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Question on streaming, ripping etal......

Greetings all. Let me preface my commentary by saying I'm still a 2 channel old school, need to own my music type of guy. Since recently turning 60 under lockdown I've been pondering adding a streamer. My dilemma (partly) has been do I rip my current cd collection (1000) or just go to streaming 100%. I have a friend who had a Bluesound Vault and ripped his cd collection only to feel he wasted a lot of time. He has since moved to a Bluesound node and streams only and says he's perfectly happy. So, I'm interested in the thoughts of others who have traveled this path. I'm currently using an Oppo universal player feeding the dac of my Yamaha A-S801 integrated. Seemed to sound a tad cleaner than the Oppo analog into the Yamaha. Comments and inputs appreciated....

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6 responses Add your response
soix
8,750 posts
 
I don’t see why ripping music so you have access to all of it instantly in any order you wish (or random) without having to get up is a waste of time. Is constantly having to get up, look for, load, and then get up again to remove a single CD from a player — and BTW with no ability to create your own playlists or play part or all of your CD collection randomly — a better use of time? Sounds to me like your friend entirely missed the point of ripping CDs to a server, and I’d encourage you to explore this path on your own. Just my opinion.
big_greg
6,561 posts
 
I rip CDs to my network as I buy them or listen to older ones that I have. I'm not going to go back and rip a bunch of CDs that I might never even listen to again. 
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,185 posts
 
I use a Bluesound Vault 2 run through an external DAC. Ripped cd’s sound better than streaming via Spotify, but the difference is marginal. I think it’s nice to have both options. If you do go with Bluesound, it’s critical to pair it with an external DAC, unless sound quality is not important. Another more expensive option is Innuous products which support ripping and streaming. If you end up going with a streamer, without ripping capabilities, I’d look at Lumin products.
tuberist's avatar
tuberist
951 posts
 
I ripped a similar sized CD collection to a SSD, which is plugged into my Lumin T2 streamer dac. I found that sometimes my ripped CD collection has selections my current Qobuz service does not. However, the streaming library is so broad and getting bigger, I could live without my ripped CD's if I had to.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,077 posts
 
pdreher says...Ripped cd’s sound better than streaming via Spotify.

Here is why, Spotify bit rate 320kbps and CD bit rate 1,411kbps 😊
gdnrbob
4,411 posts
 
I, for one, do not or care to rip CD's. The streaming services have almost all of my CD library available.
If you do want to listen to your own collection, I would advise you to contact Sam Laufer of Laufer Teknik. He created The Memory Player, and has a smaller unit called The Mini. His software provides some interesting improvements to computer streaming.
He's building one for me, focused especially for streaming.
Bob
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