[Andrew_WOT]

I had a bunch of CDs and DVDs that stopped reading completely or started skipping either due to scratches or oxide layer deterioration.
If you ever used EAC to rip CDs there is quite a difference between ripping brand new just open one and few years old that takes multiple retries to read properly and still fails Confidence report checksum.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I still Rip and buy mostly used CDs. My main reasoning is simple, retention of original copies, and changing times!

For instance, The original CD for Pink Floyd's "The Wall", with all the remastering and fudging with "new remastered" versions (Some Good, Some awful) You will always own that "IMO better" version.

With changing opinions, and copyrights it is more and more common to see songs removed from say "Soundtracks" and only available on The artist's channel or in the worst case songs that have been changed due to lyric content, or someone new found beliefs, or entire albums in an artists portfolio not available, for whatever reason.

Bottom line if you love an album, get it, rip it, keep it. The rest is what streaming is for! lol

Cheers!!

 

[Andrew_WOT]

You can still buy digital copy of the album you like from streaming services like Qobuz to keep it forever.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

You can still buy digital copy of the album you like from streaming services like Qobuz to keep it forever.

You are correct! I was referring to things like in my example of "The Wall" not sure if there's anywhere I could buy the original mix (Which sounds better to me) anywhere. 2011 remaster is out there but not the original. That was more what I meant. My apologies if I worded it incorrectly.

 

[arftech]

All music that I purchased get ripped. Keep in mind an artist or label may occasionally remove titles from a service.

 

[eelpout]

I still Rip and buy mostly used CDs. My main reasoning is simple, retention of original copies, and changing times!

yep. there are still a large number of recordings out there that haven't made it to streaming. I get a lot of classical music CD's from eBay and discogs. much to the dismay of my wife.

 

[SLAFL]

IMO: Keep CDs people... (that is rip them using EAC)... First thing is I have several different pressings of my favorite albums on CD (they sound different depending on who master it and what was the source of the master) (not even mentioning boutique audiophile pressings, MFSL and others...) - for instance see how much first pressing Japanese CDs of Pink Floyds going for (a lot) since they were sourced from analog masters. With streaming you are basically giving up choice and you do not know the source files they are using plus they may offer much lower DR then CDs... Preserve for future generations and have meaningful discussions on which CD pressing sounds the best... not mentioning that some pressings have Left and Right channel switched... and some other interesting artifacts...

 

[simontoyou]

I'd test by ripping a few CDs to see if you can even tell the difference between streaming, FLAC, or VBR.

I personally can't tell the difference between FLAC and VBR but some streamed songs don't cut it for me.

 

[bithalver]

Please read the story about Microsoft closing it's ebook store in 2019 ( https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47810367 for example, worth reading ).
If you have a streaming service, you do not own anything. If spotify closes for any reason, your playing lists vanish like fools gold.

I am an IT engineer (my degree in programming and math was from 1990); I have seen too much data loss for various reasons.
I believe my data is only those I can bring with me offline; so I ripped all my CDs. I have all of'em in my NAS, Dropbox and on microSD cards. Same for all my ebooks.

If I bought something it means it is mine and can lend it to a friend anytime; this is the reason I do not buy DRM potected media (especially ebooks).

Please vorfige me for rgammar miskates; ingiliz not is ym tanive ganluage.

 

[henry9731]

I’ve talked the wife into getting a NAS for all our photos, videos, music, etc. I have about 1000 CDs just sitting on the shelf downstairs and was thinking of ripping them to put on the NAS when it arrives. However, I’m sure over 90% of it is on our Amazon Music subscription. Is there any advantage to ripping CDs these days?

I used to have a ripper setup but sold it after I ripped my collection. MacBook pro early 2015, dBpoweramp @ 1x speed.
Pioneer S13J-X, Mercury Pro external drive bay, a 12v Linnear PSU, and a custom-made USB.

I also have a crap Asus drive that cost about $25.

The difference is insane. The noise level is so much quieter with the 13JX. Its near dead silent while there is noticeable hiss/background noise with the cheap Asus.
I also compared directly using SATA from 13JX to a PC but my router was near and my PC is for gaming, I also don't have a cable for my LPS to SATA power. So the noise was still noticeable.

 

[sacguy231]

I have collected a large amount of CDs over the years. I even had the opportunity to purchase the inventory of a music store that was closing some years back, so I got thousands of (mostly classical) CDs for pennies practically nothing. I have ripped everything becuase I love streaming my music for convenience (I use LMS for my server, still my fave) and also because I now have all my music backed-up on multiple hard drives. I even keep a spare hard drive backup offsite just in case. The CD ripping is so time consuming, especially if you want to tag everything properly (I use dBpoweramp and it has worked very well all these years). I still have my CDs proudly displayed on large wall racks, but the convenience of picking up my ipad and having my entire collection well-categorized is unbeatable. That said, I also have a sizable collection of vintage CD players that I use regularly because I like the tactile interaction of physical media. So on any given day I might be streaming from my server all day while I work in my office at home, and then pop in a CD that evening with a bourbon in hand

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Please read the story about Microsoft closing it's ebook store in 2019 ( https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47810367 for example, worth reading ).
If you have a streaming service, you do not own anything. If spotify closes for any reason, your playing lists vanish like fools gold.

I am an IT engineer (my degree in programming and math was from 1990); I have seen too much data loss for various reasons.
I believe my data is only those I can bring with me offline; so I ripped all my CDs. I have all of'em in my NAS, Dropbox and on microSD cards. Same for all my ebooks.

If I bought something it means it is mine and can lend it to a friend anytime; this is the reason I do not buy DRM potected media (especially ebooks).

Please vorfige me for rgammar miskates; ingiliz not is ym tanive ganluage.

If you buying some album, you can download and store it locally, there is no difference from ripping it yourself except extra hassle and limited options for high res.
For live streaming, if one streaming service goes down, there is always another one that can serve the same content, it's not cloud storage of your personal files which when gone will lead to loss of your data.

 

[bithalver]

If you buying some album, you can download and store it locally, there is no difference from ripping it yourself except extra hassle and limited options for high res.
For live streaming, if one streaming service goes down, there is always another one that can serve the same content, it's not cloud storage of your personal files which when gone will lead to loss of your data.

Ripping or downloading could be the same but why buy again ? I will not hear the diff from CD quality to highres so not interested in that. I tried.

Same content ? Are you sure about that ? Can you listen to Neil Young on Tidal for example ?

Cloud storage IS the backup of my local anything .

IT engineer here; I know how to protect data from any kind of loss. We did this on corporate level (like back up a 10Gb database in 2006).

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Obviously if you have rip from CD there is little to no reason to buy download unless it's some remaster or high-res version, the point is that with purchasable downloads you do not need CD.
Neil Young has abundant presence on Qobuz including 24/192kHz high-res albums, don't have active Tidal subscription but why would it be different there?
I was trying to point out that losing subscription to the particular streaming service due it going out of business or some other reason rarely would result of data loss for you as the other one will have the same content, it's not your personalized data files storage, just same data for everyone.
And as a purchased download is just regular FLAC you can keep it with or without subscription or when the service is long gone, if you prefer full control of ownership. With Qobuz you don't even need subscription to purchase downloads.

With subscription service you have unlimited discovery capabilities with ability to "cement" ownership on what you really like by purchasing content.

 

[LanceSaintPaul]

It's definitely a big job - I had to rip almost 4000 CDs.

Not really too onerous though if you purchase/download efficient software and run through 50 or so a day. With many of us working from home, the opportunity is there.

What I used is as follows. There are other equally good solutions.

Rip - dbPowerAmp. (not free, but has a huge suite of functionality beyond ripping)
Tag - MP3tag (freeware - author accepts donations). I found the tag sources and ability to manipulate file names better than what dbPowerAmp offers.

I had many too. Doing as many as I could each day over several months. I would do it from my laptop in the background while I was online - glad to have it done (but then you realize you'd better keep a variety of back-up copies...).
Well worth it for me.
Then I discovered how I could RIP SACD's and started again with those....
I prefer local storage, not a streaming service.