Music storage advice

I'm not really sure how you go about ripping vinyl but I don't think it's that hard or expensive, someone else will have to chime in there.

 

After that, the first port of call with a digital set up is creating a lossless archive. This is done by using software like EAC (Exact Audio Copy) on the PC and storing the rips onto, depending on how fancy you want to get...

a) an external HDD enclosure that fits 2 drives so you can mirror them and then if one dies you can replace the faulty one and won't have lost everything

b) a small network attached storage (NAS) device which can be kept somewhere out the way and can stream audio to whatever devices can see it on the home network. Typically you can use more advanced data redundancy features on these although the principle is the same. Bit more expensive obviously than the above, but still reasonable.

 

In both cases the devices can be kept away from the audio set up so there's less mechanical noise from the HDDs in the immediate vicinity and it's nmch cheaper than getting an 'audiophile music server' type device (which is just the same thing but in a nicer chassis and x10 the price). Once you've done that, then you can make lossy copies for a portable device (e.g. your iRiver if you mod it), or just listen to them as is via a digital set up. Your laptop would run the audio software to access your stored music, and then you'd only need a DAC and amp to connect to it. I'd say if you want to keep costs down, then get the digital library done and just make lossy copies for the iRiver, and then in future if you want to get a more dedicated home digital set up, you won't have to re-rip everything again.

I've done some vinyl conversion. It's time-consuming, but if you're moving to digiatl listening, there's not much of an option, unless you want to re-purchase your collection (generally unfeasible).

1. First you'll need the software. I've used [=http://audacity.sourceforge.net/]Audacity[/], but there are others out there. Audacity is free, but you're limited in your output files to Ogg Vorbis, mp3, aiff, and wav.
2. You'll need to be able to hook your turntable up to your computer. I think RCA to mini cables are easy to find. That's what I've used and they've worked.
3. Download and set up the software, hook up the computer, and then set record. You should try to get the sound levels right. You want them as high as you can go withour pushing the red line, which will lead to clipping.
4. Once you've recorded a record, you need to go back in, separate the different tracks and output them in the digital form of your choice.

Plan on at least doubling the play time for each album you rip. Good luck!

(edited to add) I don't think I've seen any flac or other lossless form converters for vinyl. What you could do is output it as wav (CD quality), then use something like EAC to convert to flac.
Edited by rroseperry - 1/21/12 at 12:46pm

Yeah, rip to WAV (uncompressed lossless) then you can batch-convert all of them into FLAC (compressed lossless) for the archive, then keep that and make mp3 copies for your iRiver (the 128GB mod should give you more than enough room for a lot of albums in mp3. Ripping is time consuming, but you only have to do it once!

I don't think the cheapness of the setup is going to be a problem for you unless you think it's going to drop dead in the middle of the process. It's the software implementation that's going to have the greatest effect on your input. A standard, competent card and drive will do the same work as an expensive one, imo.

 

 

 

If you want to preserve the quality of the signal as delivered by your TT, you need an excellent AD converter.

The output of this converter is by design digital.

So just a stream of bits to be stored in a file.

As it is digital, no need to do anything special, different, etc.

Inside the digital domain audio simply don’t exist. We talk files and audio files are exactly like any other file with exactly the same ‘digital’ robustness.

 

Maybe this link is of use: http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/rip_it_1_e.html

 

Yeah, files are files. Lossless is bit-for-bit identical to the CD it's been ripped from (or the vinyl). The only thing that potentially matters with hard-drives is the noise of them physically working, which can be reduced either through sound-proofing your PC or simply keeping the drives/storage in another location (hence the preference for a network storage device). Of course the next big thing will be SSD since they have no moving parts, but currently they are too expensive and too small capacity for large data storage. Other than that it's just a collection of 1's and 0's. Being lossless and ripped correctly is all that matters.

 

A FLAC file is identical on a $150 netbook or a $1500 gaming machine, it's the process of getting that digital file to your ears as sound waves which is the money is spent.

There are some great DIY options if you fancy building a DAC, e.g. the Twisted Pear Buffalo (on it's 3rd iteration now I believe).