[sygnus21]

Ask this question – "should I rip my CDs to my PC?” and you will get a myriad of opinions. But the question behind that question should be what are “you” wishing to accomplish? Many have their ideas, but do they align with yours and your needs?

For me, when I decided to rip my 2700+ CD collection to PC in FLAC using dBpoweramp (which also does a pretty good job in tagging and grabbing album art) I did so with the intention of being able to stream my personal collection anywhere I wanted to via Plex.

Yes, I have Spotify’s music streaming service, but since I’m also a music collector who buys physical copies of stuff I really like and have been buying since the mid-70s. As such my collection is my main source of music, and though I listen to Spotify, it’s also mainly used as a previewer of what I want to buy.

The great thing about having my collection on PC now is I can easily find stuff. I can easily browse though it in JRiver Media Center by album cover, artist, title, track name, or genre. I can easily create personalized playlists. I’m now listening to stuff I’ve not heard in years or otherwise forgot about. And most importantly, I can hear it wherever I want.

Because my Western Digital NAS is also cloud based and supports Plex Media Server, I can stream from outside the home to any device Plex is supported on, including my android phone via Plexamp, as well as phone to car. From the car I can issue voice commands to the Infotainment system to play what I want, be it album, track, or playlist, so no fumbling with knobs or touch screens.

And as long as I have internet connectivity Plex works. I’ve driven from VA to NY with Plex streaming and never lost connectivity from my NAS.

Sure, you can do all this with streaming apps, but this is about those of us who wish to rip our own physical collections and have it available anywhere.

Of course, there’s always a pro/con / “what if” scenario – storage considerations, cost of hardware/software, size of collection, time required, streaming service, what if a drive fails. For me, I did consider those things, and some were already in place, so for me ripping was a no brainer.

This is just one of many avenues, and I’m sure there will be a plethora of opinions and points, and that’s fine. Do bear in mind this is targeted at those such as myself who collect and wish to rip to PC.

My two cents.

 

[DKenn]

I ripped my collection using iTunes. I use a Sonos to view and play them.

My thought was that CD/DVD drives won't be around for ever, and I didn't want to lose a lifetimes worth of music.

Also, Spotify doesn't have everything e.g. B-sides.

 

[sygnus21]

My thought was that CD/DVD drives won't be around for ever, and I didn't want to lose a lifetimes worth of music.

When one owns a large CD collection as I do, they would also own a dedicated a full-blown Hi-Fi CD player as I do

You don't own near 3000 CDs just to play them in your PC

 

[Rackhour]

It’s always worth mentioning that a solid backup strategy is key for any media collection, or heck, any digital storage whatsoever.

You didn’t mention it in your original post, but an offsite backup solution should be part of the combo. That’s why there is the 3-2-1 backup strategy: 3 copies of your data, out of which 2 copies are on different storage media, out of which 1 is offsite.

For me, ignoring my DAP, I have 3 copies of my music collection. 1 is in my laptop, 1 is backed up to an external hard drive on a weekly basis, and 1 is backed up to Backblaze, a remote backup service provider. Backblaze charges a flat fee of $70 per year or $130 every two years to hold everything in your internal drives and USB external drives; there is a per-GB or TB fee if you want to back up a NAS. There are other similar services besides Backblaze, FYI; I’m not affiliated with any of them.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

I was religiously ripping all my CDs to FLAC using EAC, just to completely stopping using my collection (and JRiver) after signing up for Qobuz.
Well, it served its purpose when online lossless streaming was not a thing. These days with unlimited 5G for mobile and ability to "Import" online content to use when internet is down covers all my needs and more.

 

[sygnus21]

Of course, there’s always a pro/con / “what if” scenario – storage considerations, cost of hardware/software, size of collection, time required, streaming service, what if a drive fails. For me, I did consider those things, and some were already in place, so for me ripping was a no brainer.

It’s always worth mentioning that a solid backup strategy is key for any media collection, or heck, any digital storage whatsoever.

Anytime you have critical information, you'd want to back that up. That's a given. And why I intimated it above. Regardless of the method used.

And yes, offsite backups are also a viable solution, but one needs to also consider the amount of storage they wish to backup, the cost of service, and their upload speeds allowed by their internet service provider. Example my upload speed from my ISP is only 10 meg per second so it would take quite a few hours to back up my 2TB of music files. However, once that's done, than backups are quicker as you'd only have to backup the changes / additions. On the other end is download speed and what the offsite provider allows. Example with Carbonite, which I had, you could only download a limited amount of data per session so if you have 4TB of data as I did, you could not download it all at once. If you wanted that, you could ask the company to send you a disk drive with all your data for $90 bucks.

Anyway, regardless of method it is always prudent to backup. For me, besides backups, I still have the original CDs. And since I can't account for every "what if" in the universe I just rely on what I have before me.

 

[Rackhour]

Anytime you have critical information, you'd want to back that up. That's a given. And why I intimated it above. Regardless of the method used.

And yes, offsite backups are also a viable solution, but one needs to also consider the amount of storage they wish to backup, the cost of service, and their upload speeds allowed by their internet service provider. Example my upload speed from my ISP is only 10 meg per second so it would take quite a few hours to back up my 2TB of music files. However, once that's done, than backups are quicker as you'd only have to backup the changes / additions. On the other end is download speed and what the offsite provider allows. Example with Carbonite, which I had, you could only download a limited amount of data per session so if you have 4TB of data as I did, you could not download it all at once. If you wanted that, you could ask the company to send you a disk drive with all your data for $90 bucks.

Anyway, regardless of method it is always prudent to backup. For me, besides backups, I still have the original CDs. And since I can't account for every "what if" in the universe I just rely on what I have before me.

To preface, I agree with everything you said. I just want to emphasize for other people’s sake.

It isn’t “prudent” to have a backup. It’s an absolute must. Too many people have been burnt by not backing up and too many people will get burnt. I really cannot stress this enough.

 

[sygnus21]

The point was addressed, and remains, no matter how it's worded.

I think we can move on.

Peace

 

[peterinvan]

It’s always worth mentioning that a solid backup strategy is key for any media collection, or heck, any digital storage whatsoever.

You didn’t mention it in your original post, but an offsite backup solution should be part of the combo. That’s why there is the 3-2-1 backup strategy: 3 copies of your data, out of which 2 copies are on different storage media, out of which 1 is offsite.

For me, ignoring my DAP, I have 3 copies of my music collection. 1 is in my laptop, 1 is backed up to an external hard drive on a weekly basis, and 1 is backed up to Backblaze, a remote backup service provider. Backblaze charges a flat fee of $70 per year or $130 every two years to hold everything in your internal drives and USB external drives; there is a per-GB or TB fee if you want to back up a NAS. There are other similar services besides Backblaze, FYI; I’m not affiliated with any of them.

Before I retired and we down-sized to a one bed condo, I ripped all my CDs to FLAC files, and dumped the physical CDs. I know: gasp.

I need to feel I am protecting the years invested in curated my music collection.
I have doubts about using cloud storage.

I have backups of the FLAC files on my PC, on my DAP as well as a second hard drive.
I used to make an annual off-site backup of all my docs, music and pictures on an external hard drive. Now I can fit all my important backups onto a single micro-SD card

 

[peterinvan]

When one owns a large CD collection as I do, they would also own a dedicated a full-blown Hi-Fi CD player as I do



You don't own near 3000 CDs just to play them in your PC

The question is, can you hear a difference between FLAC rips and your CD player? Assuming that your FLAC files are played back through similar quality equipment?

 

[sygnus21]

The question is, can you hear a difference between FLAC rips and your CD player? Assuming that your FLAC files are played back through similar quality equipment?

That's a debate I'm not willing to get into. For "me" I ripped in FLAC cause that's the format I like. I ripped my CDs to PC so I can stream my personal collection when out and about. I still have my physical collection and still listen to them, and especially my audiophile editions. That works for me. YMMV.

Peace

 

[Shane D]

I ripped my whole collection to my computer in ALAC files with iTunes almost ten years ago. I have been buying my music digitally for the most part, ever since (the only exception being some jazz in CD form).

So, my whole music collection is on my desktop, laptop, phone, iPod and Sony DAP.
To this day, I am still super pumped about having my whole collection in my pocket!

 

[Harum7]

I only have like 7 CDs, so I ripped them to FLAC just in case something happens to the CDs, which are stored in a box in my closet. In reality, the CDs are safer than the FLAC files!

 

[Andrew_WOT]

I only have like 7 CDs, so I ripped them to FLAC just in case something happens to the CDs, which are stored in a box in my closet. In reality, the CDs are safer than the FLAC files!

You must be new to CDs, I had my share of problems ripping older ones due to the scratches and disk rot.

 

[sygnus21]

I am still super pumped about having my whole collection in my pocket!

As am I