This blog is about music, not technology. But please bear
with a discussion of gear for one post, while I describe the technology I’m
using these days to store music and play it back. It’ll be painless, I promise,
and you might find it useful if you still have CDs but want to get rid of them.
There comes a time in life for many people when they’re ready
to own less stuff. My wife and I reached that point a year or two ago. The
closets, kitchen cabinets, garage, basement – all seemed to be full of things we
hadn’t used in years, didn’t fit, or were out of date. Our kids are grown and
out on their own. We have garage sales every couple years. But still our
four-bedroom house is mostly full.
So it’s time to get serious about divesting ourselves of several
decades’ worth of accumulated stuff. But among the useless things are some
precious possessions, like my collection of 2,000 or so compact discs. I’ve
spent a lifetime collecting music. I can’t part with the music, but I’m also unwilling
to pack and move boxes and boxes of CDs the next time we move. The solution, of
course, is ripping the CDs to a computer hard drive, so they can be played on
my home stereo system (remember those?) or some other type of player. Then I can
sell or give the CDs away. This process has entailed months of research and
decision-making.
The initial chore is to rip the CDs to a storable audio
format and save them onto a hard drive. This decision was actually the easiest.
I already had decided that the CDs would be converted to FLAC, a lossless audio
format with sound quality equal to compact discs. Lossless means that the audio
file doesn’t lose any sound quality when converted. A much more popular audio
format is MP3, which also allows a smaller file size. iPods and smart phones
play MP3 files, and Amazon and iTunes sell them for download. But MP3 audio
files use lossy data compression – they lose quality when converted. FLAC files
take more hard-drive space, but sound better.
What made the choice of ripping and storing technology easy
was the availability of an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play solution known as the
Vortexbox Appliance. Sold by Small Green Computer, (http://shop.smallgreencomputer.com)
, the Vortexbox appliance comes in several different configurations with several
sizes of hard drive, from 1 to 4 terabytes. Each terabyte of memory will hold
about 3,000 CDs. These devices run Vortexbox, an open-source software that rips
songs from CDs, tags them with the appropriate information, adds them to a
database, and stores them as FLAC audio files. The Vortexbox appliance is
connected by Ethernet cable to our home wireless router.
Choosing the playback system took a lot more time and
research. I ultimately chose Sonos (http://www.sonos.com),
another plug-and-play solution that is as simple to set up and use as the
Vortexbox appliance. And the two are compatible. Sonos is a wireless speaker system
that also is a self-contained player. In other words, a single Sonos unit will
replace your CD player, AM-FM receiver, and speakers, all with no wires to
connect – just a power cord to plug in.
Sonos makes a number of models of different sizes, from
one-speaker units up to five. Mine is a $400 Sonos Play 5, with five speakers:
a 3.5-inch woofer, two 3-inch midrange speakers, and two tweeters. Each speaker
is individually powered by a dedicated amplifier. The Play 5 fits well on a
bookshelf, at 8.5 inches tall, 14.5 inches wide, and a little less than 5
inches deep. If you want stereo separation, you can pair two of them. Sonos also
makes several smaller models, the Play 3 and Play 1, as well as a subwoofer,
home theater speaker bar, and several other devices. You can put a Sonos in any
room in the house (or every room). Each speaker can be set to play independently
of the others or in sync with them.
The Sonos speakers are controlled by an app installed on a desktop,
smartphone, or both. Anybody who uses iTunes or other music software can handle
this app. The Sonos system plays back music files from any computer or storage
device connected to your home wireless network (like my Vortexbox appliance).
It also plays streaming music services, including iTunes Library, Amazon, Google
Play, Songza, Spotify, Pandora, Hype Machine, Beats Music, and Sirius XM
internet radio. It will also play streaming signals from radio stations, both
local and anywhere else in the world.
To my ears, the Sonos sounds very nearly as good as my home
stereo system, an NAD 50-watt receiver driving a Cambridge Soundworks speaker
system with subwoofer. The bass probably isn’t as strong, but a Sonos subwoofer
would cure that.
Before choosing Sonos I also considered several other playback
systems. One was the Logitech Squeezebox, which will play music from
network-connected computers or storage devices over an existing home stereo. The
other was Bluesound, a wireless system similar to Sonos in some ways, but with
a better audiophile pedigree. Bluesound is a pretty new product, but the
Logitech Squeezebox has been around for awhile and has many adherents on
various internet discussion forums.
I also briefly considered several different models of small,
all-in-one player and storage units. These look like a CD player and connect to
speakers in place of a CD player and amplifier. But compared to Sonos or Bluesound,
they tend to have smaller hard drives, clunkier user interfaces, and don’t play
streaming music services.
In the end, Sonos got the nod because it is extremely easy
to set up and use, plays a wide variety of music and radio sources, and sounds
very good in my home. I probably would have been happy with the Logitech or
Bluesound systems, too.
The next challenge is getting all the CDs ripped
onto the Vortexbox appliance. In five or six months, I’ve managed to rip about
two-thirds of my collection. I slip discs into the device while I’m eating
breakfast or lunch, or while I’m hanging out around home during the evening.
With any luck, I’ll be finished by the end of the year.Question: Has anybody else made the conversion from CDs? How did you do it?
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