CD ripping with dBpoweramp on Mac?

Posted by: Stefan Vogt on 25 December 2015

Hi all,

I just got round getting my Mac Mini fit as music server with Asset UPnP. So far I used iTunes for ripping, but I understand its way of handling album artwork (in a separate library) is inaccessible for Asset UPnP. I am thus considering dBpoweramp’s CD ripper as an alternative to iTunes: Are folks using this happily on a headless MacMini, please? (it would need to rip CDs automatically on insertion, just as iTunes does nicely).

Cheers,

Stefan

Posted on: 25 December 2015 by Mark R

Stefan,

Have you also considered XLD for Mac? It, too, can be setup for automatic ripping. (Lots of content users as well.) 

-Mark

Posted on: 25 December 2015 by Stefan Vogt

Well, not sure if XLD can rip in AIFF. Anyway, Mr Spoon of dBpoweramp has kindly shown me the ropes: iTunes holds the artwork in a separate folder, which Asset UPnP doesn't access. But there are Apple scripts that move the artwork into each album folder, and then Asset and I are happy. I'll report back if my headerless MacMini is a good idea...

 

Posted on: 26 December 2015 by BigH47

XLD has an AIFF setting. V 20151214

Posted on: 26 December 2015 by Nigel 66

I'm using dbpoweramp as my CD ripper (to FLAC files), although it's through a macbook pro straight to a Qnap nas. Has worked well since I started using it, so I'd see no reason why it wouldn't work just as well on a Mac Mini.

Not sure about the  auto rip function, but as already stated the dbpoweramp forum is very helpful. You could always  consider getting a cheap monitor that might help?

 

Posted on: 26 December 2015 by Foot tapper

I rip my CDs to a NAS drive by using XLD on the mac mini with the AIFF codec.  This has worked reliably for the best part of 4 years now.  Reply is via itunes with the Bitperfect app.  All works a treat.

Posted on: 27 December 2015 by Andy Barratt

I thought about trying a headless mini setup for this kind of deal - with ripping and filing automatically etc. I think in theory it should be ok though there may be issues where xld has a CDDB conflict? 

Posted on: 27 December 2015 by Stefan Vogt

Thanks for your comments! Since I found a way to show the album artwork, I'll stick to iTunes and Asset for now, though XLD seems to be a viable alternative for ripping. In the meantime, having read about HF noise by the MacMini's PSU and ethernet cables, I got some doubts about moving the MacMini near my HiFi rack (see my not-yet popular topic "Best place for Mac Mini music server?").

Perhaps the MacMini is best placed out of the way? So far, WiFi for streaming (mostly CD-rips) works fine indeed.

Thanks,

Stefan