Since Tom mentioned me. On 2013-02-11 8:21 AM, Tom Fine wrote: > > 1. dbPowerAmp is a good, reliable, fast ripper. I suggest rip to FLAC > because it includes tag info like MP3 and works in all the higher-end > streaming players (and my lower-end but awesome Logitech Squeezebox > Touch, from which I feed SPDIF to my Benchmark DAC/Pre in the living > room). If you want to go all-Apple, then use iTunes but rip to Apple > Lossless Format (Apple continues to stubbornly refuse to support FLAC > in their iTunes/iPod stuff). dbPowerAmp is also a many-format > converter/transcoder. It uses AccurateRip technology, so non-obscure > CDs can be ripped with some quality assurance. My ~500 CD rip this past summer (inluding the MLP, RCALS, and Decca boxes) done by my long-suffering son, Robert, used Exact Audio Copy in FLAC. I understand foobar2000 also rips to FLAC. My friend Don Ososke uses it. > 2. I really like foobar2000 as a player, at least for Windows. The > more I use this, the more confident I am that it's not mangling the > bits. Its interface is not quite on par with iTunes, but it's pretty > damn good. Agreed > 3. once you've gone through the effort of doing all that ripping -- > KEEP YOUR HARD DRIVE BACKED UP, MULTIPLE TIMES. A single-unit RAID > won't do it, in my opinion. I recommend external backups, and if you > get really serious you'll want off-site external backup. Richard Hess > has much information and many opinions from hard learned lessons on > this topic. They were not hard-learned. They were up-front analyses to avoid having any hard-learned lessons. Please see: http://richardhess.com/notes/category/computer-data/data-storage/ The current top article is most of the story. My current philosophy is three copies in three locations, two of them RAID-5, one sealed-in-steel standalone 2.5" USB 3.0 HDDs. > Oh, also ... > > 4. DON'T TOSS YOUR CDS. Keep them organized and safe. When it comes to > computers and hard drives , you never know ... And, more importantly, those CDs are your "licence" to have the music on your servers...and you don't want a parrot, eyepatch, hook, or have to say "ARRRRRGH Matey" all the time. Cheers, Richard -- Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800 http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.