Get a large-capacity iPod and an iPod dock for your home sound system. I use a Belkin dock, but there are others available from Apple, and from some of the home electronics companies. Some of these have remotes to control the iPod, some or all allow video playback if your system is also a home theater system. iTunes is an excellent way to convert CDs, IMO.

There are some really 'fun' and simple ways to convert your
music from CD format to hard drives.

The way I would do this is

AA. Find the best absolutely no cost limit what you can
imagine without regard to the time it takes and image
absolutly what you want.

BB. Consider the absolute minimim .. totally at the edge of
giving up on the idea and nearly not doing it.. level of
minimal work ..

CC. Decide where you lie between those limits.

That's a part of the puzzle.

One facet from each of us will describe a part of the
'diamond' of idea we all have. They're all different
diamond like ideas.

Music is easy to play on a computer without loading the
computer down. The basics of lots of music at your command
for free using Winamp or VLC as the player and free
software to convert CD's to hard drive audio is simple.

A CD copy shop might do the entire job of 200 CDs for $200
or less. I had a shop once and I would do the job for that
price.

What woudl happen is all of your CD's would be loaded
by hand or machine so the computer can read them and
copy their data, music, to the hard drive. Each hard drive
can be huge or small. It can be a portable, push into a
carrier, where it can be hidden, or locked. These are
common $14 items and each hard drive can be slid into the
computer from the outside.

Each HD can have separate music or one hard drive can have
all of your music. At this point you have music
available.

Now playing it is as simple as choosing which albums or
which tracks or if you want to make or download, for free,
your own playlists which run , for free on Winamp or VLC.

Those players will play a playlist of your music or they
will simply play whatever you have on the har drive and
they'll play it in any order , all day and night or
at various volumes, But the basics is that it's simple
and you'll have all your music right at your fingertips
with no cost except the computer and some help from
your own questions or a professional.

copying CD's to hard drive is dumb simple. For $200 you
can buy an automatic disc loader for CD copying and let
it run for you and then sell it when you're done. Or
you can pop in a CD every few minutes and do it yourself
by hand. Or pay a CD copy company to do it for you.
They have the auto loading device. It can run at night
and the entire job might be done in the morning and
your hard drive(s) will have all of your music ready to
play.

The basics are the same no matter if you use an ipod, a
computer, or a cell phone. The limits are how closly
are you wanting to be involved with the technology.

Personally I would want it to play, quietly ni the
background without me knowing it was there.

Other people get 'ready' to rock and can't wait to program
the tracks and make a date of it.

This behavior pattern is the 'high and low' of the
experience you want to experience back at AA, BB, and CC.

Let us know a bit more about you, where you live (big city or not) And what you plan to do with your music.. what
does it mean to you? IF it's simply about protecting
your investment then an external USB hard drive is the
easiest way to handle it but it's also and easy way to
break it. Note: You'll want to have at least 1 backup
of all of your work.

So that means 2 hard drives, full, of music. Not at all
expensive or hard to do. But you have to back up.

You will need a plan and a good plan because it's a big
project , unless someone does it for you, and you don't
want to live through it more than one time I'm pretty
sure.

Good luck. I'll look back on you.
Andre