2. digital
  3. 1297919193

Does this device exist?

I’m looking for a convenient way to get the music from my CDs (a couple thousand) into digital form. In my mind’s eye, I see a one-box device – I pop in a CD, it quickly and accurately rips the disc, with the option of choosing various formats, compressed or high-quality lossless. It stores the resulting files on an internal hard drive, or it allows storage on external drives, and easy external backup, too. It has a navigation interface as familiar and easy to use as iTunes (heck, it can be iTunes). It has a good digital output (preferably AES/EBU, but if that’s not available, then SPDIF or USB), so that I can use the DAC I already own. It is completely quiet during music playback – no fan noise, no strange mechanical or digital noises. It’s simple to use. It doesn’t result in a mess of wires and boxes all over the place. It doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. It just has to provide copious storage and a clean, audiophile-quality output to the DAC – and just for a single system, no whole-house server needed.

Any nominations? Thanks.
jhold

Showing 2 responses by rdavwhitaker

rdavwhitaker
173 posts
 
Magfan is right -- You've just described the Mac Mini in your question -- which I use exactly as you have described -- with output via both a USB connection and Airport Express with a TOSlink connection. It does have a fan, but I've never been able to hear it from more than a foot away. And you can use Time Machine to automatically back up your music collection.
rdavwhitaker
173 posts
 
On your question about cost -- a Mac Mini new is $695.00, but the internal hard drive in that configuration isn't big enough for your collection. So you're probably looking at a two terabyte external hard drive for your collection, and another one for the Time Machine Backup, adding about $400.00 to the cost, for a total of about $1100.00. If you don't already have a monitor, mouse and keyboard you would have to pick those up as well -- how much that costs depends, of course, on what you buy. If you already have them, great. How much you spend on the USB cable to connect to your DAC could, of course, run from very little, if you get it from a place like Best Buy or Amazon, or a great deal, if you simply must have a cable with the AudioQuest or Shunyata name on it.

If you wanted to go the Airport Express route, I assume you already have a wireless network. An Airport Express is $100.00, and the TOSlink cable, like the USB cable, depends on whether you are okay with a generic cable, which won't exceed $30 to $40, depending on length, or you want something exotic, which can run a couple hundred and up. Bear in mind that you need a mini-TOSlink adapter for one end of the cable to use with the Airport Express.

I would not mess with a used Mac Mini, for all sorts of reasons, and forgive me, fellow A'goners, but I also wouldn't mess with a "souped up" Mac Mini from one of the specialty providers -- don't have anything against them, but just personally I have a hard time believing it is worth the money. But that's just my opinion.
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