Hey Gang, I need some help and guidance.

[Worf101]

I'd like to do the following and I hope you folks can tell me the smartest way to go.

1. I want go transfer my CD's to some external drive that can be accessed by my main HT rig in the living room. This rig consists of:

Onkyo 905 Receiver
Oppo Blu Ray
Samsung 52-inch LCD
Various speakers.

2. When I "rip" this music I want to get the best quality sound I can. I'd even sacrifice size (Wav files) for fidelity and use a larger Harddrive.

3. I don't want to build a complete second HT rig, I need this just for music.

4. The interface/software has to be "simple", so simple puddin' can use it.

5. Would a dedicated wifi connection to either the Onkyo or the Oppo from my main puter rig upstairs do the job?

I'm really just interested in getting all those damn CD's out of the living room and any simple, yet effective suggestions would be appreciated.

Worf

[02audionoob]

This challenge seems to be what the Squeezebox is all about.

http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/how-it-works/overview.html

[Feanor]

I'd like to do the following and I hope you folks can tell me the smartest way to go.

1. I want go transfer my CD's to some external drive that can be accessed by my main HT rig in the living room. This rig consists of:

Onkyo 905 Receiver
Oppo Blu Ray
Samsung 52-inch LCD
Various speakers.

2. When I "rip" this music I want to get the best quality sound I can. I'd even sacrifice size (Wav files) for fidelity and use a larger Harddrive.

3. I don't want to build a complete second HT rig, I need this just for music.

4. The interface/software has to be "simple", so simple puddin' can use it.

5. Would a dedicated wifi connection to either the Onkyo or the Oppo from my main puter rig upstairs do the job?

I'm really just interested in getting all those damn CD's out of the living room and any simple, yet effective suggestions would be appreciated.

Worf
It's hard to beat the Squeezebox; (I don't have one myself but sounds like a really excellent option). The other option is "DLNA" which is a protocol that is being built into some Blu-ray players and probably receivers these days -- I don't know about the Oppo or Onkyo specifically -- if you have it, it is definitely an alternative to Squeezebox; it also handles video and static pictures in various formats. Read up on DLNA and devices that support it HERE (http://www.dlna.org/home). You can buy separate player, such as THIS (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735) from Western Digital, (seems to me to be one of the best based on specs).

With either SqueezeBox or a DLNA device you will need a music/media server, basically any compter with respectively Squeeze Centre or DLNA server software such as WMP.

I recommend you rip your CDs to FLAC, a lossless format that saves about half hard disk spaces vs. WAV. Some people claim they can hear differences between FLAC and WAV -- but you know how it is about people hearing differences; I personnally don't hear any difference. The software I recommend for highly accurate ripping is dBpoweramp, (here (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/)), especially the $46 'Reference' version. EAC is the other, free alternative but it is much less slick.

[blackraven]

You need this Apple Airport Extreme and a couple of trra byte hard drives. It works great!

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC340LL/A/AirPort-Extreme?fnode=MTY1NDEyMQ&mco=MTM0MjcwNjY&s=topSellers

[winston]

Hey Guys", this seems like the right Thread to ask http://www.roxio.com the Roxio Creator 2010 ?? it seems like a nice little one stop for Audio,Video & photo etc.

Feanor I like the dbpoweramp thinghey that you recommend for the most accurate Ripping" but it seems to be Audio only...right!!

all that been said, my question would be Should i buy the dbpoweramp for ripping my Cd's to X hard drive and use windows for the other stuff, or would the Roxio platform do the job

[Feanor]

Hey Guys", this seems like the right Thread to ask http://www.roxio.com the Roxio Creator 2010 ?? it seems like a nice little one stop for Audio,Video & photo etc.

Feanor I like the dbpoweramp thinghey that you recommend for the most accurate Ripping" but it seems to be Audio only...right!!

all that been said, my question would be Should i buy the dbpoweramp for ripping my Cd's to X hard drive and use windows for the other stuff, or would the Roxio platform do the job
Yes, dBpoweramp is audio only. Buy it for audio; use whatever else for whatever else.

[Hyfi]

I just have a PC running wireless to my office sitting behind my HT setup and use my 42" tv as the monitor, and also have the PC outs going into the HT receiver so I can just surf my network for movies and music and play it through the TV or the stereo. I'm using a 2TB network Mybook for the storage.

[BallinWithNash]

Ok I actually have done the same thing myself!! This is the cheapest way to go. (I have a laptop that I just have permanently hooked up not always on but permanently hooked up to my HT). I went out and bought a external terrabyte hard drive then used iTunes wav ripping software to organize/rip all my files unless the CD skipped then I used Exact Audio Copy (best ripping software ever period). (I wouldn't recommend using FLAC it is not supported by many players/software out there so if you ever want to do more with your music I would stick with WAV) I bought a M-Audio Transit external sound card and with all of them together the music sounds very good not as good as a CD but pretty close. I have a marantz 2240 as my main receiver so if I can do it you can do it haha. You can actually configure Exact Audio Copy to put your files into iTunes and iTunes will organize them, I am great with computers which is why I went this route haha. I have wireless/wired (I use wired cause it is faster) so when I turn it all on I can watch movies streaming from netflix on my TV because of my laptop and play all my music from my laptop via sitting on the couch with a wireless keyboard and mouse plus I configured my iPod to control iTunes as well. If you need any help on setting things up just let me know and I can help you!
Hope this helps!!