wstrickland1 Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I have a Mac Mini that I plan to use as the main source for my 2 channel music. It's a current model w/ a Core I7 processor amd 1 TB internal hard drive. I also have a 3 TB Airport Time Capsule so space is not an issue. I am running it through the asynchronous USB input of a McIntosh C2500 pre-amplifier. Right now I'm just using it for Pandora and mp3's thru I Tunes and it actually sounds pretty decent. What I want to do now is rip a gajillion CDs to the hard drive(s) and maintain the best quality possible. So my questions are: What software is best for ripping and managing all of this? Is the digital output going to give me better sound than the USB? I may end up with more questions along the way but this will get me over the first hump. Any other suggestions are welcomed. Thanks, Billy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Ask and ye shall receive. You can't get much better than this for CD ripping: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ USB vs. Coax vs. Optical is a long standing debate. If you've got the means to try out each method, I suggest doing so and let your ears decide. On older Macs, such as my 2009 MacBook Pro, the optical is limited to 24/96. I believe this is the case on newer Macs as well, but can't quite remember. I use JRiver Media Center for music playback and so I just down-sample anything greater than 24/96 and can't hear any degradation in sound. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I rip all my music with Itunes and set it to lossless aiff, there are tons of ways to do this............I use Itunes because its free, and user friendly. Playback quality mainly depends on source quality. ripping lossless means no loss of bits / no compression and so playback means no loss of bits no compression drawback to lossless aiff are space consumed for me anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinsweber Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 2nd the AIFF.... uncompress is best... seriously lots of debate over FLAC vs AIFF. AIFF is natively supported in itunes... Change Itunes pref to AIFF... its like WAVs but with meta data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max2 Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Im not a DAC genius like a lot of the guys here, but here was my finding with my Mini. The sound signature of a ripped lossless "CD" coming from your Mini will sound different than what a basic CD transport will offer. You may have a high quality DAC to overcome this, but I would compare a ripped full content basic CD to the actual CD playing on a decent player before I started all those LONG big rips. I was going to do all lossless rips, but it was pointless with most of the heavily compressed material being released these days, IMO. After buying a few DVDA's, Blu-Ray Audio's and SACD's, I quit worrying about RedBook offerings as the majority pale in comparison to true lossless and uncompressed LPCM content. I just rip at 256K and if I want to really "hear" it, I pop the hard copy in. I also have a few two channel FLAC files on my Mini, yet they still don't sound as good as what the hard copy produces on my U player. I would also use the digital audio output of the Mini or its HDMI output before I used the USB port. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul79 Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 For Mac, I use XLD and enable accurate rip. This works really well. Max is also pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wstrickland1 Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 Thanks for the feedback. I do plan to compare a CD to the lossless rip. I feel like the CD will be better but we'll see. HDMI isn't an option for my pre-amp so it's digital or USB. I'll try the digital as the USB is what's currently being used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 technically speaking you should hear no difference as both are bit perfect and playing through the same DAC (your mcintosh inboard) Max do both your sources play through the same dac?, from your statement it sounds like you play discs direct through a cd player, and files direct off your Pc a cd player has a built in dac and undoubtedly that dac will be better than most Pc soundcard dacs which would certainly be the reason you prefer your cd player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max2 Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I run digital coax from my CD player primarily, but also have Analog cables. My Mini is HDMI direct to my AVR, but I was thinking it was actually going through the DAC in my AVR since it was HDMI. A full rip doesn't sound bad, but its not quite like the real CD. Maybe its going through the Minis DAC and has all along? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I run digital coax from my CD player primarily, but also have Analog cables. My Mini is HDMI direct to my AVR, but I was thinking it was actually going through the DAC in my AVR since it was HDMI. A full rip doesn't sound bad, but its not quite like the real CD. Maybe its going through the Minis DAC and has all along? no, it only goes through the Mac's DAC if you're listening through headphones or a stereo mini adapter plugged into the line out port. Otherwise, it's just like any other digital transport - whether you use HDMI, USB, or optical. It's likely that you just like the whatever sonic impact exists through the CD player's DAC. I've played both FLAC files and the physical CD through my Oppo and Denon AVR and they sound identical on that setup. I do hear a difference between my Oppo and Mac systems, but those also involve entirely different transports, amps, and speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max2 Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Thanks for the clarification Michael. Maybe I should try running my Mini through my Oppo, as I might get a better result? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdog Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 In my system music played from my mac mini sounds better than the same thing played from the OPPO player. The Mac uses Pure Music software and plays directly from RAM memory. Many others also report better results from a computer over a CD player used as a transport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 It's worth a shot. My point was that your perceived differences was likely a result of the hardware being used and not the source content. The two are identical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdog Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Thanks for the clarification Michael. Maybe I should try running my Mini through my Oppo, as I might get a better result? That won't work with a OPPO 103. Only the 105 has the USB D/A function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Thanks for the clarification Michael. Maybe I should try running my Mini through my Oppo, as I might get a better result? That won't work with a OPPO 103. Only the 105 has the USB D/A function. waaaaay off topic here, but the 103 has an hdmi in, which would theoretically work with the Mac's hdmi out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdog Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) Thanks for the clarification Michael. Maybe I should try running my Mini through my Oppo, as I might get a better result? That won't work with a OPPO 103. Only the 105 has the USB D/A function. waaaaay off topic here, but the 103 has an hdmi in, which would theoretically work with the Mac's hdmi out. I must have misunderstood the topic, which was what would sound best when using a mac mini. A short google search will find many computer music server enthusiasts who believe HDMI out of an Apple sounds much worse than USB into a decent USB D/A converter. I should disclose that my mini is older and has no HDMI output. I have not compared. I have only read about this during the thousands of wasted hours spend reading since I set up my server many years ago. Edited May 28, 2014 by bobdog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdog Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Having a Mcintosh C2500 with async USB input makes this a no brainer really. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPower Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 My Mac Mini set up is: 2012 Mac Mini, added 120 GB Solid State SATA Drive, 16MB RAM, and 2TB DH for Library and a 2nd one for back-up. The digital signal exits the Mac Mini via USB, into my John Kenny Ciúnas dac... and then RCAs into my Ground Grid preamp. I use Audirvana as the music player (playing from Solid State Drive vs. from external library HDs , while using iTune to catalog all the files in AIFF. For the 1200 or so CDs that are in my collection, I used iTunes to rip to AIFF. I probably have an additional 5-600 album that are downloads, usually FLAC, but then converted to AIFF by the MAX program. Of these 5-600, I have roughly 200 of these in hi res versions (24/96 and 24/192), this is were the music server set up REALLY shines! I am very happy with this set up, for both the convenience aspect and especially the sonic quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IB Slammin Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 I rip all my music with Itunes and set it to lossless aiff, there are tons of ways to do this............I use Itunes because its free, and user friendly. Playback quality mainly depends on source quality. ripping lossless means no loss of bits / no compression and so playback means no loss of bits no compression drawback to lossless aiff are space consumed for me anyway Yep, lossless only. A nice card and good power supply are the ticket in a music server INHO. My "Too Much Music Machine" has a TB drive internal and two TB external. Plenty of space Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wstrickland1 Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 So I'm somewhat under way, somewhat meaning I have only about 75 CDs ripped. I am ripping them to ITunes in lossless AIFF format. The Mac is feeding the async USB input of the C2500. I really can't tell the difference between a song played from the mini from the original disc played in a Denon 2900 thru the digital input. It seems as if I have this working very well and I am quite pleased but now would like to take it a step further with SACDs. Does anyone know if that is possible? I am thinking ITunes won't do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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