I maintain just one CD, and I never ever play it. Fans of the movie Inception will recall that we all need a totem to ensure that we arent living in an alternative universe, and that Nickelback CD is mine. I have no memory of how it came into my possession, and I have entire days where I cant remember where I left it but its always there. I have zero Nickelback in my music collection or on my Spotify playlists - its my spinning top and nothing more.
Something very similar happened to me (twice) with a DVD of the movie Roadhouse and also with Lock Stock and two smoking barrells. I have never seen It and It doesn't even sit with my collection, how did i get that? I'll never know
@@lamecasuelas2 I usually have the opposite, CD's that I've had for 2 decades suddenly disappearing from my collection without having touched them in recent memory.
@@Clonefall if that happened, I'd Start playing them, so loud that I'd drown her out. Or i would point out that she just sits there and i never listen to her! 😁
In my experience.. If stored in a climate controlled environment, a CD will last many decades. If stored in your car or some other place w/unpredictable weather, expect bit rot/deterioration. YMMV. 🤷♂️
You can download the file and commit it to a high quality hard drive or an SD Card and I believe that can be a lock, however I so see your point and prefer like you to have a physical database.
Well, yeah? You're not paying for access to specific albums, you're paying for access to the streaming service and what it offers for you. It's not that you don't "trust" the service, you don't understand what you're paying for.
That error correction procedure while ripping has been available in Exact Audio Copy for more than 20 years, called “secure mode”. I’ve had amazing results at ripping heavily scratched CD’s with a Plextor DVD-RW drive, taking up more than an hour (the ripping was well below 0,5 speed!!!), but ending up with a flac file that no dedicated audio CD player could play without skipping. I don’t thrust anything else (as much) since then for high-quality CD rips. But I do see a value on a more user friendly unit like this one, at least for some people.
I've recently *rediscovered* the ritual of just playing one CD at a time. Loading. Unloading. Browse the CD case art, etc. Makes me wish I had such a nice, expensive, HiFi set up when I was a kid and originally listening to these CDs. I don't see going back to all the complexity like what is shown here.
When most people talk about "music", they are talking about pop/rock songs. Streaming is very good, but not perfect on that department. But If you like jazz, you start to feel the difference. If you like Classical you know that you will never leave your record collection. Streaming services might have 10 different versions of the 9th, but you know you will never hear your favorite 9th again without your record collection
At last, someone who actually has remembered CD's. Ok...the loudness wars in part ruined the format, but there are still many people out there where this is still their main format for music. Well done John.
Love CDs (thousands and counting!) and still support artists by purchasing direct when possible. You nailed it....so many deluxe versions, alternate discs, and mastered versions are not available on the streaming sites. Buy it, rip them straight into a Bluesound Vault 2 and manage the collection with Roon. Amazing!
John, I just trialed the Auralic firmware upgrade on my original pre-G1 Altair* purchased new with a built-in 2 TB SSD. I couldn’t be happier. Or more surprised. So, many thanks for the heads up. Spun the CD with a very cheap CDROM drive powered from an external hub and everything worked as you described. A quick scan of the product support page filled me in on the settings to listen with upsampling and rip to the SSD at the same time. 8X ripping, the slowest setting, goes into idle and waits for realtime disk playback to arrive at the next track. Sounds great on AQ Nighthawks driven by a SimAudio integrated. Next I should see if it’s possible to listen to web radio or stream Tidal while ripping; wouldn’t that be nice! All this detail to say that your channel’s videos are essential viewing for all fans of music streaming. There’s something for everybody. Now I have to make another run at getting PiCorePlayer to work with LMS on a RPi 3B+ topped with a Hifiberry Digi+ Pro. Seems LMS couldn’t find my player. And, further hints on adding Material skin would be greatly appreciated. *Auralic’s website says this upgrade also applies to: Aries, Aries LE, and Polaris.
I'm glad you're enjoying CDs. I've done all the comparisons as well and CD via a transport into a good DAC always beats streaming or laptop/hard drive via USB into the same DAC. USB is always the worse, in any variation. I currently run a Cambridge CXN & CXC via optical into a PS Audio Perfectwave DAC into a Hegel H95 with Klipsch Fortes. It's heaven!. Although for pulling me mentally deep into the music and for spatial 3D depth and width of soundstage I prefer vinyl via the PS Audio Nuwave phono converter. Its doesn't have the detail or high res but communicates the experience very realistically. Anyone who says all digital sounds the same has not put in the time or money.
I really appreciate that you don't go down some dark hole of arguing that the laser on the CD drive affects the audio or other nonsense. There are a couple channels out here that I've straight up blocked so I don't have to hear their nonsense. Thanks for the proper info!
Here is the problem. At this point when you start worrying about power sources, what are you really doing? Are you listening to your CD or are you listening to your equipment? This setup is just way too complicated for no reason. You can enjoy those CDs with any good CD player.
Yeah, it's a classic example of people loosing focus. You see this all the time among amateur photographers - They spend all their time reading about cameras and buying new equipment, but rarely actually do any photography. It's like an author worrying about the paper instead of writing.
Honestly this isn't that complicated though. I agree there should be balance, but the ripping process is more complicated than simple playback and if a device can automate some of that, then great! You can indeed get the same effect from a PC with good hardware.
Haven't read all comments so if I am treading old ground I apologise. I just want to mention that the iFi micro power supply works great with that RSHTech USB hub and I'm sure improves the sound of the £30 Asus transport I have in case anyone wondered if they could use it. I suspect a lot of us have an iFi lying around as I did. Thanks for this video, John. I have an Aries G2 and had not been aware of this upgrade so I rustled around in my study and found the Asus external cd drive I never use, browsed Amazon and found the same powered USB hub you were using (£17.99 with voucher) and pulled out an iFi micro power supply which was currently unemployed (£49.99 new but always some on eBay). Hub came yesterday - love next day delivery - and turns out the iFi fits perfectly without even having to use an adaptor tip. Ripping and playing cds in minutes and it sounds great. I ripped all my cds with Poweramp years ago but I have kept them all. I do still buy some which are not available on Qobuz and I reckon ripping on the Auralic might give better results than ripping on the PC but who knows? It's just fun to play physical media sometimes, which is probably why I still buy vinyl. I had an old Pioneer DV 757ai which I played discs on occasionally, but I reckon the Auralic sounds better. I love that Auralic continues to innovate and provide extra value for its existing customers.
Ripping through the Auralic is the most painful process. I tried what is mentioned here and gave up after my tenth CD. Most of my CD's(I own hundreds of Indian CD's) were not recognized by the ripping software. It is slow, painful and after sitting through ten disks, I was like..to hell with this. Just used dbpoweramp on my windows 10 desktop to rip all my CD's to flac on my internal ssd drive. Saved it to a sandisk external ssd drive and attached it to the Aries/Altair/Vega via HDD connection. Now I have perfectly indexed CD's, will album art(you can add your own album art in dbpoweramp), track names and my library looks a lot more organized. Thanks for taking the pain to explain this because there is no way I would have figured this from the Auralic documentation. Just in case you are wondering whether there is a quality difference with ripping in Auralic vs dbpoweramp... I have a fairly revealing system and I cannot hear a difference in quality.
Thanks Kristoffer! I like John's reviews, but his and my musical taste are usually miles apart. However this tune really struck me, and so I'm off to search for the CD now
I remember the time I ripped my whole CD collection over the time of two months. I did it CD by CD, tagging it very carefully by hand with proper covers because automated tools were not available back then or resulted in an utter mess. Lots of mooos. I don't know, a clean tagged rip, a clean tagged collection is absolutely satisfying. 🤓
I ripped my collection in 2007 using Nero for WAVE files and iTunes for M4A files. Compressed files for use on mobile phone. iTunes does not do that anymore. Both programmes included metadata and made only a few errors (completely the wrong album). MP3TAG added Metadata to WAVE files with a later release.
@@syedabdulsultan6642 I'm on a Mac, I used iTunes back then to convert them into AIFF (lossless) or M4A (lossy). Nowadays I use an app called XLD (X Lossless Decoder).
Another thing about CD ripping is you have the assurance your getting what you paid for, especially in terms of quality and original mastering. Personally I find a lot of original mastered CDs from 80’s a lot better sounding than remastered albums. Some streaming services don’t indicate that your getting a reissue or RM and of course an original master. Lastly. Straight up I love having a physical library.
Matty Cairns it does help. It is not always an end all be all, but based on your own listening experiences you know what your getting if you see an album that has DR average of 5. Yikes! :)
CDs seemed to be very quiet until around 1990 or so. The original Japanese 2-disc release of Pet Shop Boys Behaviour is one of the "newest" quiet CDs I have, but it sounds amazing!
I like CDs also, but use them in a different way. I will use the CD just once, to extract, then I place the CD in storage container. I would be interested in any CD storage videos/suggestions.
If You have any with the Square Sponge In, and It has turned Brown or going Brown. Take It out and Replace with (None Colored) Kitchen roll sheet folded a few times., or It will start to attack the Disc. I lost Two of My Early Now That's What I Call Music Disc's dew to this. Keep Away from Heat or Humid, and Damp Places and You'll be Good. Don't pack them In to Tight, just enough with a little movement. Use Cardboard Box's New not used, don't use plastic ones. I know this cause I have Thousands of them and more coming everyday still In 2020. Good Luck
CDs won't go away. What so many mugs struggle to understand is that it's actually about the MUSIC. That's what really matters. Although CDs have been around for fewer years than vinyl, the same logic is already starting to play out. There is an enormous amount of rare and exotic music out there on vinyl, now the same is true for CDs. So much fantastic African music, reggae, soul, jazz, psychedelia, progressive - everything, classical music too. The advantage of buying used CDs is that 99% will play perfectly. Not always the case with vinyl, even with a fantastic turntable and cartridge. All you need is a half decent CD player and Roberta is your transexual aunt. Put simply, the music companies and hifi industry are trying to sell you the same stuff all over again - and a pile of fiddly new gear to play it on. Huh! I remember when they deliberately destroyed vinyl back in the 80s to usher in CD. Being the obstinate old fart I am, I kept my vinyl - and likewise I'm keeping my CDs.
CD's are great. Personally, I believe 44.1k/16 is already past what any human ear can possibly resolve. I ripped mine on the PC, using Exact Audio Copy which does some checking to make sure the rip is accurate, and then encoded them to FLAC files; you can integrate the FLAC encoder into EAC and rip, encode and then apply metadata about the rip in one step. But yeah, streaming services are fine for casual listening or discovering stuff, but - the stuff is only there as long as the streaming service keeps it there, you have no recourse if they remove it, so the unique stuff you want to keep you need actual copies of, be it digital files or CD
I did it exactly the same way. For me there is no point in subscribing to one of these services, who knows what will be in the future. If I like an album I buy it (CD or digital).
Croft I did it the same way, but the album art side of Exact Audio Copy is a bit hit and miss especially with classical CDs. I use Discogs as the source of any missing album covers (quite common with EAC) and MP3Tag to tag it to the flac files. I also ripped all my LPs to flac using Audacity so I can stream them round the house too. That was a real chore.
Theoretically the human ear can hear up to 20bits of dynamic range. The 44.1k sample rate should be sufficient for the reconstruction filters of high end DACs. But with badly designed filters a higher sample rate *can* provide a little improvement, because those filters don't need to be as steep for higher sample rates (remember the hype of "upsampling DACs" during the early 10s?) Dithering can be used as an alternative to the higher sample rate to solve those filtering issues.
So I am enjoying Music again, for me your approach is working. I don’t have crazy expensive equipment but your explanations and knowledge are helping informing my decisions. My set up is singing. Thank you!
I look forward to John’s videos and am never disappointed. Looking that wall of John’s CD’s all nicely presented in white towers puts my many plastic bins in the basement to shame!
I love my CDs...Again...After years of streaming-only through Deezer....thanks to you...And I subscribed to CD-Quality for streaming. And I’ll be buying and ripping CDs again. Full Circle....
Nice to see there's still some love for CD's out there. Would be nice to see a comparison between the Auralic and the Naim Uniti Star which has virtually identical features. Great video as always John. 👍
10 seconds after Darko said, “This version of Cortez the Killer” is better than the original, I was on Fleabay and purchased that cd! Thanks John for the heads up. One of the best tunes of all time people...
I want to control my music, own my own music library and not be beholden to large organisations who charge every month to allow me to listen to music. I believe there are many like me. I love having my own cd library.
I might have even ventured back to vinyl if I thought pressing quality had been upped since the 80's but, apparently, it hasn't. And that was the very reason i went over to the silver disc in the first place.
I’ve got 1300 & they ain’t going anywhere. 900 vinyl also. All on my QNAP nas 👍🎼. Naim Uniti, Rega 3 , QNAP nas 3tb. Focal Aria2 . Chord epic . So this gives me access to all my cds , vinyl (audacity) DAB. Internet radio, FM AM , cd player . Sorted. Great video by the way.
I have been buying CDs since 1985, and I now own about one thousand. Many of my old CDs still are in beautiful condition. I think I have bought about 50-100 CDs the last couple of years alone, so here the CD is very much alive! I rip every CD I buy using WMP, and use the data to make my own mp3-collections for the road. Cowon have fantastic mp3-players, and software that handle most files. At the moment I have a Cowon DB2 in my car. This player is brilliant, and lasts many years! So to all: check out Cowon!! I also play a lot of CDs of course, both in da house and on the road. I guess I am very old fashioned, any that works very well for me:-) For me it`s not about hardware or software, it`all about enjoying the music I love! Cellphones and music, streaming etc. etc., no thank`s!!
If you invest all the effort into storing a music collection on a digital jukebox and the time to get the Metadata correct and include the CD artwork you need to back it up and perhaps even have a second backup.
Thank you, Sir Darko! Its Saturday morning, and you've already fulfilled both my ''build a shortlist for front-ends' AND my 'learn more about HiFi' fix. Even before breakfast. Priorities. 🙂
@@DarkoAudio Australians have their vowels on a decoder ring, you can't trust them. And anyway, noi... Noi they daint spoeek in that manna. It's quiche. And we'll never let you live this down.
EMI noisy environment, a good clean power supply is a must,motherboard sound-cards are usually low Quality therefore exterior DAC is a must for cleaner and natural sound.
Used to then stopped. When I purchased a product that was designed to be a dedicated network streamer, ripper, and music server. Computers are not designed to be audio play back devices. They are jack of all trades, master of none workhorses, they do not isolate the signal from other components that it contains. For me the hum from their cooling fans I found really irritating. The music server I use now is fan-less and has shielding that further isolates the signal from the power supply. The transport is even damped so as to provide the best possible read of the CD when ripping. Add an SSD and the background noise now becomes dead silent. For me that is a real advantage, and lets more of the music come through, rather than music plus fan noise
I was thinking the same thing, but that's also what I use. I built (and have updated) a dedicated PC, and use WAV rips inside WMP. The SB0570/Sherwood/KLH combo makes for a pleasant analogue sound. No one that's listened to it has been disappointed, and I enjoy the sound quality. That said, I think it did sound a little more vibrant under W7 than it does under W10, even though the soundcard and driver are exactly the same.
John - the more I listen to your reviews the more I like and enjoy what you offer and add to the audio review community. I appreciate your flavor as I can listen to the review of a piece of gear from other reviewers and then listen to your review and come away with information I just didn't get from other reviewers. I will be in the market for a streaming solutions in the near future and have moved from the Node 2i to the Cambridge CXN V2 and am now very interested in what I'm hearing of the Auralic streamer.
John, great video. I was interested in your comment about your use of an external power supply to drive the CD player. I have an older external CD/BD drive (LG BP06LU10) that I use for ripping my CDs. It is physically attached to two USB plugs (one for data and the other for power) that I plug directly into my Mac when I rip CDs. I wonder if using an external power supply would enhance the quality of future ripped CDs? Also a note to Mac users- Florian Heidenreich, the MP3Tag developer announced on July 11 that he has an alpha version (so hang on...) of MP3Tag for MacOS.
I'm still buying CDs but only to rip them, I've yet to understand why digital downloads in flac are so expensive. This is especially the case with older albums, where a second hand cd is so much better value than the digital download.
One of the big screws is lack of physical media... no more cd's, movies, software and video games and at full price! Imagine no more used media... you have to buy new and when you're done you can't sell it.
@@mihir1997 the cost of storing a flac file is a tiny fraction of the cost of manufacturing CDs, shipping them and selling them in a store. Chalk and cheese.
I always rip my CDs to FLAC and play them digitally with my music player, a lot of fun in that to hear the differences in mastering between CDs of the same albums.
Or, you could eliminate the cost of the streamer, and just play the cd and listen to it. It then becomes a ritual, like playing an lp except easier, and you are then far more likely to actually listen to the entirety of the artist's work instead of skipping to something else when you're momentarily bored.
I have an I tunes account onto which I rip any CDs I either borrow or purchase. I used to have an I pod, and I used to have a 2 hour commute every day, so that came in handy. The I pod wore out, then I picked up Google Play Music and have been uploading music from my I tunes library onto the Google library
This is a really good point. I've noticed this from the time I got a high capacity mp3 player in the 2000s. Rather than listen to a whole CD, I find myself skipping from song to song when the choice is immediately available.
I absolutely love your videos. You keep it simple, to the point and real. And now, you're a CD Lover like me. I LOVE MY CDs, and I'm still buying them. I hate Apple and MP3s for killing off the CD/Record stores. I used to go down to Virgin Mega Store in Burbank CA, after I had gotten paid on a Friday night and come home with a Stack of new CD's. ready for a the week. I have a Video suggestion for you. You have a substantial CD collection, how about making a Video about the CD's not available on the streaming services. Something we can add to our shopping list. Thanks for the great Videos John. The Doc.
Love this channel. So funny, I’m keep grinning with your pronunciation flips - this needs to be the new norm on all TH-cam channel. Found your work from the PX7 review and got them off the back of that. Not a massive audiophile myself but enjoy your candour and the daaata conveyed therein! Your insights are stella.
I like a physical music collection myself and yes I completely understand the desire to stream music however that’s not for me . I just took delivery of a couple CDs from MOFI last week , ripped them on my Innuos Zenith server and I will continue to purchase CDs new and used when that urge for more music comes up .
Marcus I have no interest at all currently to sign up and pay for a streaming service, I have free access to a huge library of music on CDs / SACD and occasionally I’ll still purchase specific CDs releases , the preferred releases that have sonic merit over other re-releases . I’m perfectly happy with currently 1.3 TB of music loaded on my server and with that the peace of mind I own most of it neatly stored if ever needed in the future and finally I just upgraded to the Innuos Phoenix which made my listening pleasure that much more exciting and enjoyable .
Having used Windows to rip my music for a decade I was a bit hacked off to find that my playback software, Native Instruments Traktor 3 upgrade didn't accept WMA files any more leaving me with half of my 100Gb music collection in the wrong format. Gobsmacked !
The Andrew Weatherall album was the only one of the four you listed I couldn’t find on Amazon HD streaming service. Thanks for the introduction to The Soft Boys.
I think his main issue is that he is in Germany, so many releases are not on streaming services. Also Amazon HD is very limited on streaming devices. You can only use it on the Altair G1 if you have an iDevice and either use USB in or via AirPlay, both of which won't sound as good as a ripped CD and LightningDS
CDs! I have been buying them since 1986 and I keep listening to them. It is simple. put one in your CD player and push "Play". Easy! All that business of ripping, streaming, DACs.. I don't understand a word.(and I don't care!) What I do undertsand is that nothing can erase the wide smile I have when I listen to my CDs.
So am I missing something... What's the purpose of ripping cds when you have a perfectly good CD player? I suspect digital libraries generate different listening patterns and constrain the fortunate happenstance implicit in a physical collection...
Because a lot of us travel around more now and want a good selection of our music to take with us, Just use your imagination and think of a Sony MP3 player that has every track on it that you actually like that you’ve personally chosen from your CD collection, so ripped in either 320kbps or even Flac. But Flac does use a lot of space up on your MP3 player i personally rip my cd tracks at 192kbps because I like a lot of music and I can get more on my player...sound quality is absolutely fine some may prefer 320 I’m happy enough with 192, anyway an MP3 player is an amazing bit of kit and when I’m at home I stream from my MP3 player to my Sony Bluetooth speaker...I know I’m not alone in doing it all this because many others do the same I think maybe you should get used to the way people listen to their music nowadays, ok it may not be for you or anyone who just listens to music at home and is not adventurous in having their music to take out on the move.
From John Darko's explanation of the ripping proces, it should be equivalent to the secure mode ripping in Exact Audio Copy. As in, it reads everything twice, then compares, if the compare is unsatisfactory, it reads the sector again, over and over, and picks out the best version.
It would be interesting to see how audiophile equipment compares to pro musician audio gear. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion each group has its share of woo and voodoo marketing. I’ve bought dozens of DACs over the years and even had a UA Apollo as my central audio system in the living room with surprising results. Love the channel. D
You and I are birds of a feather...I also think CD’s are fantastic. I use an Arcam CD player with a Woo tube amp and am very interested in what you’re proposing here. Absolutely terrific video. Thanks, so much.
I’ve been collecting CDs properly for the last couple years or so and people think I’m a bit mad and never understand why I don’t just go an use a streaming service. I have two massive binders full and still going... only a small collection just over 8k songs. I typically go to charity shops or if I am near one go to a car boot sale however I’ll also have a look in poundland as they get CDs from Music Magpie, occasionally I buy new but not very often
Hi there. This might be a really naïve question but is all ripping created equal? I ripped my extensive CD collection on my MacBook Pro over USB to ALAC. Would I get a better quality result using a dedicated audio ripper like the Innuous? Thanks
CD + CD player + amp + speakers = sonic bliss! It is easy and straightforward! What is all that hassle now with ripping, buying DACS and paying for a streaming service?
BTW, my present “CD” source setup is the Wyred for Sound MS Music Server for ripping to FLAC and automatic assigning of artwork (Bliss app is included for corrections); and subsequent playback through a Denefrips Aries II DAC. I’m very happy with this so far. The MS storage is all solid state; including my backup 1TB portable drive. Thank you so much for your knowledge, incite and opinions!
Hi, a bit late to this game so I've got a lot of catching up to do. BTW, I've found your videos extremely informative and helpful, although some are way over my head - blame it on my "dad" brain :) Anyway, I've got a Bluesound Powernode and KEF LS50 Meta speakers (largely thanks to your reviews) and am getting my head around how to get my CDs onto a separate hard drive - in this video you connect your CD drive and hard drive to your AURALIC and 'control' the CD ripping through Lightning DS. Will I be able to do something similar with my setup or will I need to connect and rip through my laptop?
5 years ago I ripped my entire CD collection onto my computer hard drive as uncompressed WAV files using dBPoweramp, which compares every track with every other rip in their database assuring a bit-perfect transfer. I was using JRiver Media for playback (still am on my main computer). At the time I was transitioning from iTunes and I tested several lossless file formats to see which format provided the greatest fidelity. The final test was a comparison between compressed FLAC files and uncompressed WAV files, and although all the 'experts' were saying since both were lossless formats, they should sound exactly the same. The only problem was, they didn't! The differences weren't Gi-normous, but the uncompressed WAV files were clearly superior. How can this be, you ask? As it turns out, JRiver provided the answer, as the program displays the bitrate of the playback in real-time. Playing back a 24/96 WAV file occurs at a steady bitrate of 4608 Kb/sec, whereas playing back the same 24/96 file in FLAC plays back at a variable bitrate depending on the amount of compression being used at any given time. Based on the amount of compression being applied, the bitrate would vary anywhere from 2100-3000 Kb/sec, with an average of about 2700. Meaning the FLAC files were being uncompressed on-the-fly, adding another step in the process that doesn't occur in realtime. If it did, the FLAC files would be playing back at the same constant rate as the WAV files, and they don't. When it comes to digital (audio or video), the more bits per second, the greater the fidelity. With FLAC, it appears that the average playback bitrate corresponds to the average rate of compression. Meaning, a music file that's compressed by 40% will playback at an average bitrate that's 40% less than an uncompressed file. This is why I use uncompressed WAV files. The dBPoweramp program automatically searches several sources to populate the metadata and even provides a powerful metadata editor that seamlessly integrates into the dropdown menu in Windows File Explorer. In addition, the program includes a file converter that even allows you to change sample rates and frequencies. In my main system, I'm currently using a Roon Nucleus (w/internal SSD drive) via USB link to a Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 digital amplifier.
Did you try uncompressed flac? JRiver must be displaying the compressed bitrate as the decoded flac is bit identical to the CD, bitrate included. If the hardware is up to it flac at any compression level should sound the same as wav,, but the cpu overhead of decoding can affect some systems, hence why people use intermediate services e.g. MinimServer, to do the decode and deliver a lossless signal to the hardware. The major limitation of wav is its limited tagging support.
Try ripping one of your CD,s to 32 bit WAV 44.1(2822kbps) and play it back on your dac at 16bit 44.1 it sounds quite pleasing and natural to the ear . Storing music on SSD NVME makes a difference in sound quality as well compared to mechanical HD which can add unwanted nuances to the sound. foobar2000 ripper works good and it's opensource
@@jp-rj7yq The only issue I have is the SSD drive in my Nucleus is only a 2GB and storing files at 32/44 takes up twice the space of 16/44 files, which equates to half the music!
Thanks for a great review, John! Just a remark that for much less money than the Altair, one can buy the BlueSound Vault 2I, which have a 2TB hard drive, Hi-Res streaming Music Player with Airplay2, Tidal, Control4, Crestron, RTI (these are intended for smart-home applications), and BloOS Controller, and the cost is much less the Altair. But It's a close call...
Fantastic video. I love cd’s too, as long as they are in storageboxes in the basement. They are all ripped on my four months old Innuos Zen III. Super setup. How does that compare to the G1 ? I bought the Zen after watching your review. Thanks
the new g2.1 has the new tesla 2 platform not available in the altair, g1, vega which all have tesla 1, nearly 7 years old. it has copper plate inside for stability, just like the brass inside the naim 555 which costs 12000pounds. there is extra galvanic sheilding. basically, its one of the best non jitter streamer on market
I think that the Innuos Zen MK3 is a great product which would more properly compare to the Aries G1 rather than the Altair G1 which is the most fully featured (streamer+DAC) but entry level product in the Auralic line-up. For sure the Innuos better integrate the per design CD ripping/playback functionality while Auralic has introduced it mainly as a retrofit option with just a firmware upgrade without any factory hardware required. The Aries G1 seems to provide some additional features over the Innuos (effective Wi-Fi connection, display, etc.) but I'm not sure about the sound quality and overall user experience which can be considered the best. That said the Altair G1 was already a best in class product considering all the features it provides for the price and even more with this last option that has been added for free. Shame on Auralic that with all these good products and improvements there is not an LDS Android version available yet.
I buy more CD's now than I did 20 years ago. Mostly second hand and dirt cheap. I rip to iTunes still for my ipod classic to listen in the car or gym. For detailed listening where sound quality is required I shock horror listen to my CD's on my old Linn setup. Suits me at the moment. I did have a panic when the new Tool album didn't get a mainstream regular priced CD release. I looked into streaming but ended up just getting the fancy version. Bloody good job it's amazing.
Like you John, my music is 95% + on CD's I own, the rest are red book or higher download purchases. I don't rely on music services. I have less physical space now so I have done away with the jewel boxes and the cds are in 3 x 30" boxes with dividers that make it easy to find albums and accompanying lyrics and artwork, although I hardly ever go there. I have not owned a CD player for 10 years, but I am toying with the idea of buying a Cambridge CXC transport just to see if I can hear the difference. My system is a MacBook Pro running Pure music with SSD storage onboard and another external SSD - backup to GTech drives. Airplay to Node 2i feeding into a Benchmark DAC3 HGC which sends the music to Genelec 1020b with 1040 sub (space is small so I listen in near field). DAC3 HGC is my headphone amp too. Sometimes I hook the laptop into the DAC3 HGC using a Audioquest Carbon USB cable. Yeah, the sound is better but less convenient as the cable is short and I have to get up. It's about the music.
Great video - I had not heard Built To Spill before and just checked out Cortez the Killer on YT - can there be better version than the original ! - I think so - It’s a good video as I have a load of CD’s still and would like to get these ripped - 600 CD’s is a bit of investment time wise but other than paying to have this done it’s difficult to see how to rip this many CD’s - for this reason I have vinyl and streaming as my two preferred sources but would definitely like to make my CD’s more accessible
There are machines that will allow you to batch rip your CDs. The most economical way would be to find one used on ebay. Many years ago I needed to rip my 2000+ cd collection. I did not want to rip one disc at a time as this would take months of tedious effort. I did some research and was able to find a discontinued Sony VGP-XL1B 200 disc CD/DVD changer/recorder new old stock on ebay. Using dBpoweramp with the changer allowed me to rip all my CDs in less than a week. I had the machine ripping day and night while I did other things, like go to work or sleep. Some of the CDs had to be manually edited because of missing cover art or no meta data, etc., but it still saved a ton of time and effort.
Hello from Montreal, Hi John happy holidays. anyways how does the Auralic compare to the Innuos Zen and it’s ripping capabilities. The Innuos seems a little easier and with less components ie external drives. I guess all this comes down to the sound quality of these units. I own the Zen, I find it fantastic especially with the Phoenix reclocker (yes it’s expensive) it also uploads to flac. I love the all in one solution streamer/ripper idea. We are so spoiled with the multitude of choice. Take care
Hi John. Great Video. I was only surprised by your statement that streaming via Roon was slightly inferior to streaming using Lighting. I have no experience with Nucleus, but recently I set up a Roon Server (nothing fancy, average price PC - i3 processor - regular parts) (I use an Allo USB Signature as endpoint). I instaled the AudioLinux OS (US$50 with one year suport - or you can use the free GentooPlayer OS - in both Roon Server is installed ) and HDplex Linear PSU, and the improvement in Sound compared to the Win 10 Server that I had previously was substantial. Saying better was exceptional. I suggest that you start seeing substitutes for Nucleus. Alternatively You can improov your Nucleus (bring it near your Rack) and add Up Tone's Ether Regen Switcher and Keces or HDplex LPS, you will see a big improovement. Thanks
I use cdparanoia on linux to rip to wav, then use flac to convert to flac, then play using audacious on either linux or windows to play directly from the files and folders (no playlists needed). I prefix the track file names by the track number so they play in the proper order. Sound quality is identical to CD because all the bits are copied exactly. I play the files on my android phone using the neutron music player app, which also can play directly from files and folders, without playlists. I transferred hundreds of CDs to a single USB memory stick this way, and I can thus copy my entire archive with a single operation. Most of my CDs are solo classical piano, which is particularly sensitive to compression artifacts (phase distortion, comb filtering, aliasing, etc), so I chose lossless flac format to avoid such problems. I still have boxes of vinyl records, but no time to digitize them yet -- very tedious.
For me personally my listening is about 50/50 CD's and Vinyl. I rarely stream, only for convenience and variety , playlists etc. I love vinyl for all the usual reasons so I wont go into them. However I still have a huge CD collection that continues to grow. Some...not all...CD remasters can sound simply breathtaking and way better than their Vinyl or streamed counterpart. Case in point , the 2017 remaster of Hotel California is stunningly good. Same goes for some of the remasters done by Steven Wilson (Yes, Rush and so on) Also thanks to the so called vinyl resurgence CD's are now so cheap!!
I maintain just one CD, and I never ever play it. Fans of the movie Inception will recall that we all need a totem to ensure that we arent living in an alternative universe, and that Nickelback CD is mine. I have no memory of how it came into my possession, and I have entire days where I cant remember where I left it but its always there. I have zero Nickelback in my music collection or on my Spotify playlists - its my spinning top and nothing more.
Comment of the year! :)
Can I borrow it?
Something very similar happened to me (twice) with a DVD of the movie Roadhouse and also with Lock Stock and two smoking barrells. I have never seen It and It doesn't even sit with my collection, how did i get that? I'll never know
@@lamecasuelas2 I usually have the opposite, CD's that I've had for 2 decades suddenly disappearing from my collection without having touched them in recent memory.
@Jeet Singh Now *this* is comment of the year :)
CD: pay once, own forever
STREAM: own never, pay forever
You should also add - CD: store forever and fight about it with your significant other because they, "sit there and you never listen to them."
@@Clonefall if that happened, I'd Start playing them, so loud that I'd drown her out. Or i would point out that she just sits there and i never listen to her! 😁
Correction: own until bit rot comes. So own around 30 years.
Of course ripping eliminates that.
In my experience.. If stored in a climate controlled environment, a CD will last many decades. If stored in your car or some other place w/unpredictable weather, expect bit rot/deterioration. YMMV. 🤷♂️
@@nhennessy6434 well to each their own! I'm not a "comfort of my chair" kinda guy
I don’t trust streaming service cause they can remove music anytime they want and owning your own music is the best one can achieve.
Sure you do sir, I myself own about 80GB of Flac music as my personal collection and prefer losing my girlfriend than my music.
william may yes! I say this all the time!
I agree
You can download the file and commit it to a high quality hard drive or an SD Card and I believe that can be a lock, however I so see your point and prefer like you to have a physical database.
Well, yeah? You're not paying for access to specific albums, you're paying for access to the streaming service and what it offers for you. It's not that you don't "trust" the service, you don't understand what you're paying for.
That error correction procedure while ripping has been available in Exact Audio Copy for more than 20 years, called “secure mode”. I’ve had amazing results at ripping heavily scratched CD’s with a Plextor DVD-RW drive, taking up more than an hour (the ripping was well below 0,5 speed!!!), but ending up with a flac file that no dedicated audio CD player could play without skipping.
I don’t thrust anything else (as much) since then for high-quality CD rips.
But I do see a value on a more user friendly unit like this one, at least for some people.
Plextor Premium (4x) + EAC = .flac image & .cue file. I hope I can get replacement rubber bands when they eventually perish in the optical drive..
CD will never die. Best music medium ever imo. Secure rip with XLD to lossless and your collection goes anywhere.
Another XLD fan here!
Tru dat;)
I've recently *rediscovered* the ritual of just playing one CD at a time. Loading. Unloading. Browse the CD case art, etc.
Makes me wish I had such a nice, expensive, HiFi set up when I was a kid and originally listening to these CDs.
I don't see going back to all the complexity like what is shown here.
Same with vinyl
When most people talk about "music", they are talking about pop/rock songs. Streaming is very good, but not perfect on that department. But If you like jazz, you start to feel the difference. If you like Classical you know that you will never leave your record collection. Streaming services might have 10 different versions of the 9th, but you know you will never hear your favorite 9th again without your record collection
At last, someone who actually has remembered CD's.
Ok...the loudness wars in part ruined the format, but there are still many people out there where this is still their main format for music.
Well done John.
Love CDs (thousands and counting!) and still support artists by purchasing direct when possible. You nailed it....so many deluxe versions, alternate discs, and mastered versions are not available on the streaming sites. Buy it, rip them straight into a Bluesound Vault 2 and manage the collection with Roon. Amazing!
I still rip a lot, buying 2nd hand CDs and the charity shop and have built up a huge album/singles collection.
I bought 21 CDs today, love the media 🎶🎵💿
John, I just trialed the Auralic firmware upgrade on my original pre-G1 Altair* purchased new with a built-in 2 TB SSD. I couldn’t be happier. Or more surprised. So, many thanks for the heads up.
Spun the CD with a very cheap CDROM drive powered from an external hub and everything worked as you described. A quick scan of the product support page filled me in on the settings to listen with upsampling and rip to the SSD at the same time. 8X ripping, the slowest setting, goes into idle and waits for realtime disk playback to arrive at the next track. Sounds great on AQ Nighthawks driven by a SimAudio integrated. Next I should see if it’s possible to listen to web radio or stream Tidal while ripping; wouldn’t that be nice!
All this detail to say that your channel’s videos are essential viewing for all fans of music streaming. There’s something for everybody.
Now I have to make another run at getting PiCorePlayer to work with LMS on a RPi 3B+ topped with a Hifiberry Digi+ Pro. Seems LMS couldn’t find my player. And, further hints on adding Material skin would be greatly appreciated.
*Auralic’s website says this upgrade also applies to: Aries, Aries LE, and Polaris.
I'm glad you're enjoying CDs. I've done all the comparisons as well and CD via a transport into a good DAC always beats streaming or laptop/hard drive via USB into the same DAC. USB is always the worse, in any variation.
I currently run a Cambridge CXN & CXC via optical into a PS Audio Perfectwave DAC into a Hegel H95 with Klipsch Fortes. It's heaven!.
Although for pulling me mentally deep into the music and for spatial 3D depth and width of soundstage I prefer vinyl via the PS Audio Nuwave phono converter. Its doesn't have the detail or high res but communicates the experience very realistically.
Anyone who says all digital sounds the same has not put in the time or money.
I really appreciate that you don't go down some dark hole of arguing that the laser on the CD drive affects the audio or other nonsense. There are a couple channels out here that I've straight up blocked so I don't have to hear their nonsense. Thanks for the proper info!
Here is the problem. At this point when you start worrying about power sources, what are you really doing? Are you listening to your CD or are you listening to your equipment? This setup is just way too complicated for no reason. You can enjoy those CDs with any good CD player.
Yeah, it's a classic example of people loosing focus. You see this all the time among amateur photographers - They spend all their time reading about cameras and buying new equipment, but rarely actually do any photography. It's like an author worrying about the paper instead of writing.
True!!
Honestly this isn't that complicated though. I agree there should be balance, but the ripping process is more complicated than simple playback and if a device can automate some of that, then great! You can indeed get the same effect from a PC with good hardware.
Thank you for listing the featured CDs out, love the CDs you've mentioned.
Haven't read all comments so if I am treading old ground I apologise. I just want to mention that the iFi micro power supply works great with that RSHTech USB hub and I'm sure improves the sound of the £30 Asus transport I have in case anyone wondered if they could use it. I suspect a lot of us have an iFi lying around as I did.
Thanks for this video, John. I have an Aries G2 and had not been aware of this upgrade so I rustled around in my study and found the Asus external cd drive I never use, browsed Amazon and found the same powered USB hub you were using (£17.99 with voucher) and pulled out an iFi micro power supply which was currently unemployed (£49.99 new but always some on eBay). Hub came yesterday - love next day delivery - and turns out the iFi fits perfectly without even having to use an adaptor tip.
Ripping and playing cds in minutes and it sounds great. I ripped all my cds with Poweramp years ago but I have kept them all. I do still buy some which are not available on Qobuz and I reckon ripping on the Auralic might give better results than ripping on the PC but who knows? It's just fun to play physical media sometimes, which is probably why I still buy vinyl. I had an old Pioneer DV 757ai which I played discs on occasionally, but I reckon the Auralic sounds better.
I love that Auralic continues to innovate and provide extra value for its existing customers.
Ripping through the Auralic is the most painful process. I tried what is mentioned here and gave up after my tenth CD. Most of my CD's(I own hundreds of Indian CD's) were not recognized by the ripping software. It is slow, painful and after sitting through ten disks, I was like..to hell with this. Just used dbpoweramp on my windows 10 desktop to rip all my CD's to flac on my internal ssd drive. Saved it to a sandisk external ssd drive and attached it to the Aries/Altair/Vega via HDD connection. Now I have perfectly indexed CD's, will album art(you can add your own album art in dbpoweramp), track names and my library looks a lot more organized. Thanks for taking the pain to explain this because there is no way I would have figured this from the Auralic documentation. Just in case you are wondering whether there is a quality difference with ripping in Auralic vs dbpoweramp... I have a fairly revealing system and I cannot hear a difference in quality.
The piano track in this video is "Cody High - Another Night".
Thanks Kristoffer! I like John's reviews, but his and my musical taste are usually miles apart. However this tune really struck me, and so I'm off to search for the CD now
Kristoffer Thank you so much! (Here was I thinking it was Henrik Schwarz)
@@HD-su9sq very much the same here
thanks for the info - just found track on Amazon music & added it to my library
I remember the time I ripped my whole CD collection over the time of two months. I did it CD by CD, tagging it very carefully by hand with proper covers because automated tools were not available back then or resulted in an utter mess. Lots of mooos. I don't know, a clean tagged rip, a clean tagged collection is absolutely satisfying. 🤓
I ripped my collection in 2007 using Nero for WAVE files and iTunes for M4A files. Compressed files for use on mobile phone. iTunes does not do that anymore. Both programmes included metadata and made only a few errors (completely the wrong album). MP3TAG added Metadata to WAVE files with a later release.
Can you please guide me to rip CD to FLAC?
@@syedabdulsultan6642 I'm on a Mac, I used iTunes back then to convert them into AIFF (lossless) or M4A (lossy). Nowadays I use an app called XLD (X Lossless Decoder).
Another thing about CD ripping is you have the assurance your getting what you paid for, especially in terms of quality and original mastering. Personally I find a lot of original mastered CDs from 80’s a lot better sounding than remastered albums. Some streaming services don’t indicate that your getting a reissue or RM and of course an original master. Lastly. Straight up I love having a physical library.
100%. I always check dr.loudness-war.info for the best master before hunting down the catalogue number on eBay.
Matty Cairns it does help. It is not always an end all be all, but based on your own listening experiences you know what your getting if you see an album that has DR average of 5. Yikes! :)
CDs seemed to be very quiet until around 1990 or so. The original Japanese 2-disc release of Pet Shop Boys Behaviour is one of the "newest" quiet CDs I have, but it sounds amazing!
I like CDs also, but use them in a different way. I will use the CD just once, to extract, then I place the CD in storage container.
I would be interested in any CD storage videos/suggestions.
If You have any with the Square Sponge In, and It has turned Brown or going Brown. Take It out and Replace with (None Colored) Kitchen roll sheet folded a few times., or It will start to attack the Disc. I lost Two of My Early Now That's What I Call Music Disc's dew to this. Keep Away from Heat or Humid, and Damp Places and You'll be Good. Don't pack them In to Tight, just enough with a little movement. Use Cardboard Box's New not used, don't use plastic ones. I know this cause I have Thousands of them and more coming everyday still In 2020. Good Luck
I do this too, I barely touch them once ripped and I get an accuraterip. I get so scared about damaging them 😂😭😭😭
CDs won't go away. What so many mugs struggle to understand is that it's actually about the MUSIC. That's what really matters. Although CDs have been around for fewer years than vinyl, the same logic is already starting to play out. There is an enormous amount of rare and exotic music out there on vinyl, now the same is true for CDs. So much fantastic African music, reggae, soul, jazz, psychedelia, progressive - everything, classical music too. The advantage of buying used CDs is that 99% will play perfectly. Not always the case with vinyl, even with a fantastic turntable and cartridge. All you need is a half decent CD player and Roberta is your transexual aunt.
Put simply, the music companies and hifi industry are trying to sell you the same stuff all over again - and a pile of fiddly new gear to play it on. Huh! I remember when they deliberately destroyed vinyl back in the 80s to usher in CD. Being the obstinate old fart I am, I kept my vinyl - and likewise I'm keeping my CDs.
CD's are great. Personally, I believe 44.1k/16 is already past what any human ear can possibly resolve. I ripped mine on the PC, using Exact Audio Copy which does some checking to make sure the rip is accurate, and then encoded them to FLAC files; you can integrate the FLAC encoder into EAC and rip, encode and then apply metadata about the rip in one step. But yeah, streaming services are fine for casual listening or discovering stuff, but - the stuff is only there as long as the streaming service keeps it there, you have no recourse if they remove it, so the unique stuff you want to keep you need actual copies of, be it digital files or CD
still like the physical side of cd .im old school
I did it exactly the same way. For me there is no point in subscribing to one of these services, who knows what will be in the future. If I like an album I buy it (CD or digital).
Me too
Croft I did it the same way, but the album art side of Exact Audio Copy is a bit hit and miss especially with classical CDs. I use Discogs as the source of any missing album covers (quite common with EAC) and MP3Tag to tag it to the flac files. I also ripped all my LPs to flac using Audacity so I can stream them round the house too. That was a real chore.
Theoretically the human ear can hear up to 20bits of dynamic range.
The 44.1k sample rate should be sufficient for the reconstruction filters of high end DACs.
But with badly designed filters a higher sample rate *can* provide a little improvement, because those filters don't need to be as steep for higher sample rates (remember the hype of "upsampling DACs" during the early 10s?)
Dithering can be used as an alternative to the higher sample rate to solve those filtering issues.
So I am enjoying Music again, for me your approach is working. I don’t have crazy expensive equipment but your explanations and knowledge are helping informing my decisions. My set up is singing. Thank you!
Thanks for the belated heads up on the Built to Spill cover of Cortez the killer. An absolutely wonderful performance!
I look forward to John’s videos and am never disappointed. Looking that wall of John’s CD’s all nicely presented in white towers puts my many plastic bins in the basement to shame!
I’m a ripper indeed. Great video. I can identify with John in this video immensely.
I love my CDs...Again...After years of streaming-only through Deezer....thanks to you...And I subscribed to CD-Quality for streaming. And I’ll be buying and ripping CDs again. Full Circle....
Nice to see there's still some love for CD's out there. Would be nice to see a comparison between the Auralic and the Naim Uniti Star which has virtually identical features. Great video as always John. 👍
10 seconds after Darko said, “This version of Cortez the Killer” is better than the original, I was on Fleabay and purchased that cd! Thanks John for the heads up. One of the best tunes of all time people...
Pete is never wrong You know what? YOU’RE RIGHT- because Pete is never wrong
It's actually still on Spotify in the US and I am listening to it for the first time as I type this! EPIC!
Mr. Darko, I just love your content. Tidal has both albums available to stream in North America. Take care, Brian.
I want to control my music, own my own music library and not be beholden to large organisations who charge every month to allow me to listen to music. I believe there are many like me. I love having my own cd library.
I might have even ventured back to vinyl if I thought pressing quality had been upped since the 80's but, apparently, it hasn't. And that was the very reason i went over to the silver disc in the first place.
Vinyl pressing is a lost art.
I still rip CDs with my old windows computer. I go to a thrift store buy one then enjoy my fave songs.
I’ve to confess that in addition to the content of your postings, I like the video itself. Excellent job!
I’ve got 1300 & they ain’t going anywhere. 900 vinyl also. All on my QNAP nas 👍🎼. Naim Uniti, Rega 3 , QNAP nas 3tb. Focal Aria2 . Chord epic . So this gives me access to all my cds , vinyl (audacity) DAB. Internet radio, FM AM , cd player . Sorted. Great video by the way.
I have been buying CDs since 1985, and I now own about one thousand. Many of my old CDs still are in beautiful condition.
I think I have bought about 50-100 CDs the last couple of years alone, so here the CD is very much alive!
I rip every CD I buy using WMP, and use the data to make my own mp3-collections for the road.
Cowon have fantastic mp3-players, and software that handle most files. At the moment I have a Cowon DB2 in my car. This player is brilliant, and lasts many years! So to all: check out Cowon!!
I also play a lot of CDs of course, both in da house and on the road. I guess I am very old fashioned, any that works very well for me:-)
For me it`s not about hardware or software, it`all about enjoying the music I love! Cellphones and music, streaming etc. etc., no thank`s!!
If you invest all the effort into storing a music collection on a digital jukebox and the time to get the Metadata correct and include the CD artwork you need to back it up and perhaps even have a second backup.
I remember in the 80's my cars CD player also buffered the data into cache so it doesn't skip when you drive on a dirt road.
Thank you, Sir Darko! Its Saturday morning, and you've already fulfilled both my ''build a shortlist for front-ends' AND my 'learn more about HiFi' fix. Even before breakfast. Priorities. 🙂
@John Darko - this is one of your top videos. Love it!
Big box classicals with excellent value! CD lives!
No way is 'kayche' a legitimate pronunciation of cache! John is such a (loveable) oddball!
Oh no - I’ve been saying it that way! (I’m in Australia, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!)
'Cayche' is how Australians say it.
@@DarkoAudio so you're an Aussie? I thought you were a Brit...
It is pronounced "cash"
@@DarkoAudio Australians have their vowels on a decoder ring, you can't trust them. And anyway, noi... Noi they daint spoeek in that manna.
It's quiche. And we'll never let you live this down.
Already watched this video before and liked It and now watched again as if i never watched it before!
I keep wondering, why not just rip it on PC/laptop ?
EMI noisy environment, a good clean power supply is a must,motherboard sound-cards are usually low Quality therefore exterior DAC is a must for cleaner and natural sound.
Used to then stopped. When I purchased a product that was designed to be a dedicated network streamer, ripper, and music server. Computers are not designed to be audio play back devices. They are jack of all trades, master of none workhorses, they do not isolate the signal from other components that it contains.
For me the hum from their cooling fans I found really irritating. The music server I use now is fan-less and has shielding that further isolates the signal from the power supply. The transport is even damped so as to provide the best possible read of the CD when ripping. Add an SSD and the background noise now becomes dead silent. For me that is a real advantage, and lets more of the music come through, rather than music plus fan noise
@@jp-rj7yq What has a soundcard and a DAC to do with ripping a CD?
I was thinking the same thing, but that's also what I use. I built (and have updated) a dedicated PC, and use WAV rips inside WMP. The SB0570/Sherwood/KLH combo makes for a pleasant analogue sound. No one that's listened to it has been disappointed, and I enjoy the sound quality. That said, I think it did sound a little more vibrant under W7 than it does under W10, even though the soundcard and driver are exactly the same.
John - the more I listen to your reviews the more I like and enjoy what you offer and add to the audio review community. I appreciate your flavor as I can listen to the review of a piece of gear from other reviewers and then listen to your review and come away with information I just didn't get from other reviewers. I will be in the market for a streaming solutions in the near future and have moved from the Node 2i to the Cambridge CXN V2 and am now very interested in what I'm hearing of the Auralic streamer.
John, great video. I was interested in your comment about your use of an external power supply to drive the CD player. I have an older external CD/BD drive (LG BP06LU10) that I use for ripping my CDs. It is physically attached to two USB plugs (one for data and the other for power) that I plug directly into my Mac when I rip CDs. I wonder if using an external power supply would enhance the quality of future ripped CDs?
Also a note to Mac users- Florian Heidenreich, the MP3Tag developer announced on July 11 that he has an alpha version (so hang on...) of MP3Tag for MacOS.
I'm still buying CDs but only to rip them, I've yet to understand why digital downloads in flac are so expensive. This is especially the case with older albums, where a second hand cd is so much better value than the digital download.
Server infrastructure to store flacs is more expensive. The base cost still goes to the production house/studio and the artist.
Once ripped how do you play them?
One of the big screws is lack of physical media... no more cd's, movies, software and video games and at full price! Imagine no more used media... you have to buy new and when you're done you can't sell it.
Supply and demand.
@@mihir1997 the cost of storing a flac file is a tiny fraction of the cost of manufacturing CDs, shipping them and selling them in a store. Chalk and cheese.
That Robag Wruhme album is on Tidal. So glad you did this video. Thanks
I always rip my CDs to FLAC and play them digitally with my music player, a lot of fun in that to hear the differences in mastering between CDs of the same albums.
Great video John as usual and great music! cheers from Chile!
"I love CDs so much." So do I.
I would like to know what music you use at the start of your videos. I like it a lot.
Or, you could eliminate the cost of the streamer, and just play the cd and listen to it. It then becomes a ritual, like playing an lp except easier, and you are then far more likely to actually listen to the entirety of the artist's work instead of skipping to something else when you're momentarily bored.
That's one.of the reason why i still Buy CD's and movies ok physical media
I have an I tunes account onto which I rip any CDs I either borrow or purchase. I used to have an I pod, and I used to have a 2 hour commute every day, so that came in handy. The I pod wore out, then I picked up Google Play Music and have been uploading music from my I tunes library onto the Google library
This is a really good point. I've noticed this from the time I got a high capacity mp3 player in the 2000s. Rather than listen to a whole CD, I find myself skipping from song to song when the choice is immediately available.
I absolutely love your videos. You keep it simple, to the point and real. And now, you're a CD Lover like me. I LOVE MY CDs, and I'm still buying them. I hate Apple and MP3s for killing off the CD/Record stores. I used to go down to Virgin Mega Store in Burbank CA, after I had gotten paid on a Friday night and come home with a Stack of new CD's. ready for a the week.
I have a Video suggestion for you. You have a substantial CD collection, how about making a Video about the CD's not available on the streaming services. Something we can add to our shopping list.
Thanks for the great Videos John.
The Doc.
Beautifully made as always!
Love this channel. So funny, I’m keep grinning with your pronunciation flips - this needs to be the new norm on all TH-cam channel. Found your work from the PX7 review and got them off the back of that. Not a massive audiophile myself but enjoy your candour and the daaata conveyed therein! Your insights are stella.
Only here to say..... That Cortez the Killer cover version is incredible. and sounds incredible. The guitar is on it.
I like a physical music collection myself and yes I completely understand the desire to stream music however that’s not for me .
I just took delivery of a couple CDs from MOFI last week , ripped them on my Innuos Zenith server and I will continue to purchase CDs new and used when that urge for more music comes up .
Even if its available on streaming services you will still buy?
Marcus I have no interest at all currently to sign up and pay for a streaming service, I have free access to a huge library of music on CDs / SACD and occasionally I’ll still purchase specific CDs releases , the preferred releases that have sonic merit over other re-releases .
I’m perfectly happy with currently 1.3 TB of music loaded on my server and with that the peace of mind I own most of it neatly stored if ever needed in the future and finally I just upgraded to the Innuos Phoenix which made my listening pleasure that much more exciting and enjoyable .
Having used Windows to rip my music for a decade I was a bit hacked off to find that my playback software, Native Instruments Traktor 3 upgrade didn't accept WMA files any more leaving me with half of my 100Gb music collection in the wrong format. Gobsmacked !
The Andrew Weatherall album was the only one of the four you listed I couldn’t find on Amazon HD streaming service. Thanks for the introduction to The Soft Boys.
I think his main issue is that he is in Germany, so many releases are not on streaming services. Also Amazon HD is very limited on streaming devices. You can only use it on the Altair G1 if you have an iDevice and either use USB in or via AirPlay, both of which won't sound as good as a ripped CD and LightningDS
CDs! I have been buying them since 1986 and I keep listening to them. It is simple. put one in your CD player and push "Play". Easy! All that business of ripping, streaming, DACs.. I don't understand a word.(and I don't care!) What I do undertsand is that nothing can erase the wide smile I have when I listen to my CDs.
So am I missing something... What's the purpose of ripping cds when you have a perfectly good CD player? I suspect digital libraries generate different listening patterns and constrain the fortunate happenstance implicit in a physical collection...
Because a lot of us travel around more now and want a good selection of our music to take with us, Just use your imagination and think of a Sony MP3 player that has every track on it that you actually like that you’ve personally chosen from your CD collection, so ripped in either 320kbps or even Flac.
But Flac does use a lot of space up on your MP3 player i personally rip my cd tracks at 192kbps because I like a lot of music and I can get more on my player...sound quality is absolutely fine some may prefer 320 I’m happy enough with 192, anyway an MP3 player is an amazing bit of kit and when I’m at home I stream from my MP3 player to my Sony Bluetooth speaker...I know I’m not alone in doing it all this because many others do the same I think maybe you should get used to the way people listen to their music nowadays, ok it may not be for you or anyone who just listens to music at home and is not adventurous in having their music to take out on the move.
iPod classic
How does this compare to EAC (exact audio copy) I appreciate that a reviewer is keeping the light on for CDs my favourite format
From John Darko's explanation of the ripping proces, it should be equivalent to the secure mode ripping in Exact Audio Copy.
As in, it reads everything twice, then compares, if the compare is unsatisfactory, it reads the sector again, over and over, and picks out the best version.
It would be interesting to see how audiophile equipment compares to pro musician audio gear. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion each group has its share of woo and voodoo marketing. I’ve bought dozens of DACs over the years and even had a UA Apollo as my central audio system in the living room with surprising results. Love the channel.
D
For me, CD means I own the disk and the music and I can listen to it without seeing any advertisment.
I don't see any advertisment in streaming either.
@M B I have >1000 CDs btw
With CD you buy once and own it forever. With streaming you don't own it and pay forever.
Built to Spill Live is still on Spotify in the US
I enjoy CDS. Looking to update CD player. Wow where do i even start.
Brilliant you took the risk to talk about CDS. 😊
You and I are birds of a feather...I also think CD’s are fantastic. I use an Arcam CD player with a Woo tube amp and am very interested in what you’re proposing here. Absolutely terrific video. Thanks, so much.
I love cd's also, along with vinyl...but who has the time to do all that ripping??
I would love to hear what you think about the Aurender ACS10 if you could get your hands on one.
16:06 - Grant Lee Bufallo's "Fuzzy". I thought I was the only person who had that album. "Jupiter and Teardrop" is a classic.
I’ve been collecting CDs properly for the last couple years or so and people think I’m a bit mad and never understand why I don’t just go an use a streaming service.
I have two massive binders full and still going... only a small collection just over 8k songs.
I typically go to charity shops or if I am near one go to a car boot sale however I’ll also have a look in poundland as they get CDs from Music Magpie, occasionally I buy new but not very often
Hi there. This might be a really naïve question but is all ripping created equal? I ripped my extensive CD collection on my MacBook Pro over USB to ALAC. Would I get a better quality result using a dedicated audio ripper like the Innuous? Thanks
I sold half of my vinyl collection and turntable, went back to cd. Upgraded my dac and transport, cd’s are so cheap now compared to vinyl!
CD + CD player + amp + speakers = sonic bliss! It is easy and straightforward! What is all that hassle now with ripping, buying DACS and paying for a streaming service?
BTW, my present “CD” source setup is the Wyred for Sound MS Music Server for ripping to FLAC and automatic assigning of artwork (Bliss app is included for corrections); and subsequent playback through a Denefrips Aries II DAC. I’m very happy with this so far. The MS storage is all solid state; including my backup 1TB portable drive. Thank you so much for your knowledge, incite and opinions!
*insight*
Hi, a bit late to this game so I've got a lot of catching up to do. BTW, I've found your videos extremely informative and helpful, although some are way over my head - blame it on my "dad" brain :)
Anyway, I've got a Bluesound Powernode and KEF LS50 Meta speakers (largely thanks to your reviews) and am getting my head around how to get my CDs onto a separate hard drive - in this video you connect your CD drive and hard drive to your AURALIC and 'control' the CD ripping through Lightning DS. Will I be able to do something similar with my setup or will I need to connect and rip through my laptop?
5 years ago I ripped my entire CD collection onto my computer hard drive as uncompressed WAV files using dBPoweramp, which compares every track with every other rip in their database assuring a bit-perfect transfer. I was using JRiver Media for playback (still am on my main computer). At the time I was transitioning from iTunes and I tested several lossless file formats to see which format provided the greatest fidelity. The final test was a comparison between compressed FLAC files and uncompressed WAV files, and although all the 'experts' were saying since both were lossless formats, they should sound exactly the same. The only problem was, they didn't! The differences weren't Gi-normous, but the uncompressed WAV files were clearly superior. How can this be, you ask? As it turns out, JRiver provided the answer, as the program displays the bitrate of the playback in real-time. Playing back a 24/96 WAV file occurs at a steady bitrate of 4608 Kb/sec, whereas playing back the same 24/96 file in FLAC plays back at a variable bitrate depending on the amount of compression being used at any given time. Based on the amount of compression being applied, the bitrate would vary anywhere from 2100-3000 Kb/sec, with an average of about 2700. Meaning the FLAC files were being uncompressed on-the-fly, adding another step in the process that doesn't occur in realtime. If it did, the FLAC files would be playing back at the same constant rate as the WAV files, and they don't. When it comes to digital (audio or video), the more bits per second, the greater the fidelity. With FLAC, it appears that the average playback bitrate corresponds to the average rate of compression. Meaning, a music file that's compressed by 40% will playback at an average bitrate that's 40% less than an uncompressed file. This is why I use uncompressed WAV files. The dBPoweramp program automatically searches several sources to populate the metadata and even provides a powerful metadata editor that seamlessly integrates into the dropdown menu in Windows File Explorer. In addition, the program includes a file converter that even allows you to change sample rates and frequencies. In my main system, I'm currently using a Roon Nucleus (w/internal SSD drive) via USB link to a Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 digital amplifier.
Flac is better for tagging files Artwork and Album Artist info Wav is not as compatible with music players as they can't read info from a Wav file
Did you try uncompressed flac? JRiver must be displaying the compressed bitrate as the decoded flac is bit identical to the CD, bitrate included. If the hardware is up to it flac at any compression level should sound the same as wav,, but the cpu overhead of decoding can affect some systems, hence why people use intermediate services e.g. MinimServer, to do the decode and deliver a lossless signal to the hardware. The major limitation of wav is its limited tagging support.
Try ripping one of your CD,s to 32 bit WAV 44.1(2822kbps) and play it back on your dac at 16bit 44.1 it sounds quite pleasing and natural to the ear . Storing music on SSD NVME makes a difference in sound quality as well compared to mechanical HD which can add unwanted nuances to the sound. foobar2000 ripper works good and it's opensource
Eye-opener. Very useful info. I always Rip as Wav Files, without knowing above. Thanks Lou.
@@jp-rj7yq The only issue I have is the SSD drive in my Nucleus is only a 2GB and storing files at 32/44 takes up twice the space of 16/44 files, which equates to half the music!
Thanks for a great review, John! Just a remark that for much less money than the Altair, one can buy the BlueSound Vault 2I, which have a 2TB hard drive, Hi-Res streaming Music Player with Airplay2, Tidal, Control4, Crestron, RTI (these are intended for smart-home applications), and BloOS Controller, and the cost is much less the Altair. But It's a close call...
Has John ever reviewed the Bluesound Vault 2i or the Brennan B3.
Love cds. Excellent audio and it’s something for my eyes, hands and ears. Even if I rip them for WAVs they’re still mine. All mine.
Fantastic video. I love cd’s too, as long as they are in storageboxes in the basement. They are all ripped on my four months old Innuos Zen III. Super setup. How does that compare to the G1 ? I bought the Zen after watching your review. Thanks
the new g2.1 has the new tesla 2 platform not available in the altair, g1, vega which all have tesla 1, nearly 7 years old. it has copper plate inside for stability, just like the brass inside the naim 555 which costs 12000pounds. there is extra galvanic sheilding. basically, its one of the best non jitter streamer on market
I think that the Innuos Zen MK3 is a great product which would more properly compare to the Aries G1 rather than the Altair G1 which is the most fully featured (streamer+DAC) but entry level product in the Auralic line-up. For sure the Innuos better integrate the per design CD ripping/playback functionality while Auralic has introduced it mainly as a retrofit option with just a firmware upgrade without any factory hardware required. The Aries G1 seems to provide some additional features over the Innuos (effective Wi-Fi connection, display, etc.) but I'm not sure about the sound quality and overall user experience which can be considered the best. That said the Altair G1 was already a best in class product considering all the features it provides for the price and even more with this last option that has been added for free. Shame on Auralic that with all these good products and improvements there is not an LDS Android version available yet.
“Tag Editor” on MacOS is a good option for Mac users. I think it’s even in the App Store.
The Cody High track (and album) is my favourite music I've found from this channel :)
The Weatherall CD set is fantastic. He was one of my favourite DJ's, such a shame he's no longer with us.
Great content as per usual john
hey, what music runs in the background sometimes? this piano/drum musik? i like it
Cody High - Another Night
Props for the Built to Spill Cortez the Killer plug. Let the people know!!!
Keep it real and spin those discs! You can't beat the original, physical source.
I buy more CD's now than I did 20 years ago. Mostly second hand and dirt cheap. I rip to iTunes still for my ipod classic to listen in the car or gym. For detailed listening where sound quality is required I shock horror listen to my CD's on my old Linn setup. Suits me at the moment. I did have a panic when the new Tool album didn't get a mainstream regular priced CD release. I looked into streaming but ended up just getting the fancy version. Bloody good job it's amazing.
Yay, mp3 tag, great to know you are using it too
Like you John, my music is 95% + on CD's I own, the rest are red book or higher download purchases. I don't rely on music services. I have less physical space now so I have done away with the jewel boxes and the cds are in 3 x 30" boxes with dividers that make it easy to find albums and accompanying lyrics and artwork, although I hardly ever go there. I have not owned a CD player for 10 years, but I am toying with the idea of buying a Cambridge CXC transport just to see if I can hear the difference. My system is a MacBook Pro running Pure music with SSD storage onboard and another external SSD - backup to GTech drives. Airplay to Node 2i feeding into a Benchmark DAC3 HGC which sends the music to Genelec 1020b with 1040 sub (space is small so I listen in near field). DAC3 HGC is my headphone amp too. Sometimes I hook the laptop into the DAC3 HGC using a Audioquest Carbon USB cable. Yeah, the sound is better but less convenient as the cable is short and I have to get up. It's about the music.
Great video - I had not heard Built To Spill before and just checked out Cortez the Killer on YT - can there be better version than the original ! - I think so - It’s a good video as I have a load of CD’s still and would like to get these ripped - 600 CD’s is a bit of investment time wise but other than paying to have this done it’s difficult to see how to rip this many CD’s - for this reason I have vinyl and streaming as my two preferred sources but would definitely like to make my CD’s more accessible
There are machines that will allow you to batch rip your CDs. The most economical way would be to find
one used on ebay. Many years ago I needed to rip my 2000+ cd collection. I did not want to rip one disc at a time as this would take months of tedious effort. I did some research and was able to find a discontinued Sony VGP-XL1B 200 disc CD/DVD changer/recorder new old stock on ebay. Using dBpoweramp with the changer allowed me to rip all my CDs in less than a week. I had the machine ripping day and night while I did other things, like go to work or sleep. Some of the CDs had to be manually edited because of missing cover art or no meta data, etc., but it still saved a ton of time and effort.
Awesome intro. Built to Spill - Cortez the Killer (Live) is on Apple Music (US) currently. Thanks for the recommendation. Great song.
It's also on Amazon Music (in the US at least)
Also available on Spotify in the US -- listening now!
Hello from Montreal, Hi John happy holidays. anyways how does the Auralic compare to the Innuos Zen and it’s ripping capabilities. The Innuos seems a little easier and with less components ie external drives. I guess all this comes down to the sound quality of these units. I own the Zen, I find it fantastic especially with the Phoenix reclocker (yes it’s expensive) it also uploads to flac. I love the all in one solution streamer/ripper idea. We are so spoiled with the multitude of choice. Take care
Hi John. Great Video. I was only surprised by your statement that streaming via Roon was slightly inferior to streaming using Lighting. I have no experience with Nucleus, but recently I set up a Roon Server (nothing fancy, average price PC - i3 processor - regular parts) (I use an Allo USB Signature as endpoint). I instaled the AudioLinux OS (US$50 with one year suport - or you can use the free GentooPlayer OS - in both Roon Server is installed ) and HDplex Linear PSU, and the improvement in Sound compared to the Win 10 Server that I had previously was substantial. Saying better was exceptional. I suggest that you start seeing substitutes for Nucleus. Alternatively You can improov your Nucleus (bring it near your Rack) and add Up Tone's Ether Regen Switcher and Keces or HDplex LPS, you will see a big improovement. Thanks
Thanks JD...Wonder how this stack up to something like Innuos offerings...?
I use cdparanoia on linux to rip to wav, then use flac to convert to flac, then play using audacious on either linux or windows to play directly from the files and folders (no playlists needed). I prefix the track file names by the track number so they play in the proper order. Sound quality is identical to CD because all the bits are copied exactly. I play the files on my android phone using the neutron music player app, which also can play directly from files and folders, without playlists. I transferred hundreds of CDs to a single USB memory stick this way, and I can thus copy my entire archive with a single operation. Most of my CDs are solo classical piano, which is particularly sensitive to compression artifacts (phase distortion, comb filtering, aliasing, etc), so I chose lossless flac format to avoid such problems. I still have boxes of vinyl records, but no time to digitize them yet -- very tedious.
For me personally my listening is about 50/50 CD's and Vinyl. I rarely stream, only for convenience and variety , playlists etc. I love vinyl for all the usual reasons so I wont go into them. However I still have a huge CD collection that continues to grow. Some...not all...CD remasters can sound simply breathtaking and way better than their Vinyl or streamed counterpart. Case in point , the 2017 remaster of Hotel California is stunningly good. Same goes for some of the remasters done by Steven Wilson (Yes, Rush and so on) Also thanks to the so called vinyl resurgence CD's are now so cheap!!