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When did you digitize your CDs and LPs? I still haven’t...

I’m a 46 year old guy who came up on LPs and cassettes, got into CDs and then stumbled into the world of online music where I’m still trying to figure out what to do.

20 years or so ago when people started getting excited about digitizing their CD collections, I never bothered. I have maybe 900-1000 CDs and the idea of having to “rip” them never appealed to me. Heck, I never even liked the word “rip” and the action seemed time consuming and boring as heck to me. Same for LPs.

These days, I still have all my obsolete media but I’m a Tidal HiFi subscriber and have come to love streaming. Still, there’s a lot I have on CD and LP that Tidal doesn’t have and I’m wondering if it’s time to step into the present and get something like an Innuos Zen Mk III so I can stream, rip, and store at least all of my CDs.

Is it time to step into the present, or will I be fine rocking my Nakamichi CDP-2A until it dies and then just buying another CD player or transport? That certainly seems less expensive these days than a fancy streamer/server/“ripper”.
pip_helix
johnss
564 posts
 
if you embark on this task, what ever you do, make a daily back up copy of the files you have ripped, or copied. I did this with my 2k CD collection a number of years ago. Got half way through and the HD crashed. Had to start all over from the beginning. also don't try to sit down and do it all at once. Pace yourself, go for 45 min then quit and do something else. otherwise you will get fatigued and make mistakes. and a break is a nice change.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,410 posts
 
+1 johnss I use two backups. Every time I add more than 5 CDs I copy to one of backups (altering between them). Using two backups protects me from loss of everything in case when one backup goes wrong, like controller failure (voltage spike, virus etc) that can damage both HDs. It is extremely rare, but I don’t want to rip 2000 CDs again. Recently I bought CarbonCopyCloner on sale and it is fantastic.

pip_helix OP
30 posts
 
I’m using a Bluesound Node 2i right now. It gets the streaming job done yet I can’t help but wonder why I had to pay $550 just to get a box that’ll let me stream Tidal from my phone to my amplifier. Seems like there should be something even simpler..

Streaming.....sometimes it’s just overwhelming having access to millions of albums all at once. The nice thing about a CD collection is you have to get up and look around at it and then you rediscover things. Then, I look at some of my shelves and feel like I’m in my college apartment with CDs everywhere. Yikes.

Is it a drag to have to back up the back up of the stored CDs? I guess it’s a quiet procedure but then with the cost of, say, an Innuous Zen Mini Mk III, the upgraded power supply and then two external drives, I’m creeping up on $3k just so I don’t have to change the CD when it’s done?

I guess I’m stuck between thinking “yeah, just jump all the way into streaming” and “bah, why bother.” Maybe I can be the last man standing with a buggy whip.
soix
8,860 posts
 
but then with the cost of, say, an Innuous Zen Mini Mk III, the upgraded power supply
You’re better off just getting the Zen than the Mini and upgraded power supply IMO unless you need the DAC in the Mini, but you’ll want to upgrade that anyway. 
I’m creeping up on $3k just so I don’t have to change the CD when it’s done?
No.  Your streamed music will sound better through the Zen than the Node with the added ability to access all your CD music from your chair in any order you wish or even listen to it randomly.  Then again, if you prefer to just listen to one familiar CD at a time then perhaps a CD player is just fine.  Personally, since I started streaming I’ve found so much incredible new music I rarely play my CDs anymore, but that’s me. 


lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,104 posts
 
I ripped my 1K plus collection of CD’s 4 years ago when I bought Vault 2 and then sold most of it for pennies on the dollar.  My collection is now reduced to about 200 discs that are mostly SACD, K2HD and XRCD. I wasn’t going to give away those for pennies :-) 

As others have pointed out, streaming offers equal or better SQ than redbook CD’s. I use Qobuz which IMO is better than Tidal. 
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