CD Music Options (1 Viewer)

I'm looking to upgrade my home theater and computer hardware this year. One of the tasks I want to complete with this is to convert all the CD's Anyone have a suggestion on a good option that will allow me to listen to this music without having to put a CD in the CD player?

Thanks
Terry

Get an Apple TV or an Airport Express, hook the optical digital to your receiver, and use iTunes to rip and stream music. If you get an Apple TV, you can also stream video. If you get an Airport Express, you can only stream audio. You can control the audio and video from the Remote App on the iPhone or iPad.By the way, welcome to HTF!

I play all my music through my iPod. Have a 160GB iPod classic that holds
my entire music library and I can take it everywhere with me, both in my home
theater and in my car.

Welcome to our forum, BTW!

I second Ron's advice about an iPod Classic. They are $229 at Amazon. Mine was full, so I converted my tunes to 128kbps AAC, now I have 40 gig free and room to grow. You might be able to use a higher bitrate if your music collection is not large...I've got 37,000+ tracks in iTunes.

I use a WDTV Live Hub Media Center. It does streaming, comes with a 1TB hard drive built in, accepts external storage via USB, and can handle just about any DRM-free format I throw at it except for Apple Lossless. I also use it as my source drive for my Google Play Music manager which uploads everything I put on it into the cloud so I can access it on my phone or tablet.

If you looking to upgrade your home theater, doing what is suggested here , will downgrade your music. If that is not important to you, then proceed, otherwise you may want to start with looking at this...

http://lifehacker.com/5927052/whats-the-difference-between-all-these-audio-formats-and-which-one-should-i-use

most people do not hear the difference between mp3s and the cd.

but mp3 is a lossy format. by that, it means that some of the bits are forever lost.

if you convert to a lossless format, that means that the format can be re-converted back to the cd format, if desired.

you can simply convert your cd to a wav file. but then that takes the same amount of room as the cd.

however, in that format, just about any reader play it.

the other 2 main lossless formats of which i am aware are wavpack and flac. i chose wavpack to store my files.

the advantage to wv and flac over wav is that info about the music (artist, title, etc.) can be embedded in the wv or flac file.

the other question that you need to ask yourself is if you are gonna keep your cds or sell them ?

if you are gonna sell them, i would convert the files to some sort of lossless format.

in other words, i would not save the music exclusively in mp3 format.

if you are talking portability, then mp3 is the only way to go. the other formats take up too much room on the ipod. and you may run into compatibility problems trying to play them.

so just think ipod and mp3 as a marriage partner.

foobar is what most people use to play their wv and flac files on their computer. and i am pretty sure that foobar will convert a wv file to flac, and vice versa.

i am converting all my cds to wv, and storing it on terrabyte drives. and of course, i have a backup for it, as well. the terrabyte drives are no longer that expensive.

i use exact audio copy to copy my cds to my computer. it has high rankings amongst audiophiles.

I always thought it was illegal to rip your CDs then sell them...

And people "can't tell the difference between MP3 and CD"???

You must only listen to boomboxes.

I can clearly hear the difference between MP3 files and a CD in most cases.

That harsh "shrill" and distortion within the high notes is a giveaway....at least for me.

not illegal, at all. it is permissible to rip your music onto your computer.

if you do google searches on the net, you will find that most people can not tell the difference.

but of course, that may depend to some extent on the type of music one listens to.

i would guess that the more instruments, or complex the music, the more apt there would be to be a difference.

it is true that i do not listen to my music on sophisticated speaker systems. it does seem likely that if there is a difference to be noticed, that difference would be more recognizable on better speaker systems.

that may be why most people do not hear any difference ?

plus, i was recommending mp3s for portable use. which of course rule out any sort of real sophisticated speakers. mostly people use headphones or small portable speakers.

i am keeping all of my music in a lossless format, such that there is no difference.

"not illegal, at all. it is permissible to rip your music onto your computer."

[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:'Merriweather Sans', sans-serif;background-color:rgb(242,242,242);]That is not what you said before...[/color]

[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:'Merriweather Sans', sans-serif;background-color:rgb(242,242,242);]"[/color]the other question that you need to ask yourself is if you are gonna keep your cds or sell them ?
if you are gonna sell them, i would convert the files to some sort of lossless format."
That thing...right there...^^^
Is ILLEGAL

ripping to your computer requires one to use a format.

instead of beating around the bush, why not state specifically what you are saying.

are you suggesting that it legal to rip to mp3 format, but illegal to rip to a lossless format ?

The illegal part here...

IS ripping the CD(forget the format, that is irrelevant) and then selling the CD.

You have to purchase your music. Or were you completely asleep when Napster went down?

you seem to like to get in arguments with me.

i dont know what napster is, so i cant make any comment about that.

So let me guess...Some of your music collection is stuff you borrrowed from your local library, took home, ripped and took back to the library...By the way. That is the same exact thing as buying a CD, ripping it and then selling the CD.

you make too many assumptions. why not do us both a favor, and simply troll somewhere else. if you continue to harass me, i will report you.

There is nothing here, for you, to report.

You said...

"If selling your CDs, make sure to rip them lossless."

What, DO YOU not get?

I have all of my music ripped to 320 mp3. I run that music through an external 1TB hard drive hooked to my PS3. I have been pleased with the audio quality that it delivers. I always keep my music backed up on two different hard drives, and I keep the CDs.