01-08-2017, 04:30 PM
For ripping, I recommend EAC: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
I've set it to produce WAVs, though it will do other formats as required. It would be nice if it could do 2 at once (WAV and MP3, for example, as I have an MP3 player). Given the price of storage today, I see no advantage to FLACs. Not all devices will play them.
In terms of metadata, EAC can search for that, and it does it pretty well. It'll get album art as well.
As standard WAVs don't store much metadata, I use the folder structure and filename for that - you tell EAC how to name the folders and files. Though that does mean that some players will say "Unknown song, unknown artist" because they're not finding ID3 tags in the file header, but most will figure it out.
In terms of playback, that's the bit I haven't spent much time on yet. In the hi-fi room, I play the CDs - my CD player has better DACs than any PC soundcard that I've tested so far. I suspect the solution will eventually be my laptop plugged into a USB sound card. You'd have to be mad to buy a dedicated hi-fi box at hi-fi prices, given the pace of change right now. Same for internet radio. I've some sympathy with the complaints when the BBC changed their internet radio solution, but people need to realise that they are at the mercy of manufacturers (a) being willing to provide firmware updates when things change, and (b) putting enough horsepower in the box to cope with new CODECs, etc. Given that every consumer product is "cost engineered" - whatever the retail price - I wouldn't bet my pension on a dedicated box lasting more than a couple of years.
In the workshop, I just use VLC on the workshop PC. It's fine, but I wish it did gappless (that's surprisingly challenging, it seems). On portable devices, there are a variety of DNLA-compatible players - all much of a muchness (do the job, but clunky IMO). I've yet to find a good player that will index all the files and present a sensible user-friendly search interface, so I just browse the file structure.
While I've ripped most of my CDs, I haven't done the classical section yet because I'm not sure my file system based approach to metadata is sufficient.
I've set it to produce WAVs, though it will do other formats as required. It would be nice if it could do 2 at once (WAV and MP3, for example, as I have an MP3 player). Given the price of storage today, I see no advantage to FLACs. Not all devices will play them.
In terms of metadata, EAC can search for that, and it does it pretty well. It'll get album art as well.
As standard WAVs don't store much metadata, I use the folder structure and filename for that - you tell EAC how to name the folders and files. Though that does mean that some players will say "Unknown song, unknown artist" because they're not finding ID3 tags in the file header, but most will figure it out.
In terms of playback, that's the bit I haven't spent much time on yet. In the hi-fi room, I play the CDs - my CD player has better DACs than any PC soundcard that I've tested so far. I suspect the solution will eventually be my laptop plugged into a USB sound card. You'd have to be mad to buy a dedicated hi-fi box at hi-fi prices, given the pace of change right now. Same for internet radio. I've some sympathy with the complaints when the BBC changed their internet radio solution, but people need to realise that they are at the mercy of manufacturers (a) being willing to provide firmware updates when things change, and (b) putting enough horsepower in the box to cope with new CODECs, etc. Given that every consumer product is "cost engineered" - whatever the retail price - I wouldn't bet my pension on a dedicated box lasting more than a couple of years.
In the workshop, I just use VLC on the workshop PC. It's fine, but I wish it did gappless (that's surprisingly challenging, it seems). On portable devices, there are a variety of DNLA-compatible players - all much of a muchness (do the job, but clunky IMO). I've yet to find a good player that will index all the files and present a sensible user-friendly search interface, so I just browse the file structure.
While I've ripped most of my CDs, I haven't done the classical section yet because I'm not sure my file system based approach to metadata is sufficient.
