit for a reason. Their software support is far superior to that of other companies. There are certainly independent options out there which range from cheap to free, some may even be very good, but you are going to find that in a few years, you are outta luck. It will be absorbed by someone bigger, or it will be gone. There won't be customer service and support for the long term, and that is often NOT what people really want.

Same is true of storage. Either get two mirrored hard drives, or get a quality NAS. Do something to ensure you won't lose your data, unless your time is worthless.

I use a Sonos, generation 2, and it works well, but I would possibly get a Bluesound for my next whole house player. Both options can play back audio from my collection on computers in my home or from a NAS directly and provide EXCELLENT phone control which gives me a solid remote that requires zero need for me to touch a computer for playback.

Yes, I realize everyone has different needs, but the lack of software support, the lack of hardware support, and ZERO guarantee of upgrades and updates in cheap solutions can be a massive headache. That's entirely what the extra money you pay into these systems are for. A well founded company with a long term plan for stability.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Using a laptop's internal (single) storage device as your sole audio storage - is bound to create issues like the one you have. BMX is correct, you need to do it properly - get a quality NAS AND do backups you can count on.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
Using a laptop's internal (single) storage device as your sole audio storage - is bound to create issues like the one you have. BMX is correct, you need to do it properly - get a quality NAS AND do backups you can count on.
This is a favorite topic of mine simply because I spent my entire working life around IT systems.
What @BoredSysAdmin said is all too true: if you cheap out on the front end of a project, it may come back and bite you in the ass.

Most of what you are looking for that may require a purchase is simple and not expensive.

What is expensive, really from any point of view, is your TIME. Putting together a digital system to rip, organize, store, backup and play music is more time consuming than wallet consuming. The greater the size of the finished library, the greater the amount of time it takes to create it. If however you use that time to good advantage with a good strategy, you'll not have to do it again and again and again when things break. And they will break. They haven't made a piece of hardware yet that doesn't fail at the inopportune moment.

I have advised many folks who have small music collections and or limited computer skills to skip the whole effort. Just spin CDs and or records and be happy. For those with limited collections or limited computer skills, the effort may not be worth it at all. Just enjoy the music.

For those who want the flexibility of a digital music library, there's work to do. I find its enjoyable work but not everyone does. Having a strategy and an example of how others have done it can also take a lot of the pain out of it and provide some comfort you're headed in the right direction. There's plenty of help here on the AH. Lots of people have gone down this path successfully.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
A big thing here is just that your time matters most.

The data on the drives matters second most.

The playback is almost an afterthought, but you want it to be usable, so it's easy and is updated over time.

That's several different pieces to a puzzle that all go together.

A NAS drive doesn't have to be complex. It should be easy. That's the point of your time being valuable. They should support you if you have questions, and it should be easy to add a networked (NAS) hard drive to your computer as it is to have a local hard drive right on your computer. Best of all, the NAS isn't tied to that computer, so it is always available to your music player(s) wherever the laptop otherwise is.

The music player needs to be able to access music from a shared drive, like a NAS, and should be comfortable in getting that audio into play without a lot of headaches. Once again, this should be a fairly painless process to make it happen.

That's not to say that you can't use a system like Plex running off of your home computer. Give the free version a try. See how you like it. Maybe it's magic for you and that's it. But, if a drive fails, you are back here starting from scratch. That's just not where I'd want to be.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
A big thing here is just that your time matters most.

The data on the drives matters second most.

The playback is almost an afterthought, but you want it to be usable, so it's easy and is updated over time.

That's several different pieces to a puzzle that all go together.

A NAS drive doesn't have to be complex. It should be easy. That's the point of your time being valuable. They should support you if you have questions, and it should be easy to add a networked (NAS) hard drive to your computer as it is to have a local hard drive right on your computer. Best of all, the NAS isn't tied to that computer, so it is always available to your music player(s) wherever the laptop otherwise is.

The music player needs to be able to access music from a shared drive, like a NAS, and should be comfortable in getting that audio into play without a lot of headaches. Once again, this should be a fairly painless process to make it happen.

That's not to say that you can't use a system like Plex running off of your home computer. Give the free version a try. See how you like it. Maybe it's magic for you and that's it. But, if a drive fails, you are back here starting from scratch. That's just not where I'd want to be.
Having helped people who ventured down the rabbit hole quite a distance before realizing mistakes, it really can take the fun out of doing it if you have to do it over. And over. Small things like the naming conventions on files. May sound stupid or like something you can just wing. Maybe you can. But the bigger the library and the more flexible you want it to be, naming conventions on files matter. NAS storage or some sort of storage hierarchy is another seeming small detail that can either bring great dividend or great grief.

Any way you slice it your time is valuable. That's what I love about my digital solution most. Now that it's in place, I can listen to any tune just about anywhere anytime without much thought. I don't lose data or music or work if something dies. Plenty of things die. I love the music. It's the whole point. Building a flexible digital solution really makes it nice for listening. For something I enjoy this much, going cheap just doesn't fit.
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
Being a former IT guy, I too am a firm believer in redundancy. I have a USB drive connected to a Windows 7 laptop (this laptop I'm responding too for this post) serving my music to all three systems in my home. I'm doing redundancy the hard way though. This USB drive was taken from my bedroom system but I also have USB hard drives with identical data on the other systems.

I want to do this right and get a NAS but that poop's considerably more expensive here in Canada than the US. I know I will run into bottlenecks if multiple streams are being used. ( I should try this to see how many I can open before I hear the difference) I will need to invest in a multimedia PC eventually but I'm holding off as I now live alone and only open one stream source at a time.
 

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