Ripping solution

Thought you had the uniticore, or even 2 uniticores? Is there a problem with their rips or are you just looking to try something different?

jon honeyball posted:

Anyone got or seen an Acronova Nimby ripping box? Its fully supported (and recommended) by dbpoweramp and supports multi-disc batch ripping. 

around 500 notes only

Am tempted to use this for ripping my cd collection

I cannot provide any advice on the Acronova but may I ask why you are looking for a ripping box in the very first place? I might be missing something but I fail to see the benefits of ripping stations. It seems to me that such devices are, in the very best case, as good as laptops or desktop computers and, in general, less flexible, inferior solutions. I would never consider performing tasks like renaming a folder hierarchy, editing metadata, converting between data formats, manage backups on anything else than a reasonably fast computer and under the OS that I am most familiar with. I certainly would not want to perform such tasks through applications that run on mobile devices or via web interfaces. What is a ripping station good for? Best, nbpf 

If you want to get serious about ripping...

I think the point of a ripping station is that it does all the "tasks like renaming a folder hierarchy, editing metadata, converting between data formats".

When I ripped my 2000 CDs it only took me 5 minutes a CD. If I had to edit metadata etc it would have taken me at least twice as long. Plus all the faff of installing the software in the first place. That is 10.000 minutes I would never get back.

Or a saving of £10k if I value my time at £1 a minute (I charge £4 a minute professionally).

Dozey posted:

When I ripped my 2000 CDs it only took me 5 minutes a CD. If I had to edit metadata etc it would have taken me at least twice as long. Plus all the faff of installing the software in the first place. That is 10.000 minutes I would never get back.

But it is 10.000 minutes of computing time, not of your time! Once you have pressed the button it does not really matter if it takes 5 minutes, 10 minutes or one hour. You are anyway doing something else during that time, don't you?

It is only computing time if using a ripping engine. If using a general purpose computer and editing metatags surely you have to take the time to do it manually?

For example - take the "Difficulty ripping CDs thread" in this forum! 

Dozey posted:

It is only computing time if using a ripping engine. If using a general purpose computer and editing metatags surely you have to take the time to do it manually?

No, the ripping software is the same, no matter whether you use a ripping station or a computer. If you are fine with the results you do not need to edit anything, no matter whether you have ripped with a computer, a US or with another ripping station. But -- and this is the point that I am trying to make -- if one wants to edit the metadata or rename folders (for whatever reasons) than this is more easily done with a computer and with the files in a drive mounted on a local file system. 

And my point is I have never needed to edit metadata with the unitiserve outside of using the nstream app. And I don't need to know what ripping software it uses, or which databases it gets the data from. I suppose if I ever need to edit metadata I can use my computer, but life is too short for routine ripping to involve manual input.

I think we just have to agree to disagree. And I don't want to hijack Jons thread anymore.

Dozey posted:

For example - take the "Difficulty ripping CDs thread" in this forum! 

There the OP is trying to rip to a NAS which make no sense at all. The workflow is always to rip to a local disk, make a sanity check, make sure that folder names, file names and metadata are as you want them to be. Only then you transfer the files to your LAN players, NAS, remote backup systems, etc.

Workflow? I thought you said it was all computing time? 

The Nimbie looks like a very clever little device. The only thing that would concern me is how to check the metadata. For example I use about 12 genres and cram everything into them. If you let dbpoweramp take charge you'd end up with a lot more. And then there are artist names - last week I ripped an 11 disc Andräs Schiff box set, with some ending up as Andras and some as Andräs. The former needed to be edited to the latter. And the album titles weren't consistent either. So unless you check the meta as you go you are certain to have to do it later. And then there's the issue of different CDs in a set getting different covers, which is only resolvable by editing.

I'm intrigued by the idea though. When I ripped 2,000 albums with a unitiserve the maximum I managed was 80 per day. 

It does raise the issue of why buy a Core though. Once the Core can edit metadata in the upcoming firmware upgrade editing can be done with the Naim app. Of course, you could upload 30 albums with the Nimbie and then check the meta on a computer before doing the next 30. 

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

Anyone got or seen an Acronova Nimby ripping box? Its fully supported (and recommended) by dbpoweramp and supports multi-disc batch ripping. 

around 500 notes only

Am tempted to use this for ripping my cd collection

I cannot provide any advice on the Acronova but may I ask why you are looking for a ripping box in the very first place? I might be missing something but I fail to see the benefits of ripping stations. It seems to me that such devices are, in the very best case, as good as laptops or desktop computers and, in general, less flexible, inferior solutions. I would never consider performing tasks like renaming a folder hierarchy, editing metadata, converting between data formats, manage backups on anything else than a reasonably fast computer and under the OS that I am most familiar with. I certainly would not want to perform such tasks through applications that run on mobile devices or via web interfaces. What is a ripping station good for? Best, nbpf 

It is not standalone. It uses dbpowerAmp and batchripper running on a windows computer. 

Mr Happy posted:

Thought you had the uniticore, or even 2 uniticores? Is there a problem with their rips or are you just looking to try something different?

I have. It's a great box for playing stuff from a nas into an ndac. 

jon honeyball posted:

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

Anyone got or seen an Acronova Nimby ripping box? Its fully supported (and recommended) by dbpoweramp and supports multi-disc batch ripping. 

around 500 notes only

Am tempted to use this for ripping my cd collection

I cannot provide any advice on the Acronova but may I ask why you are looking for a ripping box in the very first place? I might be missing something but I fail to see the benefits of ripping stations. It seems to me that such devices are, in the very best case, as good as laptops or desktop computers and, in general, less flexible, inferior solutions. I would never consider performing tasks like renaming a folder hierarchy, editing metadata, converting between data formats, manage backups on anything else than a reasonably fast computer and under the OS that I am most familiar with. I certainly would not want to perform such tasks through applications that run on mobile devices or via web interfaces. What is a ripping station good for? Best, nbpf 

It is not standalone. It uses dbpowerAmp and batchripper running on a windows computer. 

I see. Still, it's not clear to me what is the advantage over a laptop. I am not a fan of batch ripping. I tend to think that generating a large number of rips with crap metadata is worse than generating a small number of rips with crap metadata. And I do not know any ripping software that generates rips with good metadata.

jon honeyball posted:

Mr Happy posted:

Thought you had the uniticore, or even 2 uniticores? Is there a problem with their rips or are you just looking to try something different?

I have. It's a great box for playing stuff from a nas into an ndac. 

Perhaps it will also become good for ripping as Naim improves the ripping software. I do not think that inflating the Naim apps with metadata editing functionalities is a good idea, however. Perhaps they could implement a separate app for managing music collections. 

One of the good things about dBpoweramp when you use it on a pc is that it presents you with four or five sets of tags from a variety of sources and usually also a reasonable choice of artwork. You can pick that tags that are closest to your taste, and edit the ones you don't like. This is particularly useful for classical music and boxed sets. If you lose that ability because the nimble attempts to automate ripping then you might just be storing up more work for later. If folder structure is important to you, be aware that dBpoweramp gives you all sorts of control over that - you can automatically put classical in folders by composer, other music in folders by artist, with any reasonable naming convention you want. But folder structure might not be important to you, depending on your chosen player - if you get your tagging right you should almost never need to know or care where your music is.  Still it's hard to rip more than 10 cds an hour so if you've thousands to do this box might be a quick way to get the job done badly. You're probably not going to play most of them again anyway!

It comes down to lookup and tagging. Two areas where Naim are weak. Any ripping box would need to be verified for correct version identification of a CD, correct CD identification in a set, the ability, if desired, to incorporate multi disk albums into one entity, either by tagging or placing them in one folder and the correct tagging of files using user defined labels, not incorporating additional padding which you do not want. 

Does the box output files in your preferred format(s) using a non propitiatory, universally transportable model?

Phase one would be to borrow one for a week end. 

Two things which pulled towards DIY, apart from how easy and configurable it is, was that with streaming came higher resolution rips and downloads. The DVD-As and BDs all needing ripping on a PC, and everything needed its tags checked after a download or rip. Might as well have full control over everything from start to finish, given that I'd be checking anyway. The pipping itself can be left to do its thing in the background.

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

Anyone got or seen an Acronova Nimby ripping box? Its fully supported (and recommended) by dbpoweramp and supports multi-disc batch ripping. 

around 500 notes only

Am tempted to use this for ripping my cd collection

I cannot provide any advice on the Acronova but may I ask why you are looking for a ripping box in the very first place? I might be missing something but I fail to see the benefits of ripping stations. It seems to me that such devices are, in the very best case, as good as laptops or desktop computers and, in general, less flexible, inferior solutions. I would never consider performing tasks like renaming a folder hierarchy, editing metadata, converting between data formats, manage backups on anything else than a reasonably fast computer and under the OS that I am most familiar with. I certainly would not want to perform such tasks through applications that run on mobile devices or via web interfaces. What is a ripping station good for? Best, nbpf 

It is not standalone. It uses dbpowerAmp and batchripper running on a windows computer. 

I see. Still, it's not clear to me what is the advantage over a laptop. I am not a fan of batch ripping. I tend to think that generating a large number of rips with crap metadata is worse than generating a small number of rips with crap metadata. And I do not know any ripping software that generates rips with good metadata.

Why should it matter how many rips you have with crap metadata? Let the computer do the work after the fact–not you–as a batch. Manual editing of metadata is meatware; your time is more valuable.

And as far as disc robots go–not everyone has the time (or economy) to individually load and remove discs into a slot- or tray-loader, fact. There are some pretty good solutions out there capable of decent lossless rips.

it also comes down to integrity of rip -- hdx told you on the display the error count of that disc rip, although it cleared it when the disc was finished and ejected. You could grep the log files looking for the word "error" and see which disc it applied to, to get an understanding of whether a particular disc rip was good or not.

Core doesnt do that. There is no indication of rip quality on the app, and no log files accessible to the user.

One thing to look out for in the ripper (Nimby or other) is to make sure that the ripping drive is not sitting on or close to the power supply transformer in the unit. The ELF magnetic field from the txfo somehow imprints a signature on the rip. I've compared rips made with an Apple USB Superdrive placed over the txfo of the SuperNait2, and reripped with the drive placed out of the magnetic field. The difference is audible.

DavidDever posted:

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

Anyone got or seen an Acronova Nimby ripping box? Its fully supported (and recommended) by dbpoweramp and supports multi-disc batch ripping. 

around 500 notes only

Am tempted to use this for ripping my cd collection

I cannot provide any advice on the Acronova but may I ask why you are looking for a ripping box in the very first place? I might be missing something but I fail to see the benefits of ripping stations. It seems to me that such devices are, in the very best case, as good as laptops or desktop computers and, in general, less flexible, inferior solutions. I would never consider performing tasks like renaming a folder hierarchy, editing metadata, converting between data formats, manage backups on anything else than a reasonably fast computer and under the OS that I am most familiar with. I certainly would not want to perform such tasks through applications that run on mobile devices or via web interfaces. What is a ripping station good for? Best, nbpf 

It is not standalone. It uses dbpowerAmp and batchripper running on a windows computer. 

I see. Still, it's not clear to me what is the advantage over a laptop. I am not a fan of batch ripping. I tend to think that generating a large number of rips with crap metadata is worse than generating a small number of rips with crap metadata. And I do not know any ripping software that generates rips with good metadata.

Why should it matter how many rips you have with crap metadata? Let the computer do the work after the fact–not you–as a batch. Manual editing of metadata is meatware; your time is more valuable.

And as far as disc robots go–not everyone has the time (or economy) to individually load and remove discs into a slot- or tray-loader, fact. There are some pretty good solutions out there capable of decent lossless rips.

I am not saying that it should matter to others, just that it does matter to me! I consider crap results a form of garbage. From this perspective, producing 10 rips of low quality is certainly worse than producing just one crap rip or, in fact,  no crap rip.

I find it a bit strange that so many contributors perceive ripping their CD collections as a load or as a work that has to be accomplished in the shortest possible time. I personally never felt that I needed to rip all my CDs in a given time frame or, in fact, that I needed to rip all my CDs at all. Thus, I never really cared how long it would take me to rip a CD. If it was one hour, then it was one hour.

But, no matter whether I am ripping a CD or importing downloads, I always do care that all metadata are set the way I like them to be set before committing the files to my music collection or to backup repositories.

For classical music, this means setting proper values at least for Album, Composer, Work, Ensemble, Conductor or Director, Soloist, music Genre and Form and recording Date. I actually enjoy editing metadata a lot. And being able to browse through all violin concertos (symphonies,  piano sonatas, flute concertos, etc.) or to find all the interpretations of a given work by a given composer in my collection is a real pleasure. It is also what indexes are for and I do not see the point of committing rips whose metadata are not perfect.

Of course, the notion of perfectness is totally subjective. So far, I have failed to come across a ripping software or a ripping station that produced even acceptable results for classical music, let apart opera. Perhaps there are good solutions for rock music or for pop music, I do not know.

jon honeyball posted:

it also comes down to integrity of rip -- hdx told you on the display the error count of that disc rip, although it cleared it when the disc was finished and ejected. You could grep the log files looking for the word "error" and see which disc it applied to, to get an understanding of whether a particular disc rip was good or not.

Core doesnt do that. There is no indication of rip quality on the app, and no log files accessible to the user.

That sucks. Even if logging is not enabled by default, users should be able to require a (more or less verbose) log file and get some metrics of the ripping process. It's probably just a matter of setting a flag and Naim should be able to correct this behavior easily.

Jan-Erik Nordoen posted:

One thing to look out for in the ripper (Nimby or other) is to make sure that the ripping drive is not sitting on or close to the power supply transformer in the unit. The ELF magnetic field from the txfo somehow imprints a signature on the rip. I've compared rips made with an Apple USB Superdrive placed over the txfo of the SuperNait2, and reripped with the drive placed out of the magnetic field. The difference is audible.

What about bit comparison 

jon honeyball posted:

Jan-Erik Nordoen posted:

One thing to look out for in the ripper (Nimby or other) is to make sure that the ripping drive is not sitting on or close to the power supply transformer in the unit. The ELF magnetic field from the txfo somehow imprints a signature on the rip. I've compared rips made with an Apple USB Superdrive placed over the txfo of the SuperNait2, and reripped with the drive placed out of the magnetic field. The difference is audible.

What about bit comparison 

.....again!