I've ripped (digitized) over 550 of my CDs using a couple applications. One is dBPoweramp, a commercial product about $68, but I've been impressed with free:ac - a free open-source project that does the same thing. These will rip the CDs and fill in all the meta-data (artist, album, covers, etc). I use the FLAC format (recommended), a compressed but lossless format so all the original quality is preserved. All you need is a CD player (a USB one is $25 on Amazon) and an app to rip the CDs. So now you have 1000+ folders each with an album - how to play these? Depends what system you have and where you want to play. I use a free media manager call Jellyfin (also free) which does the visual database and allows me to play the albums or a custom playlist on my Denon receiver using DLNA from my phone or tablet. Kodi is another popular media manager. Or play using VLC - free media player.

Try the free:ac ripper on a CD and see what you think. Be sure to backup your music collection once you've digitized it! Whatever you do save your music in a lossless format, clearly that's important to you. MP3's are good for the phone or a small speaker, not for audio quality. It's a slog putting in all the CDs in but a one time project.

Finally (!) you probably want to research more on an audio focused forum like this one below. If you still want a one-stop-shop solution like the Brennan might see what others like there.

Networking, Media Servers & Content Streaming

badabing2- Thanks for all the helpful input, which I will investigate. The only point of clarification is that the Brennan gives the option of ripping to a FLAC format, and I thought that was supposed to be loss-less...?

Correct- caught my error and edited my post. Yes, FLAC is lossless and what you want to use. My response was more of a DIY solution.

badabing-

I'm open to investigating, and to DIY, so thanks. I'm a little new to this, so just wanted to make sure I understood the terminology.

I'm a long time music fan and started into this process over 15 years ago. I'd split your journey into two steps -

1) How to rip your CDs

2) How to play the ripped music.

For 1) - There have been a number of auto-ripping boxes over the years. They save a few steps compared to feeding CDs into a PC's internal or connected optical drive to do ripping. In theory they're not faster and this box appears to be slower. Ripping speed depends on the drive's speed, the microprocessor's speed, and the condition of the CD itself - those with any scratches are more of a challenge, and the worse the scratches, the bigger the problem. I ripped mine on a PC, feeding in CDs while using the PC. It takes time.

FLAC is appropriate if your world is PC-Windows. Otherwise, you want to use Apple Lossless, also called ALAC. They're equivalent but different. All capable ripping software can produce either and if you have a bunch of one kind of file that you want to convert to the other, many programs (like freeware Foobar) can do that very quickly. Keep in mind that a CD is a compromised sound source to begin with so using any lossy file form of lesser quality like MP3 or AAC, Apple's equivalent, will produce a sound file of poor quality. The difference is file size - A FLAC of a, say, 600 MB CD will be about 300 MB but will be of exactly the same quality and will be reconstituted when played to be identical. An MP3 of the same CD might be as small as 50-75 MB but the detail of the music is lost through lossy sampling when the file is created and can't be retrieved.

2) Depending on the size of your home, I think the best system available today is Sonos. Your music will reside on your PC (or an external drive) and the Sonos software serves it up when commanded by an app (both Android and Apple) or using a web interface. For Sonos, there are stand alone speakers, and also (more useful for people with existing stereo systems) a component named Sonos Connect, which is the component that captures the music you select from Sonos software on the PC that's sent over your home Wifi. It then acts as the sound source for a stereo receiver or other sound system,. It's connected as if it were a CD player, or a tuner, or any other source.

As you rip your music, remember to back it up as you go. No matter what work flow you use, it takes awhile and you don't want to lose what you've done and have to start over.

For organization, you rely on two things - accurate metadata (the tags containing Title, Artist, Album, Genre, etc) and the folder structure you use. Whether your folder tree is by year at the top, or by music type at the top, or by source, or alpha by artist, how you set it up will determine how easy it is to find albums and to add new albums to an existing collection. The tags are needed because most of the sound players, Sonos included, use the tags to apply their own organization system to the collection as you see it. Other choices do the same and allow you to select the criteria for listing. Like sorting a big speadsheet and choosing which columns are given priority for the listing and in which order the lines are to be sorted by.

No ripper and no metadata source is everything it ought to be. Tags invariably need to be edited as CDs are ripped no matter what source is used for them by the ripper software. I've used mostly EAC, an equivalent to dBPoweramp but free.

My collection is about 20K FLAC files and they're just under 425 GB. I've also purchased and downloaded 10 or so higher than CD quality albums in FLAC form for the ones I like the very, very best (HD Tracks is the site). I also have a few thousand MP3s accumulated ages ago and not worth getting better copies of, all of it fits on a 500GB drive. It took a long time to rip them and so I have 5 backup copies, including one in a bank safe deposit box. Yes, I take my collection seriously.

I have a subset of my music collection in my cars so I can listen wherever I go. Two of my cars play FLAC files but don't use the same format storage media. For one, I have a 256GB thumb drive, and for the other FLAC playing car it's two 128 GB SD cards. For a third car that plays MP3 and Ogg files only and only on smaller cards, I have 3 32GB SD cards. I produce the MP3 versions from my FLAC masters and don't keep them, writing them directly to the storage media for the car as the files are produced

Post back or message me if you have questions I can help with.

Elmer-

Thanks. That's a lot to digest, but very clearly presented. I have a couple of questions, but it's late so I'll ask them tomorrow. 😁

I like this discussion, as I have many issues yet to be completely resolved. Even though I'm a Windows user, I initially started out with iTunes. I've used many of the other apps mentioned, but iTunes seem to be the most consistently reliable, regarding tags. Elmer says "(the tags containing Title, Artist, Album, Genre, etc)", and most apps use these as the preferred tags, which are fine for popular music but are totally inadequate for Classical, where usually the Composer is the most important.

A program I've discovered for playing and organizing is MusicBee. Not only does it allow you to easily organize your files, it also allows conversion between formats which save the tags, editing the tags, sorting by whatever tag you want, etc. For very high quality (meaning better than CD), I've discovered a service called NativeDSD, which sells downloads at very high quality in DSD format (the lowest quality of which is what SACDs use). Many players can't play DSD files, but MusicBee can play them (and convert them to FLAC for use in other players).

No matter what software I use to rip the original CDs, the files all need their tags edited, but iTunes seems to get them right most often (for Classical, that is!).

One of the tags all systems seem to create is Date, but are ambiguous as to what date that is - in my opinion, it should be the performance date, but often the date which appears is the copyright date for the CD.

@kudzu9 - Are you connecting to a stereo system (DLNA device)? Or just playing music locally to connected speakers? The Brennen seems to be Bluetooth or direct connect oriented - at least it's unclear if DLNA is supported (though being a Raspberry Pi it should support DLNA). The 'solution' depends on what you want to do. More than 2 speakers?

I wouldn't look at that Brennen device as anything more than a ripping machine. It's easy enough to move the resulting audio files to a PC to manipulate, organize, and then stream using any one of a number of means.

DLNA is a dinosaur on its way out. There are many more modern approaches, including AirPlay (newer but also perhaps on its way out), but I still would recommend Sonos for its robust ecosystem, flexibility and ease of use. I've set up Sonos systems for two friends who are technologically challenged. It couldn't have been easier and both are very pleased and very comfortable using the flexibility their Sonos equipment offers. Both added more speakers at a later date and were able to do it themselves.

I myself use equipment produced by a now defunct company that originated the concept of streaming music over a home wifi system that Sonos was formed to compete with. It's called the Squeezebox system, developed by Slim Devices, sold to Logitech, and then discontinued about 8 years ago. It offered native FLAC support from Day 1 while Sonos didn't for its first many years. Used equipment is still available (which I bought to equip a second home purchased a few years ago) and because the memory resident software was always in the public domain, an enthusiastic group of software geeks continues to produce new and improved versions. I don't recommend it for casual users, comparing using Squeezebox software to Sonos software is like comparing a Windows PC to a Mac. In the former in both cases, there's lots of flexibility to configure as one prefers but there's a learning curve to figure out how. In the latter case, everything is done pretty automatically for the user. Sonos is simple to set up and use, and to add new equipment to. It configures itself.

dBpoweramp CD Ripper has good reviews and appears to be able to transfer the track names and even the cover art. Files could be stored on a Network Attached Storage device (example: Synology DiskStation DS220j) and from which they would be retrieved and played (including from a Sonos system). At three CDs/day, it would only take you a year to rip them all!

Thanks for all the adult education everyone...I guess I'll be studying for the next couple of days ;-).

A few more details to see if there are any further thoughts. My total sound system consists of:

1) Living room where all the CDs live, and where I have a receiver, my CD changer, and a pair of old, but high quality, wired speakers set up.

2) Dining room with another receiver, another CD changer, and another pair of wired speakers. When we want music during dinner or when friends are over, I go grab some CDs from the living room and load them into the changer.

3) We also have Amazon Echo devices in both rooms to play music I don't actually have in my library.

Right now I have no wireless speakers. I am curious about Sonos systems, and would like like to know more about hooking them up, One receiver is a 25 year old Harmon Kardon (still going strong), and the other is an Onkyo that is about 8 years old. Would there be any issues with hooking up inputs to either of these receivers, especially the old one?

I don't have any experience with Sonos except for using my friend's, but he has one Sonos device connected to his conventional receiver and wired speakers, and, in another room, another self-contained Sonos amp with Sonos speakers. When streaming music from one of the various music services, it plays on both systems (or at least can), but when he plays music using his receiver (CDs, vinyl, radio), it only plays on that system. Elmer can probably give better advice.

Sonos are excellent Bluetooth speakers but the gotcha with Bluetooth speakers is they need to be plugged in. I just bought a small portable Sonos Roam and it's a great little speaker. Recommended.

Wireless (Bluetooth)

Brennen or DIY and get Bluetooth adapters for the existing speakers (these need power) and Bluetooth transmitter for receivers. Or new Bluetooth speakers. One person here wanted one to be able to control multiple Bluetooth streams independently (headphone, speaker) and got the Oasis transmitter and was happy with that.

Wired

Brennen or DIY solution on your PC, music library on USB disk, and run wires from PC to speakers.

An update - Sonos has a new designation for what used to be called a Sonos Connect. It's now called Sonos Port. I would not hesitate to buy either used, as from ebay. They're solid state devices with no moving parts and should last a good while.

To your questions -

A Sonos Connect or Port is a small box that receives (and can send) signals within the Sonos wireless system, over Wifi. You can connect a Connect (or Port) to a any receiver, preamp, powered speakers, or whatever, that has sockets for Audio In using analog RCA cables. I mentioned above, your receiver or other recipient component won't care whether what's connected with analog cables is sound from a tuner, a CD player, a TV audio signal, or a Sonos Connect. All are the same, an unamplified (line level) stereo (left and right) audio signal.

When you have more than one Sonos recipient device whether a Sonos speaker, two speakers, a Connect, or whatever, you can send all of them exactly the same signal from the Sonos PC resident software (whether it's Pandora or another streaming source, your ripped music, input connected to a connect (like a record player or TV audio) or whatever. Or, you can send each one a different signal source . You can mix and match and change it every time you turn it on, the connection is electronic and digital, not hardwired.

If using your existing receivers, each one would have its own Connect (or Port) connected to it.

As I said, Sonos is controlled by an app or through a browser running on a PC or any other Wifi connected device.

Elmer-

Thanks again. You should write a book on this subject :-)

So add $449 for a Sonos Connect just to be able to use Bluetooth? And you'd need two - one for each receiver. And it's a proprietary network. I like Sonos but seems like a big detour ($$$) to the question of a digital jukebox.

He's got over 1000 CDs. Take the effort and cost of those (surely >$10,000 retail or more if purchased new as most do) plus several sets of equipment as indications of the importance to him. For me, it's the same but with more CDs and more expensive equipment.

Yes, Sonos is proprietary. Just as any commercial product is. It's also the de facto standard these days. I mentioned Ebay and buying used - while new Connects (Ports) are about $400, used ones can be found for sale for $200 or less. He has two receivers and so needs two Connects - used, $400 in total or a bit less. The Sonos software is free to download, no charge. That's a cheap solution to have a system considered to be the best of its type.

Badabing, Sonos speakers are not designed to be Bluetooth speakers. They're intended to receive the music signal over Wifi, which is far more robust and has greater bandwidth and flexibility than Bluetooth. Do you have any familiarity with Sonos products, their use and how they work? It seems not.

You worry about having the better quality FLAC files but then, in a contradiction, you play music over battery powered bluetooth speakers? Sorry, that doesn't make sense to me.

"Elmer-

Thanks again. You should write a book on this subject :-)"

I think I just did. Or, at least the Introduction. Sorry, succinctness isn't something I'm good at.

There's a lot of misinformation, misunderstanding, and the like floating around. Do your own poking around. Some home audio installation services will answer brief questions for those who call and ask politely. You'll find many recommend and use Sonos equipment. It isn't because of their price points, it's because of the quality of their equipment and the flexibility and ease of use.

@badabing2: "Sonos are excellent Bluetooth speakers", "So add $449 for a Sonos Connect just to be able to use Bluetooth?"

With the exception of its two portable speakers, Sonos does not support Bluetooth; its speakers and soundbars are connected over Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

"dBpoweramp CD Ripper has good reviews and appears to be able to transfer the track names and even the cover art."

Free EAC does exactly the same thing. Track names are a small part of the metadata, there's much more that's important/useful to have when ripping CDs.

As I said before, it's ultimately a partially hand's on operation in any event because the online databases that are used for metadata references are inaccurate and sometimes inconsistent.

One issue is that some ripping products go out to the internet to get the metadata and, if it can't be found, you get track names such as "Track_01". So I find it's essential to get a product with which it's easy to edit the tags with the information you have on the CD jewel box. Frequently, the tags from the internet are wrong.

It's true that no matter what tag database is used, the supplied information can have problems. Not usually with the big name, blockbuster mainstream albums - which for me I might cite Sgt Pepper's, Hotel California, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and similar others - but rather the ones where the name is ambiguous, there are multiple different albums with the same name, or the album is a bit more obscure and less known. But sometimes even with well known, popular ones.

There is a freeware program - contributions welcome at the downloaders option - called MP3tag. The name is misleading, it can edit and change tags for all types of sound files.

MP3tag will access databases MusicBrainz and Discogs for tag info, album art, or both, at the user's choice. It's easy to use.

As I said before, tag editing is essential and quite often becomes a manual rather than automatic exercise. Other than the auto ripping devices which themselves can be kludgy with sometimes undesired compromises, I know of no shortcuts. I was able to do it over a long period of time as a side effort when working on PCs. Sometimes feeding in CDs one after another while doing other things, then going back a week later to edit tags. I've always used a separate folder for each album and have them as branches off of a higher level that is by artist. For classical music, I have it organized by composer, then by artist or orchestra or conductor, then by album

It's worth the effort to clean up your metadata, you'll have your music everywhere you want it and with easy and swift access to everything you have. There's another corollary programs I use to make random playlists, or genre-flavored playlists or theme playlists, for focused variety. That's a topic for another thread.

A related, but reverse question: All the music I have purchased recently has been downloaded. What software do you recommend to write a CD with that that data such that it will play in a regular CD player (yes, I do have some of them, one in my car which doesn't have a USB port).

"What software do you recommend to write a CD with that that data such that it will play in a regular CD player"

You can burn a CD using Windows File Exporer or Windows Media Player. Instructions.

I tried that once, but it ended up as a data CD, not a music CD, and wouldn't play on my CD player; it would, of course, play on my computer. Has that issue been solved?

Try the Media Player instructions and use the Burn Options = "Audio CD" (step 4).

Windows Media Player will for sure produce audio CDs

Probably because I'm into the detail too much, on the rare occasions when I want to do this, I convert my sound files to WAV format first. I prepare a new folder as a workspace to do this. Then you can burn the music to a CD. Remember in WAV format, you're limited to about 60 minutes of content.

Some CD players (whether in a car or on dry land) can play MP3 files. If so, a straight across "copy" operation of the files should work.

Another approach is to copy the music files to your phone and then use the Bluetooth connection or an AUX cord to connect to the car's audio system.

Since most of my files originated as CDs which I still own, I haven't tried this. The few I downloaded I copied to a flash drive. Your last paragraph poses an interesting problem: the one car which doesn't have a USB port also doesn't have Bluetooth (it does have a CD player), and, in its great wisdom, Apple removed the audio port from their iPhones. I do have an adapter, but it isn't normally with me.

Two alternatives then:

Buy a SanDisk MP3 player for ~$30. If the 8 GB size isn't large enough (remember to load only MP3 or AAC files), you can supplement the memory with a mini-SD card. Copy your music files to the player and to the SD card. A lot of capability packed into a small package. Use it with the AUX socket in the car with a double ended cable with 3.5mm plugs on each side. I use such players with audio books when exercising or connected to the car when driving, it's very convenient.

or

Use an old smartphone. Remember, an unconnected smartphone is like what used to be called a PDA. Connect it via a USB cord (or even Bluetooth) to a PC to transfer audio files. Then connect it using the headphone socket (presuming you have an old one that has this) to the AUX input the car has