(I originally posted this over at the Audiophile forum, but after getting no interest I thought I would re-post it over here.)
After much reading of posts on these forums, it became clear to me that I had neither the time nor the inclination to spend hours ripping, converting, tag editing, art searching, etc. Given the ever-lowering cost of storage, reducing required storage space did not seem important. Since I do not use an mp3 player, the ability to copy to a mobile device was irrelevant. My music is primarily jazz, with some classical and bluegrass, so complicated tags were unimportant as long as I could identify the album, artist and track, and could view the album art. What was important was quick ripping and automatic album art download. I ended up using Windows Media Player 11 which rips quickly and downloads art automatically. Files are stored in WAV format and the album art is saved in the same file. WMP11 recognizes all the information I need from the folder name (title of album), file names (track name and number), as well as the genre, year etc. No additional tag edits are necessary. (With classical, some edits are unavoidable.) After mulling over whether to go the NAS route, the reports of network slowdowns dissuaded me and I decided to go with an external hard drive instead attached via USB. I am using a Western Digital My Book Pro II with 1TB (500GB net in RAID1) so if a drive fails I have a copy. At such time as I exceed the approx. 1000 CD capacity I will either buy a new device or buy another My Book, eliminate the RAID and simply clone the entire box to create an mirror back-up (which can be left on-line or tuned off to reduce likelihood of failure). Note that the My Book is available at Costco or Staples at about $370 and has a three year warranty. The only remaining issue is how accurately the Slimserver software will deal with the wav files I have created. My experiments turned up as many problems using iTunes and with WMP11 (and with WMP11 I have better control of the album art). I think I can straighten out any slimserver issue over time, but for the most part it is reasonably accurate in recognizing the files and posting the art. Given the simplicity of the storage (no tag edits, wav files, etc.) I also believe that if a better interface or more refined version of Slimserver become available my files will remain easy to use. I welcome others' opinions and experience. I would like to start some discussion among Slim users who want simple but high audio quality solutions. (P.S. - music played through SB3, Musical Fidelity X-DAC, Audible Illusions Modulus 3A, Quicksilver V4s and ProAc 2.5 clones). -- AlanNJ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AlanNJ's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10040 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35596 _______________________________________________ ripping mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/ripping
