Disconnected my CD players / transports today and stored them and my CDs

[DVinylfan]

I sometimes listen to music on YouTube on my phone when I want to hear a certain tune, and occasionally connect the phone via the (now outdated) headphone socket to the 'aux' input on my preamp.
But that's probably as close as I will ever come to streaming music. I recognise I'm in the minority here.
I sold probably about 5 in total of the vinyl records from my collection over the years. Metal Machine Music, Ralf & Florian, (Verlaine and Vega's) Suicide..I miss them all still. It wasn't worth it for the measly % of retail I was paid.
But, I'm consoled these days knowing I could replace them with a CD or vinyl reissue if I wished to.
It's heresy, and has been for years, but I hate computers. Equating them with musical enjoyment isn't happening for me and I think never will.
There's perhaps an element of muscle memory that is different from individual to individual. For me, playing music is about putting a disc on. Taking it out of the cover, putting it on the disc player, pressing play/lowering the arm, and listening. (This isn't a prescription, it's a description). I can't help that, it's how I was made.
I listen to about 50/50 vinyls and CDs.
CDs exceed vinyl records in fidelity by most if not all measures, but certain records I own released in the 1970's (Rolling Stones, Fairport Convention) play, on my system, to my ears, with what I perceive to be a 'dimensionality' I don't hear on CD..
So I continue to enjoy both analogue and digital media, and try my best to stay out of apples versus oranges arguments.
Just my 3c

 

[Brian Hall]

Agreed, I find touchscreens, PCs and the user interfaces that go along with it to be much more of an effort than just plopping a CD in the CD player and also less of a pleasure.

Fine for playlists, but for albums I want it in my hands and I like to operate physical buttons etc… I don’t find physical media a clutter either. What else would I keep in my home? I like things, not files and hard drives. Although my collection is ripped and I do play the files as play lists, the thought of my network player being my only option does not appeal.

I play some playlists generated by streaming services, mainly to find new music I like. The majority of the time, I play full albums from my plex server.

 

[tengiz]

After about seven years without a physical disc player in my media room, I couldn’t stand the emptiness anymore. The only things in the room were the speakers and the screen. Everything else - receivers, amps, streaming gear, and even the disc players - was tucked away in the equipment room on the other side of the screen wall.

Now I’ve added a small wall cabinet just behind and off to the side of the listening spot, with one of the disc players in it. The excuse was to give the kids a place for the turntable they insisted on, but I have to admit it feels good to have at least one player back in the room.

The discs I’ve kept are SACD, DVD-A, and BD-A - I just can’t bring myself to part with those yet. The Redbook CDs, though, are mostly gone.

 

[MediumRare]

I broke the shackles of physical books when the very first Kindle was released. No regrets and Goodwill and the local libraries got some big piles of donated books.

I'm keeping my CDs, but they will remain neatly stored in storage boxes.

You’re on the ight track. Having just done my 4th Estate, my advice is don't curse your kids with dealing with your obsolete stuff in storage. Sell the CDs and player now, enjoy the cash, and REALLY declutter.

 

[Brian Hall]

You’re on the ight track. Having just done my 4th Estate, my advice is don't curse your kids with dealing with your obsolete stuff in storage. Sell the CDs and player now, enjoy the cash, and REALLY declutter.

I won't sell or give away the CDs. They are the licenses for the music I have stored on my server.

 

[MediumRare]

I won't sell or give away the CDs. They are the licenses for the music I have stored on my server.

I understand your point. This random lawyer says it’s not necessary from a strictly legal perspective. https://carterlawaz.com/burning-cds-and-copyright-law/

 

[tobyjug]

Is EAC a good software to use to start ripping my CDs ??

 

[AnalogSteph]

Is EAC a good software to use to start ripping my CDs ??

There's definitely worse.

The user interface has not changed all that much from what it was in 1999, but it remains a powerful piece of software with a wealth of options and getting started has become easier over the years (you used to have to consult tutorials for ripping to FLAC).

Be sure to turn on background encoding and select CTDB for metadata for an additional source of verification (which will give you CTDB in addition to AccurateRip).

Metadata quality and image availability can be hit and miss, you may want to use a dedicated tagger to improve that (MP3Tag, MusicBrainz Picard, whatever). dBPoweramp has a better reputation in that regard, but also costs money.

Handling of emphasis CDs is less than ideal, there is a PE column with info read from the TOC - which is a secondary mechanism and not how it was supposed to be done - but that's about it. (If you have your suspicions, consult the cuesheet generated by CUERipper. It'll note a PE flag in subcode.)

 

[Mart68]

I understand your point. This random lawyer says it’s not necessary from a strictly legal perspective. https://carterlawaz.com/burning-cds-and-copyright-law/

In the UK even making a copy 'for archival purposes' is illegal. Whether you still own the original or not.

Obviously there's no way to practically enforce that.

 

[rdenney]

I spend all day every day poking at a computer. When at home, I prefer to spend my time in my shop working on three-dimensional things or in my living room playing or listening to music. Even when I watch YouTubes, I'm using an Apple box and not something that looks and works like a computer.

I'm glad people don't mind making every single aspect of their lives something they have to store on a server somewhere, but not me. My heirs can call 1-800-Got-Junk for all I care.

I have probably a dozen computers in the house in various stages of disrepair, only a couple of which are sustained in perfect order for design and photography work (and the photography workstation is fairly high-end), plus the computer for the wife, for which I'm the IT Guy. Every time I need to work on a computer or my network because of an issue, I have to navigate page after page of obnoxious tech-a-hole jargon on various websites where everyone seems to want to challenge the needs of those seeking information instead of just answering the freaking question. And I have to do that because everything I had to learn the last time I needed it is now obsolete and replaced by new tech, new rules, new protocols, and new impenetrable jargon. This is a formula for simplification?

Let me take another whack at that dead horse:

I make things with a 75-year-old lathe and a 40-year-old milling machine using measurement tools that have survived many decades in a state of perfect functionality. I work on my vintage electronic stuff using test equipment made 30 or 40 years ago that is still in calibration because the stuff was really made well by people who cared. Does that make me a Luddite? I don't think so, but it probably does make me cheap. I just don't think there's anything on the market that can match the quality of that old stuff for less than ten or twenty times the cost, and even that can't be maintained because there is no documentation or service for any reasonable sum. But if I can get half a dozen years out of a $xxxx computer for photo editing before Adobe, Corel or Microsoft obsolete it, I'm doing well, it seems. And changing to a new one is weeks/months of disruption. That hasn't seemed like the simple live to me, and cuss at my computers about a thousand times more than I cuss at my old machines and test equipment. My desire for a more simplified life is leading me away from computers, not towards them.

I can put a CD into the funky rotating drawer of my Naim CD player, press the play button, and music issues forth. If it breaks, repairing it is mostly likely tracing down the bad capacitor. (Not always.) Those sorts of repairs don't require learning the whole new crop of IT crap that was generated since last year. I can then sit on my sofa with a glass of Bowmore 12-year-old, read the booklet that came with the CD, and enjoy the music. I can use my iPhone for what it's best for: Playing solitaire.

Rick "going for rant points" Denney

 

[dualazmak]

Is EAC a good software to use to start ripping my CDs ??

My recommendation based on my long-year experiences of CD ripping and format conversion;
dBpoweramp CD Ripper
- https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm

 

[pablolie]

I still buy CDs, but never ever in the last ~20 years have I plopped one into a player for active listening. It's all in-house streaming (my library has over 60k tracks and thousands of albums). Only CD/DVD drive is on my home workstation. My cabin-in-the-woods didn't have any coverage until 6 or 7 years ago, but clearly doesn't have room for media (nor would I want to haul them around).... but a small compact system with a 15 year old linux computer and an external hard drive is a life saver there.

I also use dbPoweramp to rip my CDs, which kept receipts, scan album art of, and then destroy (no storage).

Digital streaming allows me to tailor playlists, eliminate songs that aren't my favs in albums (and 99.5% or more of albums contain songs I tend to ignore after the first few times listening). Basically, I seldom have to hit the "next" button on the remote.

 

[pinger]

I'm on the computer for hours each day. I like my music listening separate. I like my CD's in the rack organized by composer. Its a library. Streaming is antiseptic and ripping all your CD's to a computer is needless work for me. I've bought close to 200 CD's ( classical) in the last two years. They dont take up that much room LOL.

 

[Hal_01]

It's hard. I did it when we moved 9 years ago. I had to make time between box packing sessions. I don't regret it. I've bought a couple of CDs because I couldn't find hi res downloads or streaming versions.

Ahhh the days of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing. You could get just about anything you wanted in the compression of your choice, 320, 192, 160, 120 for free.

 

[pablolie]

I'm on the computer for hours each day. I like my music listening separate. I like my CD's in the rack organized by composer. Its a library. Streaming is antiseptic and ripping all your CD's to a computer is needless work for me. I've bought close to 200 CD's ( classical) in the last two years. They dont take up that much room LOL.

As a high tech worker, I can relate. Hours outside work are precious.

But when I listen to music on my system, no computer is visible, it's just a remote pointed at the equipment - just like listening to a CD had been for many many years for me.

 

[antisuck]

I've been on the same path as Brian for some time, everything on a server (and replicated on another server elsewhere) and physical media boxed up and stored in the basement. For me, the convenience is worth all the work I've put in over the years ripping and tagging and organizing. Have slightly under 1000 albums on tap now (and a similar number of movies I've also purchased and ripped myself).

Rather than using Plex, I decided on Kodi for all my playback needs, which offers some nice opportunities for creating curated pseudo-random playlists geared toward different moods for casual listening. Like pablolie mentioned, the works are invisible; just a TV on a lowboy console that hides all the electronics, all I see is the TV and the remote. Oh, and the speakers.

 

[pinger]

I've been on the same path as Brian for some time, everything on a server (and replicated on another server elsewhere) and physical media boxed up and stored in the basement. For me, the convenience is worth all the work I've put in over the years ripping and tagging and organizing. Have slightly under 1000 albums on tap now (and a similar number of movies I've also purchased and ripped myself).

Rather than using Plex, I decided on Kodi for all my playback needs, which offers some nice opportunities for creating curated pseudo-random playlists geared toward different moods for casual listening. Like pablolie mentioned, the works are invisible; just a TV on a lowboy console that hides all the electronics, all I see is the TV and the remote. Oh, and the speakers.

I like to see my stereo components ( Integrated and CD player) and see my CD's. I dont get the hiding everything desire folks seem to like.

 

[antisuck]

I like to see my stereo components ( Integrated and CD player) and see my CD's. I dont get the hiding everything desire folks seem to like.

I don't disagree, it just became too much with the NAS all full of blinking lights, HTPC, network switch, fire stick thingy for TV, hub and extenders for the ancient (but still working!) Harmony remote, plus a big ugly battery backed power supply for all of it. House has mostly plaster walls so I've had enough of running wires different places. Stuffed it all in a big lowboy console and called it good.

 

[pinger]

I don't disagree, it just became too much with the NAS all full of blinking lights, HTPC, network switch, fire stick thingy for TV, hub and extenders for the ancient (but still working!) Harmony remote, plus a big ugly battery backed power supply for all of it. House has mostly plaster walls so I've had enough of running wires different places. Stuffed it all in a big lowboy console and called it good.

I agree it can be excessive. i just have my Integrated and my CD player and thats it. One "system" in LR and same setup in BR

 

[tobyjug]

There's definitely worse.

The user interface has not changed all that much from what it was in 1999, but it remains a powerful piece of software with a wealth of options and getting started has become easier over the years (you used to have to consult tutorials for ripping to FLAC).

Be sure to turn on background encoding and select CTDB for metadata for an additional source of verification (which will give you CTDB in addition to AccurateRip).

Metadata quality and image availability can be hit and miss, you may want to use a dedicated tagger to improve that (MP3Tag, MusicBrainz Picard, whatever). dBPoweramp has a better reputation in that regard, but also costs money.

Handling of emphasis CDs is less than ideal, there is a PE column with info read from the TOC - which is a secondary mechanism and not how it was supposed to be done - but that's about it. (If you have your suspicions, consult the cuesheet generated by CUERipper. It'll note a PE flag in subcode.)

Thank You.