CD collection to Streaming NAS Box. What’s the simplest option

Being of a certain age, we have 100s of CDs. We want a decent DAB Radio/speaker in our (biggish) kitchen that we can also stream CDs to. This means I can throw away/burn/kill with fire the horrible CD Player/Radio thing we put in as a stopgap 10 years ago 😉

So ?

– not iTunes or Spotify. Makes sense to me. But I am not the winning half of that argument

– easy way to rip many CDs to NAS,  be able to search them, etc play, shuffle, categorise, etc

– bluetooth or whatever obviously

We have no SONOS or the like. Currently kids stream from phone to whatever random cheap bluetooth speaker is turned on. We’re all Macs/Apple here so if there’s an apple solution that isn’t a million pounds (or the aforementioned iTunes), that’d be lovely.

I’m off the gym. I hope when I get back there will be a nice simple solution all laid out for me.

But as it’s STW, I’m actually expecting a) tumbleweed or b) an argument 🙂

Rip it all and use Spotify as the player then admit a year later you didn’t rip it….

ive got 1TB of FLAC files on a NAS, ripped from CD’s over a decade or so. they feed Sonos devices around the house. I finally signed up to Spotify last year and that drive probably hasn’t spun up since.

I’d go Sonos to introduce digital music, rip a handful of CD’s and just let the other users discover spotify for themselves

Point I’d make, is if you’re going to rip CDs to your NAS make sure the resulting files, (whatever format, depending whether you want to be anal about the quality, or just actually listen to music) are TAGGED with artist/album/song info other wise they will be a right mess on the NAS.

I have a Qnap, streams through an iPod Touch – BlueTooth “Speaker” is an internet radio with BT connection streamed off the phone/iPod. My brother used to have a mini system which connected to stream direct from his NAS – so they must be available.

Just wondering but could a Brennan B2 do this?

Like the look of them from the CD ripping POV.

I approached this by sticking it all in itunes first (it sorted out track listings and tagging, but was a pain with formats)

Having realised I could then export as mp3 i did that, and copied it to a seagate NAS.  The NAS has Plex server running on it, with client devices including laptop, phone and alexa.

There’s probably a better way if you are trying to do 100 at a time – this was an accumulation over several years.

The main downside is that rather than looking at the shelf, I now need to remember what I’ve got/want to listen to.  nine times out of 10 i end up using ‘song radio’ on spotify instead.

Thanks all. I’m thinking maybe Spotify Family and a decent speaker/internet radio might be the way to go. We can store the CD’s in the loft until everyone forgets about them 🙂 My car has an internal hard drive and a CD slot so I downloaded loads to it. Not sure I’ve ever played them.

I am interested in this too. Having finally rid myself of hateful apple products I am ready to rip my cds again in decent quality. Has anyone tried dbpoweramp / perfect tunes to rip and library stuff?

https://www.dbpoweramp.com

CDs ripped to NAS in lossless FLAC format using dBpoweramp CD Ripper which does a good job of track listing and album art. Then accessed through SONOS or through Winamp if I’m at my desktop.

Cool. I want it to be tidy this time. No more albums appearing as 20 different albums because each track has a different artist. Thinking of a synology nas, that pioneer n30 streamer, and some sort of stack of second hand 90s amps

Another happy dbpoweramp user here. CDs ripped in ALAC lossless to a Synology Nas and then served to a Naim unitilite in the lounge or Samsung M3 speaker. Naim app is fine for navigating the collection or using other sources inc Spotify/tidal (premium sub only) or internet radio. Samsung app I find frustrating with a large collection.

Naim wins hands down on sound quality over Samsung but not really comparable products or price points.

think Naim now do a dedicated cd ripper/storage/server box solution. Might be an easy option if you don’t currently have a NAS. Check that it can stream to other devices such as Sonos though.

Spotify/decent speaker and Internet radio was/is my solution to the same problem Al. I’ve been trying to find a downside since to justify a NAS, but TBH I’ve all but given up, I keep on looking at them just out of habit/keeping up to date.

If you are looking at a Synology NAS (I have one, they are excellent), you can use their DS music App on pretty much any device (including smart TVs) <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>and send to your speaker of choice.  It might not be what you settle-on in the long run – but it will provide you with an immediate solution as soon as you buy the NAS.</span>

As for how to get your CDs onto the NAS – I would just put them through iTunes TBH.  As long as you’ve got the NAS set as the target, and the conversions settings as you want them – it’s no different to any other ripping software.  Once they are ripped you can use something else to access/play them.

Thanks all. Will do some research… realised between many devices here we don’t seem to have  CD Player for the mac’s anymore!

we don’t seem to have  CD Player for the mac’s anymore!

You could always check a certain Swedish piratical site for FLAC versions of your CD’s though it’s a tad high risk. The Macs won’t play them natively though. XLD app will convert these to ALAC if that’s what you want.

Youll need  a NAS that can run LMS squeezebox for this way of doing it.   Chromecast audio into the audio input jack of whatever you have in kitchen at moment.  Install LMS squeezebox on a Nas.  Using Chromecast LMS plugin it can now all be streamed..control it with various apps from phone/tablet. Will do internet radio too.  Should even airplay ..no Bluetooth required.  Easy to expand around the house.  May not be partner friendly depending on partner and controlling apps can be aabit clunky.  but only costs price of a Chromecast audio (and a NAS)  Alternaivly rip all cd to Google play and play via Chromecast…a big collection might bust their free limits though, no NAS required.

Similar story to Petrieboy. I moved the files from CDs I’d ripped to a synology NAS a few years back. Ripping was tedious but straightforward. Disc in, rip files, disc out. Repeat until done. If you bought many discs from amazon then you can get mp3 versions for most of those for free download.

The synology iTunes server appears as a source and  it is possible to stream via airplay.

However, since iTunes Match and then Apple Music I’ve barely touched any of the files and now either pick a tune via iPhone and pick an airplay output or I just use an Apple TV and its music app. In the kitchen I usually just ask Alexa to play stuff. If it doesn’t have it it’s a ‘quick’ ‘alexa, connect to my iPhone’ and play via Bluetooth.

Someone mentioned the Brennan. I don’t see the point of these. They don’t seem to be as easy as streaming, or as versatile as NAS, or as high-end as other options.

I did this, started a few years ago, just did a handful of CDs (or DVD/BR) everytime i sat down in front of the PC for any length of time. Just left it running in the background.

Only reason i did it is a lot of my music isn’t even on Spotify.

Well, it wasn’t when i started. Almost all of it is now. 🙁

nearly 1000 CDs.

Ripping the films was worth it though.

Rip it all and use Spotify as the player then admit a year later you didn’t rip it….

+1

Life is too short to spend the rest of the spring sat at a PC ripping CD’s (which will inevitably have scratches on them and stutter).

I have spotify, although I do still enjoy sticking a vinyl LP on to listen to my CD’s are in the loft somewhere probably never to be seen again.

Someone mentioned the Brennan. I don’t see the point of these. They don’t seem to be as easy as streaming, or as versatile as NAS, or as high-end as other options.

The Brennan can also run as a stand alone unit into speakers and be controlled by an app. No computer needed after the set up. Its just a different way of doing things and seems ideal for someone wanting to rip a bunch of CDs effortlessly.

I don’t know what your budget is and I realise I’m always pushing the company,  but you could do worse than looking at their new range if one-box solutions. ..

https://www.naimaudio.com/product/range/uniti

Synology NAS running Audiostation.

Denon music players (CEOL and AVR).

Can either stream direct from the player or via phone.

I’ve also got an AirMusicBox in the garage linked to an old Technics stereo and use the phone to control it.

It’s not hard to do as I’ve done it 🙂

You do need to rip all the CDs to the NAS though, but I did it years ago so no issue now if I get something new to just upload to the NAS

The Macs won’t play them natively though. XLD app will convert these to ALAC if that’s what you want.

Plenty of software that plays FLAC on the Mac without the need to transcode. Clementine is pretty good.

I’ve got myself set up with a Naim Uniti2 as the player. My Mac Mini serves up FLACs to it via a nice uPNP server app called minim. CDs all ripped with an app called xACT that does very high quality work. Not so much hassle to be honest, just had the MacBook chomp through them whilst sat on the sofa. All works a treat.

I’d agree with some of the above ref. getting a NAS and ripping to it. It gives lots of options for streaming then:

Stream from a phone, lots of applications that use UPNP from the NAS to let you browse and select what you want to play. You can then use your existing Bluetooth speakers.

OR

Yamaha, Onkyo, Pioneer etc all have cheaper one box AV amps that will stream. Connect them to a set of passive speakers and you are away. You can also go for more expensive solutions such as some recommended above.

OR

You could go to active speakers (JBL or the like) and open up a whole host of further options with dedicated streamers (with a DAC). Cheapest of these are thing like:

– Chromecast Audio (£30)

– Yamaha WXAD-10 (£120)

These can also be used with existing stereo amplifiers if you had anything suitable (or you could go secondhand for big savings).

I used to rip CDs to a portable hard disk which stays plugged in to a streaming Cambridge amp. But ever since I started using Spotify I haven’t bothered – what’s the point?

The Brennan B2 defaults to FLAC, and can be set up to operate as a NAS with a remote player of your choice, and it’s had a pretty good hit rate of determining album name/ artist/ tracks of the 750+ CDs I’ve ripped since last autumn.

The output through (wired) loudspeakers is good enough for me, and it can be controlled via a web interface from a phone or tablet.