Easy guys - advice please!!

Posted by: The Strat (Fender) on 09 January 2016

The Strats are just about to complete a major kitchen/breakfast room refit and would like to add a Muso to use with the DVD/TV, listen to the radio and stream some stuff in.  My main listening will remain on the big rig in the lounge and for this I will stick with the CDS3 and of course the Xerxes so the Muso will be the 2nd system.    The Internet feed will be across the mains with Netgear plugs but I could do with some advice with ripping my CDs etc.  

I currently have them ripped ALAC on iTunes on our Mac (Mountain Lion) but this has merely been for my iPod no other domestic use.   I think my best bet is to start again and rip in WAV to a NAS.  

Advice and comments please but in particular what is the best NAS and is there better software than iTunes to use on the Mac?  I might also use the rips ro feed an Astell Kern portable. 

From the way I have articulated all of this it will be apparent that I have little understanding of this stuff. 

Thanks guys. 

Posted on: 09 January 2016 by Adam Zielinski

Hi Strat.

I would set up a QNAP Silent NAS e.g. HS251 with a dual drive (max capacity you can afford) in RAID mode. You can run it with a Minim server soft.

As to ripping itself - I use a UnitiServe SSD, which rips to my NAS. It then takes care of my network handling duties so I don't need any additional server software.

Posted on: 09 January 2016 by Mike-B

+1 for most of Adams recommendations  .........  except

QNAP & Synology are much the same,  but Synology has a better customer support that has auto updating for any software upgrade - maybe 4 or 5 per year - plus it can be set up to get e-mails if you don't open up the web page periodically .
They have their own Media Server & also Minimserver pre-installed,  I prefer Synology's Media Server.
I would not agree with the Unitiserve,  too expensive & has reliability issues & once you've ripped all your CD's,  it well past its useful life.
A PC or Mac & a good idea is a desktop DVD/DC read/write drive - a good idea if you have a few hundred + CD's to rip - & dBpoweramp ripping software,  the best by far & does it all with tag/metadata editing
Posted on: 09 January 2016 by hungryhalibut

Easy guys - advice please. Are you sure this is the right Forum?

Get yourself a Synology, load Minimserver, put dbpoweramp on your laptop and rip to FLAC, not WAV. I was listening to a Muso in John Lewis today, streaming Apple Lossless files from my iPhone and it sounded great. 

You should avoid internet over mains: try to work out how you can wire the Nas to the router, and possibly the Muso too. 

Posted on: 09 January 2016 by ChrisSU
The Strat (Fender) posted:

I currently have them ripped ALAC on iTunes on our Mac (Mountain Lion) but this has merely been for my iPod no other domestic use.   I think my best bet is to start again and rip in WAV to a NAS.  

 

I wonder if it's necessary to rip your CDs again if you already have them in ALAC? You could presumably create FLAC or WAV copies to put on your NAS much more easily, using XLD or something.

Posted on: 09 January 2016 by Dave***t

Or with something like a Synology with Minimserver, just transcode ALAC to .wav on the fly. No transcoding of the stored rips required that way.

Posted on: 10 January 2016 by The Strat (Fender)

Thank you chaps.   I'd thought about a Unitiserve when I was thinking of selling the CDP for a NDS but the CDS3 is staying and frankly it would be a lot of outlay for a 2nd system.  

HH - again if it were for the main system I wouldn't use the mains but for this purpose would I really notice the difference?  The NAS would be upstairs with the Mac and I can't really re-wire the house!!!!! The point about using Bluetooth is interesting.  I guess the simple solution would be an iPad?

Posted on: 10 January 2016 by Adam Zielinski

Please remember that iTunes and iPad will not play FLAC files.

Posted on: 11 January 2016 by The Strat (Fender)

Adam yes I noticed that when I first started ripping for my iPod.    I always thought Naim favoured WAV as the default?

Posted on: 11 January 2016 by Adam Zielinski

UnitiServe rips into WAV by default. iTunes and iPod / iPad etc etc will handle WAV files without any problems. Tagging may become a bit of an issue though.

Example: files ripped by my UnitiServe are not properly 'recognised' by iTunes - a title is OK, but the rest of the metadata (e.g. artist, album) is missing.

Posted on: 11 January 2016 by Foot tapper

Which is why I use AIFF as the codec instead of WAV or FLAC.

For those of us with Apple based home computing & phones, AIFF gives you the sound quality of WAV (i.e. both lossless and uncompressed) with the metadata advantages of FLAC.  

AIFF is less ideal for those with a Windows based home network.

Posted on: 11 January 2016 by Adam Zielinski

Exactly - for my own files I use Aiff e.g. I purchase all downloads as AIFF. 

Posted on: 11 January 2016 by The Strat (Fender)

Thanks again guys.