Converting CD collection to digital

[beingalan]

I'm about to convert my 1,000+ CD collection to digital, and since I'm a mac-user, should I select ALAC format? AND is the Cocktail Audio - X12 - CD Ripper a good buy, or even a necessary buy, to accomplish this? What else would I then need to end up with the best listening experience? Would I still need, for example, to invest in something like Amarra, Audirvana or Pure Music?

 

[Lulimet]

Storage is cheap these days so I suggest you rip your CDs to a couple of different formats. I would do WAV, MP3 for music on portable players, and ALAC since you are a MAC user.
Also no need to spend money on a CD ripping program. iTunes will do it for you.

 

[j_garcia]

CDs are digital

ALAC sounds good to me, but I'd also do either WAV or MP3 as mentioned, depending on the other devices that might be used. I tend to use my phone a lot since it is my only source in the car, so I always rip MP3.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Alac is compressed lossless. Its same thing as flac, but only for Apple stuff. Flac and alac could be easily converted to each other without any losses.
Technically Wav is file container, not a codec. Typically used with pcm codec, but not limited to. I have some dts music in wav file. Pcm is raw, nothing lost but no compression means 3-4 times larger files than flac/alac or 7-8 larger than mp3.
Speaking of mp3 - its lossy compression which i wouldn't recommend using for archiving audio, but could be handy for car/portable players

 

[beingalan]

Oops, of course CD is digital. Happy you understood me anyway. So my remaining question is whether the mac's internal CD drive is up to the task of importing so many CDs. Would it be worth investing in an external drive, and if so, any suggestions?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Oops, of course CD is digital. Happy you understood me anyway. So my remaining question is whether the mac's internal CD drive is up to the task of importing so many CDs. Would it be worth investing in an external drive, and if so, any suggestions?

Sorry, but i don't see much values proposal with coctail audio device, maybe for someone looking foolproof appliance, but I don't think it would speed up the process of ripping the cds. After all its just another computer running some software which most of it is probably open source anyway.
What you need is a stack of cd drives which could read the cds at the same time. By modern standards even fastest cd read speeds are no match for current ultra high speed interfaces, even like usb 3.0. Thunderbolt port is about 4x faster