Ripping & Streaming – if you had to do it all again ?

Hi Foggy after a couple of false starts with non Naim streaming and the use of FLAC, and a short spell with a Unitiserve I finally settled on

DBpoweramp ripping / meta data

Asset upnp on small WHS box  with seperate NASes

WAV files.

NDX network player.

This has served me well and reliably for nearly 2 years, 12,000 tracks later with no glitch.

Vortexbox and Superuniti. Wouldn't change a thing. All the work was in the learning curve about tagging really. My needs are simple though.

Hi Foggy, almost the same as Simon though I rip to Flac and transcode on the fly to Wav using Assett. In order to "manage" my library I also use MediaMonkey; an easy to use tool for tagging, categorizing etc ..

When I would had to do allover again, I would prepare the way of tagging a bit better before start ripping. I had to do the ripping a few times over again, since I made mistakes in tagging.

Iver

I am using EAC to rip to FLAC and stream (FLAC) using Asset to my UnitiQute.

Works and sounds great!

I wouldn't change a thing.

EAC>FLAC (on workstation in office)

JRiver>UPNP>JRiver (on HTPC)

SPDIF>Naim DAC>102>Hicap>180>Arivas>Earholes

If I had to do it all over again? I would have stuck to CDs.

MM, are you sure of that??

I wouldn't change a thing either.

• Rip using DBPoweramp onto our business server (Small Business Server 2008) to FLAC.
• Files are instantly mirrored onto a tiny Dell Zino Atom based PC which runs Microsoft Foundation Server 2012.  I bought this new barebones from a dealer on eBay for £60, just needed memory, hard drive and an OS.  This has Asset running as the UPNP Server.
• Transcode to WAV using Asset to an NDX which is controlled using nStream on an iPad.

Currently also have Sonos in the house which also takes music from the share on the small server.  A Sonos ZP80 runs in the lounge for Spotiify and I am also using this as a wireless bridge to feed the NDX until I can sort out a hard wired connection  this avoids enabling wireless on the NDX.  No dropouts even on 24 bit music, the Sonos wireless network does seem to be very robust.

Backups are handled on the main server using standard Windows backup tools, another mirror onto a NAS and also to Crashplan (cloud based backup) for any purchased music which is held in a separate directory.  You can never have too many backups!  Everything is automated.

The change to a separate 2012 server was a recent move, very impressed with 2012 Foundation Server, very lightweight, even on a low spec, Atom based machine with 1 gig of Ram, very snappy performance and has never crashed.

All works very reliably, I never have any issues.

Richard

I wish I would have planned out how I wanted it all to work a little better up front.

It did take me a while to get to grips with it, but in the end Im completely satisfied with my solution:-

Unitiserve => Uniti, back up on QNAP NAS (along with back up from PC which contains the download/high res files I own, also served to the Uniti by US).

For me it just works now, the US taking care of the ripping (to WAV) tagging and serving automatically,  and I only have to do minor tinkering with renaming genres / changing cover art via the nServe app.

Im not that technical and I wanted a solution that was easy as possible (although perhaps expensive compared to the alternatives)

The other thing I probably should have thought about earlier is hardwiring the Uniti to the network.

I just assumed wi-fi would be 100% reliable in the small house I live in. Doh!

WiFi drop outs, no matter how infrequent, are incredibly frustrating. 99.9% of the time only on iRadio higher bit rate streams, but normally they occur just when I might be settling down for a relaxing listen....

I will be running some network cable in in the next couple of months for sure.

Dont get me wrong, it is only occasional, but I would rather not have it at all.

Like all of the other posters here, I wouldnt change back now.

The quality of the music is great, and all so easy to access.

Only issue I have is what to choose to play as I now have too many choices from my armchair!

Just been a huge time sink. Just not been worth the time. I should've just bought a CD player.

This was my first foray into HiFi so I wasn't even sure what was wrong with the system... The room, the amp, the dac, the transport, the rip, the NAS or the speakers. Just getting a CD player would've reduced the variables to just 4: the cdp, the amp the speakers and the room.

I'm in a good spot now, but still have the nagging feeling that there is an unidentified bottleneck- specially when a $1500 TT sounds as good as a $10K digital frontend.

Rip with ns01 into ndac. Nice solution that works. Since I am a big fan of the Naim servers, and the price difference between computerbased ripping/upnp server into streamer is not that big, I would go for the same solution. I was not aware about Userve when I sold my cd s3 for Ns01 ndac, but I believe the ns01 is more robust than the Userve. In the future a problem may be spare parts since the ns01 is  basically a Naim tweaked mini pc.

Claus

Unitiserve it's so easy!

XLD + Musicbrainz Picard on macbookpro->FLAC on NAS

NAS->SMB over Powerline network->MacMini with VLC+XBMC->Superuniti built-in dac+amp->Eclipse TD510s->Ears

NAS->Macbookpro+VLC->Grado RS-2->Ears

Things to do differently:

- lay a proper wired network rather than using wireless or more recently powerline networking *before* doing any decorating

- find a decent album art locator for the Mac (for use with XBMC)

- rip all my CDs before some of them got scratched

I would have started from scratch and looked at all the options.

Meaning the whole system. Could I have done better selling what I had and then building a streaming solution to suit me regardless of manufacturer?

Find the amplifier and speakers I like and then build the delivery system around it. Be that a UnitiServe, Burmester whatever.

Then see if I'm prepared to spend the time ripping all My CDs and automating back-up. Or should I just rip new purchases and leave my CDs where I can find them?

Usual questions perhaps, but I would consider them now.

I was itching to get the CD's out of the lounge so was my wife then we could get more books available to us. So nearly 2.5 years ago I looked at the options. Because of my electronics and computer background I spent 3 months researching, auditioning and planning. I decided that I did not like Naim streamers at the time and Linn was too expensive. I opted to add to my existing Naim system and chose Qnap NAS -> Mac Mini (AIFF files, iTunes, Bitperfect) -> Naim DAC -> Naim Hifi (282, 250, Allea's) -> Ears. Apple remote on iPad or iPhone controlling things.

I also use Airplay for casual listening in other parts of the house.

The Mac mini I see as a media computer and i'm waiting for the development of JRiver for MAC (due this year). 

I wouldn't do anything different mainly because I thought and researched first based on my requirements. I tried all of the software out first by using my MacBook Pro as a test system. If I am thinking of upgrading any software I wait for at least a month after it's available so that some of the bugs are sorted. Then I try it on the MacBook Pro then implement on the live system (Macmini).

BTW I still have a CDX2 and a Rega turntable. I play vinyl and use the CD player if I want to listen to something that someone has brought round on CD. Streaming/computer playback does not exclude other methods of playing music for me.

So far so good.

Things I didn't do properly first time around were:

Covers too small. I started out with 300x300. Now I try not to be below 600x600 and go up to 1500x1500.

Naming of cover files: They should start with 'cover' or 'folder'. This enables most applications to recognize them without having to attach a cover to every music file.

Think of a tagging structure that also fits classical music.

Integrate multiple disk albums into one digital album. No need to maintain the original disk structure which only exists because of the technical limitation of CDs in the first palce.

Put the release year into the album title like this 'Born To Die (2012)'. This way you have the YEAR tag free to be filled with the release year of the single tracks which can come in handy with compilation albums.

Fill the ARTIST tags with last names first: 'Del Ray, Lana', 'Beatles, The', 'Musici, I'    One could use the ARTISTSORT tag for this purpose, but that would mean having to populate an additional tag.

I have a big house so multi-room and synchonous playback were important for me.

I bought an HDX + DAC for my main system, and NaimNet room amps (NNP01 and NNP02) for other rooms.  It all had to be hard-wired (Cat 6) and programmed.  The HDX handles all the ripping (wav files to a separate NAS) and operates as server for the system.  It's all great and I'm very happy with it...

BUT

... if I had to do it again I'd think seriously about Sonos for the streaming / multi-room side of things.  Instead of the HDX, find another way to rip.  Use MediaMonkey for tagging in a way that a variety of streamers, not just Naim's, can recognise (wav or flac, don't think it really matters).  The streaming side of the equation is purely digital, so Sonos does it as well as anyone else but their wired-or-wireless multi-room capability and control (esp with their dedicated controller) are simple, brilliant and robust and require no special programming.  Put an inexpensive Sonos Connect into each room where you want music, and spend your money on a Naim DAC and/or Naim amps to give you whatever quality of sound you want in each location.   

It's worth trying the beta version of PerfectTunes from Illustrate (the same people who market Asset and DBPoweramp).  The Album Art program scans your library for low res art and allows you to search and save better artwork.  It's quick and easy to do.

Richard

Thank you for the hint. I will give it a try. I guess I still have some smallish album art in my collection which could use some mending.

Ripnas or unitiserve and Linn Klimax

No hires with Sonos. Plus they use a proprietary streaming method that wont integrate with other servers and hardware.

Stick with UPNP/DLNA and all is well.

-Patrick

Mac Mini it just works ... wonderful little box that plays almost anything including DSD streams (only physical SACDs seem out of scope). 

XLD for ripping, iTunes with Doug's AppleScripts and iLyric for managing my music library, Izotope RX to remove noise, hiss, buzz and hum, eliminate clicks and crackle and restore clipped audio. iTunes 11/BP for playing music. [Possibly iTunes/PM/AU-ARC for correcting unwanted effects from my room]. They all integrate with my Apple system and just work. 

Naim DAC with 555PS until the new reference DAC/Pre hits the streets. DAC is great no convoluted firmware upgrade process - just a USB stick, press a couple of buttons and it just works.

No UPnP required (I don't really need the network just to play music), but it is very good now and has the potential to improve. However, my wireless network gives me full Airplay support when wanted. 

If the Mac didn't exist then it'd be a Vortexbox and Linn streamer - no Windows required. 

I saved money by using EAC and MP3Tag for ripping and tagging, but I spent a lot of time to find, learn, validate these tools. I also spent time choosing a specific NAS to make sure it would be compatible with the Uniti.

If I had to do it again, I would use some packaged solution, like UnitiServe, Vortexbox or Ripnas instead of using computer and freeware. 

The packaged solutions also include servers and storage, so it saves a lot of research, learning curve, experimentation. Probably they are making the whole process simpler.

> If I had to do it again, I would use some packaged solution, like ... Vortexbox ... using computer and freeware. 

Is a Vortexbox not freeware on a computer - mine was. It certainly works though. 

Your use of mp3Tag was time well spent in my view ... I bet the Tags are set-up just the way you want them ... none of these automatic systems quite do that.