Ripping CDs

One doesn’t need a computer for this site.  You can access it with a smartphone, but you can’t burn CDs with a smartphone 

You must have some kind of computer to be on Audiogon?

I use JRiver. It’s great and inexpensive. Also don’t get artwork from Discogs. It’s crappy and too small. Get it from Album Art Exchange. I’ve uploaded over 3000 images there myself and there’s hundreds of contributors. Or use Fan Art TV.

https://www.albumartexchange.com/

I use AShampoo Burning Studio.  It's the least fussy burning software I've found.  Very inexpensive.  You can RIP or BURN music, to and from ISO files or whatever you need.  It also looks up the song data on Gracenote and names your RIPped files accordingly.  I've found that not all CDs have the data burned in their songs so you have to name the files yourself.  Nevertheless, it's great software that I use all the time.

For a computer, you only need a basic machine, perhaps a used laptop with Windows (10 preferably, but it works with 7) and a CD/DVD drive.  You can also get a USB CD/DVD drive if the laptop or PC doesn't have one.  It doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor.

Buy a reasonable used laptop with CD/DVD record/play unit built-in. You don't need major computing power to rip and burn music. You can find them for about $200.  I use JRiver Music Center 30 (they're up to 32 now) which I find much easier to use than Windows Media Player. JRiver costs $70. I have about a terabyte of music (931 gB) to choose from and do it from a 12-year-old HP 6300 that I bought for $300.

I have been very happy with Fairstars CD Ripper...

I have a PC, NAS drive, Dac connected via Balanced cable to a great stereo system. I ripped all my CD's and play the ripped files using JRiver. I have tried FLAC and WAV formats; both sound great. I have learned how to tag and manage the data for each recording. Sometimes it happens automatically, sometimes the data needs to be manipulated which is time consuming. In my experience it has been worth the effort.

Tascam cd-RW900MKII LOW $200.00

TEAC CD-RW 890 PRICE ???????????

TWO RCA CONECTORS

I use dbpoweramp ripper. About $30 download.

look at JRiver software too for playing, sorting etc.

@gumbedamit

You’re so right! The CXNv2 is a wonderful streamer.

Sounds Fantastic.  
Just bought a new ripper, haven’t tried it yet.

@rvpiano I have the CNX v2 as well, despite what someone said about it not being on par with the rest of your system obviously has not listened to it. With that being said, you will need to purchase a cheap PC that can rip CD)’s or purchase a unit that does. Your other option is to purchase music downloads and store them on a drive and attach it to your CNX. I have a TB drive attached to mine, works and sounds great. Hope that helps.

Listen to the Music

While ripping CDs takes time, it needn't be tedious. I ripped my entire CD library (4000*) over a month or so by doing it with my laptop in the evenings while watching TV. Painless.

Put them all on NAS and you are set to go once you have software to access them from anywhere in the house.

mlsstl

1,330 posts

01-10-2024 at 11:05pm 

While I don't have one, it looks like one of the simplest and easiest to use one-box solutions is a Brennan CD ripper. It includes a hard drive for file storage and looks up the CDs metadata for tag info. While intended as its own player, you could copy the ripped files to whatever other device you are using for local streaming.
 

There are a number of these devices now from Chinese manufacturers, too. For the OP’s purpose (ripping CD’s), they’re dreadfully over-priced, over-spec’ed (most features redundant for his system), and generally come with an HDD standard, an SSD being a considerable further hike in price despite price points of SSD’s being lower these days.

IME @audphile1 is accurate in his comment about SSD’s being a more reliable format to use when ripping CD’s [and I’d add: from which to playback files if using a slower processor spec’ed transport]. HHD’s for music-ripping/playback only advantage now is if you need truly massive amounts of storage in an array. As in over 15 TB. For ripped CD’s, I suspect that’s not most people. 😅

While I don't have one, it looks like one of the simplest and easiest to use one-box solutions is a Brennan CD ripper. It includes a hard drive for file storage and looks up the CDs metadata for tag info. While intended as its own player, you could copy the ripped files to whatever other device you are using for local streaming.

@sandthemall yes, the .wav standard, established a very long time ago, made no provision for holding any metadata. I guess CDs have the metadata (when they do have it) in an index file, called a "schema" in computer-speak. Streamer/rippers might do the same. iTunes does that too. It creates an encrypted database of cover art and cross references that with your music file database, it doesn’t embed the cover art in the files themselves.

I would just wonder about say after a few years you decide to get a different streamer or a true NAS and wanted to move your files to it. Would you lose all the cover art and perhaps some of the more granular metadata? I’m not sure. Thanks.

At least when I rip to lossless FLAC or ALAC I know I can embed the cover art and other information inside the files themselves, so they are never lost. For those purists who think the processing of expanding these files adds some type of sonic artifact (most tests say there isn't on decent hardware), you can rip to FLAC level 0 I think it is, where there is no lossless compression at all, and of course, no reduction in file size. At that point the FLAC is merely a "container" hosting more metadata for the full-blown .wav file.   Good luck to the OP. 

Just wish they would have updated .wav file standards 20 years ago to enable hosting metadata, then there'd be no reason to discuss it. 

@linnvolk many ways to do this from simple to not... just like playing ripped music. The simplest way would be to copy a few movies onto a USB stick which you would plug into your TV or HT amp and watch on your TV. Of course you can always watch on a computer but that's not my first choice and probably not yours either, altho you could push the content from your PC to your TV via Airplay or Chromecast. 

After that, the most popular choice would be a media server like Plex. Plex will also play your music. There are free alternatives like Jellyfin. If you really want to get crazy you can put the movies and music on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, but that requires both a computer and a NAS and a fair amount of tech savvy. But if you can pull that off you can watch your movies and play your music from anywhere in the world where there's an internet connection. 

@gowanus, no, I did not know that, but it stands to reason.  I have much less interest in movies than in music, and do not miss the ability to watch DVDs. Except I wish I could view the original versions of the three first Star Wars movies (without the CG additions).

Out of curiosity, what would I do with the ripped DVD content?  What would I play that on/through?

Bit of a sign of the times when a OP asks about ripping CD’s and much of the talk turns to forget-it-just-stream.
Many albums have been repressed multiple times. With that often comes remasters. By relying solely on a streaming service to the exclusion of your CDs’ contents, you’re throwing knowledge of which album version you can access to the wind, trusting they’ll have the best one, or your favorite one. I realize this detail won’t be a pitfall for everyone, and that’s fine. Many of my favorite album versions to run through the transport come from ripped CD’s, and while tagging them can be mildly troublesome, it beats searching for artists I know in a language I do not know, on a streaming service (for example). There’s no legitimate argument to using streaming to the exclusion of one’s ripped files until streaming services start providing better metadata for their source files or, better still, multiple versions where they exist. Now that would be fun content to surf for discovery!!!
 

Borrow a laptop with USB 3 so it’ll have enough power for any USB disk drive you get, and go to town. If you have a bit of time, it’s nothing. I’ve done it with every disk I ever owned and as @linnvolk pointed out - you never know when something will vanish from a streaming service for reasons of licensing. Folks talked about the whole universe of film access Netflix used to provide and now, ten years later, you want Marvel? Get Disney. You want Charlie Brown Christmas? Apple. You want non-CGI Star Wars? SOL. How long until certain streaming services begin emphasizing their own versions of Netflix Originals artists / remasters, lol?

I use a 10-year-old laptop and Exact Audio Copy. For albums on which metadata search fails, there’s usually another pressing close enough that I can still get it into my system without a meaningful glitch. Don’t give up on albums - they can still matter.

@moonwatcher 

When I rip to .WAV, all I get is a music file. That’s all. I was led to believe that FLAC manages all that stuff and that’s why people like it. In my experience, WAV files don’t support metadata. It’s just a music file…I don’t and haven’t dealt with anything extra.

rvpiano, if for some reason you're averse to  computers, there's a number of standalone  devices out there which will play, record and rip CDs and store them on their internal drives--the yamaha mcx-1000 comes to mind. i see 'em on ebay for $200. again, you're probably best served to get a pc to do the same thing, but it's an option.

@linnvolk 

Yes great opportunities for listening.

I find your counterpoint logical but very very unlikely. The cat is out of the bag. I can’t see a way it gets put back in. The world is going digital… it has to, we cannot afford the resources to do physical. Nor can I see single stream   all (Qobuz… Tidal, etc) being broken up into factions… there is too much economy of scale.

@gowanus, no, I did not know that, but it stands to reason.  I have much less interest in movies than in music, and do not miss the ability to watch DVDs. Except I wish I could view the original versions of the three first Star Wars movies (without the CG additions).

Out of curiosity, what would I do with the ripped DVD content?  What would I play that on/through?

@sandthemall the reason I suggested FLAC or ALAC is to better natively contain any metadata instead of relying on some 3rd party database.  If your streamer/ripper or his Vault has that then more power to you, but I just don't trust such solutions and would rather have all that metadata and cover art embedded in the files themselves. YMMV. 

@linnvolk you know you can rip DVDs just the way you rip CDs before you throw them out, right? That applies to BluRays as well as DVDs. 4ks are a little more involved. 

@ghdprentice Indeed true in my experience as well.  You bring up some very good points there.  I could not agree more that high-quality streaming has changed everything.  For instance, I am working my way through all of Haydn's symphonies.  That is something I would never have attempted without HQ streaming.

To continue the counterpoint, however, we do not know what the future will hold in terms of which services will carry which titles.  I can't help feeling that the current cornucopia may be short-lived and that commercial interests will find a way to rain on the parade at some point.  As an analog, consider the ill fate, for instance, of those who wanted to see A Charlie Brown Christmas this year, but could not because they did not have a membership to Apple, who bought up all the rights.  I still am glad to know that everything I owned on CD I still have access to via my storage drive, regardless of what Qobuz decides to do.   Sadly, I have no way to play DVDs any longer and tossed mine (including A Charlie Brown Christmas) recently.  I can, however, listen to the soundtrack regardless of who buys the rights or chooses not to stream it any longer.

HP External Portable Slim Design CD/DVD RW Write/Read Drive, USB, Black (F2B56AA) https://a.co/d/1CihS85

This is the drive I recently bought. Works great.

I use Winamp to rip to .WAV files from my portable CD drive ($40) to my laptop. Super easy. WAV files are marginally better than FLAC files. And you may be able to tell a difference with a hi-res playback system.

FLAC is lossless...but lossless is a euphemism for 'virtually' no loss. It's 60% of the original file so it is a compressed format. It's an excellent format for many reasons but memory is cheap these days and a WAV file is the exact copy of the original.

Save to WAV and you won't need to worry about the next version of 'lossless' in a few years. Glad I saved to .WAV during the  MP3 rage.

Like I said, you may not even notice a difference but why not get 100% of the info you paid for.

@linnvolk 

Yes, you are correct, I am assuming most all content is available. Most is. However, what happened to me, and I suspect what happens to most folks is that once the sound quality difference disappears and you have access to more than a million albums your focus shifts from playing the really restricted amount of music you have collected… carefully chosen to sound the very best because of it’s high cost, to exploring new music, enjoying thousands of albums you never knew existed.

When my streaming sound quality rose to my other sources, I think I called up the albums I owned for about a week, before I noticed an album I had never heard before from the same group while searching. Then I would remember a band I did not own. Then I started to just look at new albums, then choose genera and listen to new stuff. Very quickly I seldom would listen to the old stuff I owned. And when I did, if it isn’t there, there is a high definition version of one of their other albums or a better band. 
 

High quality streaming changes everything. 

It appears you are not set up to rip cds. Contract the job out to someone local to perform the task. Their fee may be as low as keeping copies of your music…

@ghdprentice 

I believe you are assuming that the desired content is available through some subscription service, preferably one to which the OP is subscribed.  Yes?  Or am I missing something?

There are a few (not many) CDs in my collection that I cannot find on Qobuz, which is my subscription service.  I have to rely on my ripped copies of those titles.

OP, if you have a good relationship with a dealer, they may be able to rip your CDs for you for a nominal fee.  That is the route I followed myself.

You can buy a dedicated CD copier, but they are expensive.  If you buy a

streamer that rips CD’s as well, that will be expensive.  Getting a used computer somewhere would probably be your best bet.

If you hate the idea of using a computer, there is all in one rippers out there.

I frequently use a Cocktail Audio X45 that makes the process very simple. I prefer that to using the computer.   If on a budget, here is an idea:

Get yourself a used Sony HAP Z1ES.  Add a slim CD drive and you are in business.  It even works as a music server, and is a excellent player in its own right.   I liked it so much, I did a review of it here:  

@rvpiano 

I use an Innuos Zenith mk3.  It rips cds, is an excellent streamer, and I subscribe to Qobuz.

I’m starting with rare, oop cds, and meanwhile, I continue to listen to SACDs and blu rays.  I use Qobuz to preview new stuff before I buy, and listen to esoteric artists that I normally wouldn’t listen to.  

I just retired, so I have lots of time.  Good luck!

Thanks to everyone for your support. I will investigate all solutions,

Not sure what the OP's background is, but if you have a trusted collection of lots of CD's, why would he PAY for streaming what he already owns! So naturally, you rip the CDs. No internet and bandwidth to worry about, no fees to pay for streaming (last I heard none of the recommended streaming services stream high quality files free). 

Get an Innuos Mini MkIII used, and you should be good to go.

Bob

Combining the advice of @soix and @ghdprentice I'll add that I have the Innuos Zenith MK3 and it is and excellent streamer and I did enjoy the convenience of just put the disk in and it automatically rips.  I say did enjoy because i upgraded to a Grimm streamer and it doesn't have that function.  I'm selling the Innuos.  Now I'm in your boat, needing to rip an occasional CD of something I can't find on streaming and  had to go find an external CD drive for my laptop.  And I think you'd enjoy a laptop computer even if you only use it to browse this forum.  And as ghd noticed, you're due for a streamer upgrade.  

I don’t have much to add, but I think the simplest solution for the OP is to get a streamer with a built in ripper and storage.  The second best option is to get a NAS and rip the CDs to it, but this usually requires a computer as well, particularly for editing metadata.

@rvpiano a word of caution.  For Classical Music, there is no good software management system.  It’s all designed for other genres.  Perhaps you know this already.  If you do rip your CDs with the goal of discarding them, be prepared to edit the metadata so that it makes sense to you

Sadly yes, rvpiano, you will need a PC or a laptop. Most laptops and PCs these days don’t have CD drives in them so you also need to buy a USB CD drive. These are fairly inexpensive, around $30. Perhaps you could borrow a laptop from someone. dbPowerAmp is great software but the free Exact Audio Copy works well too. I use a shareware program called mp3tag to snag cover art, album name, track names, and year of production, and add it in the metadata automatically. It finds stuff really well about 80% of the time. Note that .wav files never had the metadata header in them for holding cover art, but you could rip to lossless FLAC or ALAC and they both can contain the metadata for artwork, album name, track name, etc. Do be aware that ripping CDs can be time consuming.

My nephew conned one of his kids into doing it when they were 13 years old, offering them 10 cents for each CD they ripped. I think they felt ripped off. LOL.

Good luck. Long ago I ripped about 1300 CDs into iTunes and will never do that again. It took me a few months doing a few each night.

Another possibility if you don’t want to do it yourself is to make a deal with someone who does have a PC and pay them say a dollar a CD or so then simply get the data files from them.

I’d take a little time and properly clean the CDs before ripping them to help with any error correction. Note if you use iTunes make sure to check the checkbox for "Use Error Correction when reading CDs" in the Import Settings.

Finally, back up those data files in at least two locations for safety. Hardware can fail at any time. Oh and for your use case, that Brennan Helix recommended above by kingbr looks interesting.

I have the Brennan B2 and it is amazing! This is the new version called Helix. It is VERY short $$ and it is SOOOO worth it! You can also get it on Amazon. I actually have the B2 right next to my Node in my rig. You’ll want an external DAC and do yourself a favor and grab a Lifatec Toslink, and you’re good to go👌🏻!

I second dbPoweramp, the paid version. On the PC, a lot of folks use Exact Audio Copy (aka EAC). Having said that, ripping CDs is not for the faint of heart. There's a lot to know in terms of tagging the CDs properly, what file structure, etc. And it's 10x more complicated if you are ripping any classical music. I would suggest, before you buy anything, that you watch some tutorials on YouTube.

I like ripping CDs from my new CD player into my brain, followed by putting the ripped CD back on the shelf. There is some loss due to my weak-ish brain, but amazingly I can just put the CD back in the CD player and listen to it again thus letting my brain off the hook. Win win.

+1 @soix Excellent suggestion

About 5 or 6 years years ago, ripped my CD collection to an Innous Zenith MK2  music streamer and boxed my CDs up, and haven't looked back.

I’d say just get this and be done with it.  It’s likely a better streamer, and you can just rip your CDs directly into it.  Simple.  

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650056614-innuos-zen-mk-3/

Best of luck.

@rvpiano 

Are you trying to store your CD collection in a music server? If so like others have said you need a computer/laptop. I have over 3k CDs stored that way in my music server. Actually I have 2 and I trying to sell one of them. If that’s the case you also need a software that allows you to tag the copied information and another software to help you organize them. Take a look at my add and tell me if that’s what you are trying to accomplish. I can give you some guidance then. 
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649981993-black-melco-n1a-music-library-excellent-condition/

@rvpiano how many CDs do you need to rip? And I would start with the 💿 of artists/performances you can’t find on streaming. 

A laptop with CD/DVD and Windows 10 which will have Windows Media Player. Rip your CD files lossless (about 30MB a song) or rip them Windows Media Pro (24/192) which is about 10 MB per song. I do not hear a difference between lossless and 24/192. 

A laptop with all you need is found new on Amazon for around $200. You may want a 14" screen (11" is a bit small to see playlists) and you will need a USB cable that reaches your DAC USB port. 

I keep my laptop stationary and use it for Jukebox purposes only. I only turn on WiFi when I rip a CD as it will be needed to pull down song titles, album pic, etc. I purged all the useless programs on the laptop before putting it to work. I expect it to last a lifetime- but just in case- I sync my music to an attached thumb drive occasionally to ensure I do not lose my music. 

I have some 86 gigs of music and my everyday playlist amounts to only about 700 songs (6 gigs/50 hours of music/all 24/192), so you really don't need a huge hard drive. 

Just for fun, I have a micro thumb drive that is in my car's USB port for listening while driving. 

There is nothing that can touch local files for music listening. This is most evident in the car. If I listen to music streaming from the computer, the local files are still obviously superior, but a lot will depend on your DAC's capabilities. I do not subscribe to any service, but there are a lot of free music sites and radio stations, etc reachable via the net.

Having done it this way for years now, I am amused at those that purchase streamers and subscribe to music. Makes little to no financial sense in the long run. But then again, I don't understand a $100 phone bill vs a $30 one either. Some people just can't get disconnected and that ain't gonna change anytime soon. I guess I am part of the resistance ;)

Borrow one? Although it is time consuming.

I had to look up your system again. Nice. But your streamer is no where near the quality of much of your system. If you get a much better streamer, there should be no sound advantage to ripped files. Then they are no longer important.  It is really time consuming.

The problem is I don’t have a PC.

is there any other way?

Any old PC will do. No use in adding the function to a streamer. Everything from iTunes, purchased or free software will do it. Switch output format to FLAC before ripping.

I would suggest always putting the max into a single function streamer. With a little effort and money ripped files become irrelevant unless your internet is down. That has happened to me once in the last five years.

@rvpiano you need a computer, cd-rom drive, SSD(highly recommend it, but HDD will also do) and software.

I use dbPoweramp software to rip to FLAC. It’s very good. If you use free version it won’t pull artwork but you can find it on discogs and just copy/paste the image.