Mac Mini M4 and ROON Can REVIVE Your Music Library

[@VintageStereoCollectorChannel]

Thanks for making this vid! I run my Mac Mini M1 headless and use a 2013 iMac to access it and update the FLAC files I’ve ripped to a 1 TB SSD. I’ve ripped over 500 CDs so far. It takes time but so does cleaning LPs. I’m not sure what DAC you are using but you could see if your old CD player has a digital out and connect via coaxial to your DAC. I use an Audiolab 6000 CD transport to my DAC. I also have an Oppo BDP-105 BlueRay player for CDs & SACDs. I dabble in LPs, CDs, SACDs, Roon, Roon ARC, Tidal, Qobuz, cassettes, tuners etc. Roon with Apple 4K TV is great with the Roon TV Remote app on screen and Airplay 2 with CD quality streaming. Roon opens up a whole new world to music and information. Thanks again for posting 👍👍

[@marcusnz232]

I’ve got a lifetime subscription to Roon. It’s excellent. I run it in Roon’s own Nucleus unit, mainly with Qobuz through my Linn streaming system.

[@richardstang6515]

ALAC - Apple Lossless Audio Codec is equivalent to FLAC, so set this as the default in Apple Music or iTunes to rip/transfer CD to HDD. Roon is ALAC compatible. FYI, I agree with your value statements about Roon. My system is also Mac Mini as a music jukebox front ended with Roon core w/Qobuz. This allows me to listen to my local CD transfers as well as any hi-def music (ALAC purchased from HDTracks or Qobuz) and any newly discovered music streamed from Qobuz and enhanced by Roon's database (album info and lyrics). Note, I this setup is extremely flexible as the Roon core server can stream to multiple zones. In my setup, it serves my main hi-end listening system as well as two other Wiim zones (Wiim Amp and Wiim streamer+amp).

[@thejasontlewis]

Getting away from Apple Music/iTunes is more about getting away from that program, not necessarily the file format. I've always found it clunky and lacking features. The back end settings haven't changed in almost 20 years.

[@richardstang6515]

@@thejasontlewis Agreed. All of my music was ripped to a Mac Mini and I used the phone remote to play music through my system. I've since discovered Roon+Qobuz and find the experience much more enjoyable.

[@emmgeevideo]

I'm a 71 year-old Roon enthusiast (I use Tidal as my music source). I use an older Intel NUC that I took apart and put in a custom chassis that doesn't require a fan for my Roon server. I could not be happier with it. I went through all the stages you referenced. I ripped all the CDs I owned (I gave up on vinyl in the 80s) and have used several music players at home and in my car. I consider those lost years because there was no great way to use your own records until Roon IMHO. I would NOT go back. Never, never, never. Back in the days when digital music meant CDs in some kind of CD organizer, I rarely listened to a cross-section of the music I owned. It was too much of a hassle if you had, like me, lots of CDs. Discovering new music sucked. I hated buying an album when I heard one song I liked and the majority of the other songs were filler. Yeah, when I was a teenager we looked at liner notes and traded albums and all that social stuff. But as an adult with kids, it never happened. Most of what you said about that was gauzy baloney. It's Christmas season as I write this. I thoroughly enjoyed letting Roon be my guide for Christmas music. I listed to old style songs by Bing Crosby and classical and James Taylor's Christmas album (which I own) and Charlie Brown Christmas and new releases by all kinds of people. I remember thinking just days ago, "This is so much better than it used to be." I can't comment on how streaming has changed the economics of the music business and how it has or hasn't helped/hurt the emergence of new talent, etc. From a purely selfish point of view using Roon as a way to play my old records, acquire new records (e.g., Mark Knopfler's latest), and discover new music is beyond terrific. BTW, there is absolutely nothing preventing you with Tidal (which you said you didn't like but didn't say why) from acquiring COMPLETE albums and listening to them as many times as you like, just like the old days. And Roon has liner notes! To you I say, metaphoricallly -- you have a horse and I hope you continue to enjoy riding it with your new Roon "stable". I'm happy with the modern world.

[@lamaludwig1470]

Thanks for your comment. One question: If Tidal is your source, which added value brings Roon? That's something I don't get.

[@emmgeevideo]

@ First of all, I simply like the user interface. I've tried using Tidal, Spotify, and Apple Music by themselves and have never felt they were as natural as Roon. Since I don't use Tidal directly, I can't say if it's better than it used to be in that sense or if the Roon functions I like also exist in native Tidal. I have three music systems in my house and Roon lets me switch between them easily. My wife uses Roon too and she has her own "persona" separate from me. The Roon app is on Mac, iPhone, and iPad and has the same look and feel on all three. What I really like is this: Let's say you play a Bonnie Raitt album. Once it's over, Roon starts a music stream that has similar songs by other artists. That's a nice feature if you're doing something and can't pick up the app to select another album. It's also a music discovery feature.

[@lamaludwig1470]

@@emmgeevideo Thanks for the answer, I appreciate that very much! Cheers and keep enjoying music.

[@superhoops73]

I also run a Roon core but tend to use PlexAmp outside of the house. It’s well worth running Plex in parallel to Roon and both can share the same library. In my experience Roon Arc can be a bit flaky, Plex has been more reliable that Arc for me. It’s also worth noting that PlexAmp has a few AI smart playlist type features not yet possible in Arc. Roon Arc on the other hand offers Opra which is customised headphone EQ curves for a wide variety of brands. Both products have a ton of features and both are well worth the time to explore for music lovers.

[@johnwade7430]

As a kid, a favourite pastime amongst kids my age was to make you own compendium of songs and put them onto a C90 or C120 cassette tape - lots of fun. Your David Bowie Tape would have your own concept of Greatest Hits - BUT, it was your definition of what were Bowie’s Greatest Hits. Also, you forgot to mention Sony Mini-disks. Amazing piece of equipment - I even had a Sony MD4 which was my introduction to multi-track recording. I even got to use the 8 track version - it was amazing.

[@ccroy2001]

I have a smaller collection so it all lives locally on my laptops, phones, tablets and a usb drive in my car, + Google Drive as a backup. Besides digitizing my physical media I've been buying digital albums b/c to me the joy of buying an album is the songs I wouldn't hear if I relied on streaming. I use Bandcamp, 7digital, HD tracks, and if I still had any Apple products iTunes/Apple Music. If didn't buy albums I wouldn't have found El Senor, Tom Waits for no one", Red Light, etc. If you know what I mean ;-)

[@tomf1dublin1]

Apple should have acquired Roon a long time ago .

[@Bigtompi34]

I actually have all my cds ripped on several Hard Drives, I'm talking about like 6K cds. That was like 1.5 years ago. I used Apple ALAC lossless(max audio quality), I actually ripped them back in the early 2000 because at 128 and 192 BPS due to space constraints in that era. If I buy them digitally I buy FLAC High Res and convert them at ALAC High Res because my 2022 Bronco won't play FLAC.

[@Bigtompi34]

Funny story, We changed from Vinyl and cassettes for the convenience of the CD, then the MP3 made the CD "obsolete". Many people got rid of their physical library only to get charged now by the streaming services for the same music that they already had in the 1st place. Now it get's worse since many streaming services are removing many classic music from their library. Jason you mention that you use a portable CD Player, I bought a FII0 DM13 like a month ago and I'm having a blast again listening to my CD collection. I also listed to my records on a regular basis and I still have a very nice Sony Walkman that I bought directly from Japan because I have a very nice cassette collection, originals and recordings that I made until the late 90S, and recently bought new blank cassettes to enjoy my time recording from vinyl to remember my youth.

[@progxdt]

I use Apple Music’s iCloud match feature as it is similar to iTunes Match. As a backup, I have my music library on Plex as well; plus a slow build of a FLAC version of it. Not familiar with Roon, but I could tell I would enjoy it if I didn’t utilize two options already. Plexamp has no problem with AirPlay to HomePod. While you definitely do not get the experience I have seen with Roon, Plex’s music streaming side is pretty straight forward and plays whatever file you upload to your server for access. I’d be interested to see your setup on Roon, but for my setup on Unraid I’d have to use another PC.

[@HoundDogMech]

My M4 & my ASUS windows computer are both Connected to my Vizio 5.1 Soundbar & 2 %" 4K UHDTV. So I have surround sound when available. Many things on U-Tube and most TV Programs are Brodcast in 5.1 Surround today. I can also Mix 5.1 with Davinc Resolve. Dolby Atmos too if I ever get the No how and Equipment.

[@Garythefireman66]

This is definitely a topic I'd like to learn more about

[@thejasontlewis]

I can do that.

[@simbatran]

I have about 5 of those black albums with hundreds of CD’s just like yours. It’s sitting in storage as I don’t have any speakers to connect it to. I owned Sonos so can’t play music from CD’s. However, i do miss listening to those 80’s 90’s, etc CDs.

[@johnwade7430]

Back in the day, I got a job teaching music in Shanghai, China. So i rigged up my (then) computer to my CD player and i ripped my CD’s - about 5o of them at the time. BUT, silly me, I left the controls as is, and … I then found out much later that I’d ripped them down as WMA files - silly boy…. Now I’m using Apple’s AAC as it’s the same as FLAC.

[@CoolBreeze2016]

What of your music collection consists of outtakes, live Bootlegs, studio rehearsals and non commercial released music?

[@thejasontlewis]

There could be metadata out there for some of it, but you might end up with a lot of "untitled track"s in your collection.

[@TheCrisses]

I mostly own my music, ripped all my CDs a long time ago, purchase music from iTunes, and make my own playlists. I'm not sure what's new about this, I did it 20 years ago… i toss playlists on a device or use home sharing to stream my full library within my home…Apple has made it harder, but it's all still possible. So I'm not understanding how a new mac is needed or a new 3rd party app.

[@newfnshow031]

if anyone puts in all this time and effort and work to collect music all to save $10 a month you are def more frugal than I am. Taking this approach also means you'll constantly listen to old stuff and only old stuff. When albums come out you won't be included at all and new albums come out every fri... and to me personally that's a lot of downside to save $10 a month. I spend far more than $10 a week on coffee alone

[@thejasontlewis]

You miss the point, brother. I already have the music. And I still pay for streaming. This is to allow me to get more out of both. What I dislike about streaming is the very surface-level casual experience it forces on you. I spent most of my life studying music. I don't want to just listen to playlists.

[@marcusrose5943]

I get new music CDs from my library and I buy the ones I really want

[@bacarandii]

Overchoice. It's a well-known fact! Too many options can become paralyzing, and the sheer quantity of stuff available tends to devalue and trivialize everything. Music requires focused attention -- unless you just use it as ambient background sound (thanks, Brian Eno!). I briefly subscribed to Qobuz for Hi-Res streaming, but only so I could check out things I'd heard/read about and wanted to sample with the prospect of buying it (you know -- like radio used to be). But I can do that on KZbin, and I don't listen to a lot of new, digitally recorded/processed music anyway, so why pay extra for the option of not streaming millions of things I don't want to listen to? (In that sense, the streaming service model resembles those old-fashioned, bloated cable TV packages from the '80s and '90s, but with music.) I've rebuilt and expanded my LP collection over the last 20 years and have burned thousands of CDs to hard drives (though I've kept a lot of the original discs and cool packaging, too) for playing via Roon through my vintage '70s hi-fi equipment. I'm considering one of the new M4 Mac Minis, just to use as a dedicated Roon server...

[@stonerdaze5276]

I'm not gonna lie at first I was disagreeing with your viewpoint until you explained that this viewpoint pertains to how you consume music.

[@johnwade7430]

The other thing that I dislike about Streamed music is the lack of info; who played what instrument for example…..

[@bacarandii]

That's one of the things I like most about Roon: It provides full credits (musicians, composers, producers, recording dates and locations, etc.), artist bios, lyrics, background articles and reviews (some from Wikipedia and Allmusic, pulled into the Roon interface), artwork, etc. -- all hyperlinked so you can discover more about what you're listening to -- while you're listening to it.

[@CliveMcCabe]

First cd I bought was Jean michel jarre revolutions. Good times

[@andrewshaw4647]

Me too! Just after the Destination Docklands gig. Bought a CD player and that very same CD

[@simbatran]

Please do show Roon and CD rip to ALAC/FLAC on another video. Thanks…

[@TheDanEdwards]

The SuperDrive is no longer for sale from Apple.

[@rorywalters1614]

Yeah, mostly because it doesn’t work properly with Apple Silicon Macs with USBA, like the M1/M2 Mac minis and Mac Studios, the USBA ports can’t supply enough to the SuperDrive for some reason.

[@thejasontlewis]

Yeah, they just discontinued it this year. I forgot. You can probably still find them around, though.

[@thejasontlewis]

I'm actually running mine off an Apple USB=C camera kit adapter and it's working fine.

[@kiwiinkyushu]

@@thejasontlewissame. You have to plug it directly into the Mac, as a hub will not work

[@thejasontlewis]

@@kiwiinkyushu It works plugged into the Apple USB-c camera kit dongle.

[@newfnshow031]

also I'll add that sadly if u plan to listen to anything at all you'll need Bluetooth earbuds that will likely run you $200 and last prob a year if you lucky so deciding to then save $10 a month makes little sense unless you're destitute. But in that case you shouldn't be putting your time effort or energy into trying to save pennies either

[@Mr.KnuckolasCage]

Lol you have such a zoomer outlook. I don't know if you've noticed, but older people generally don't listen to as much newer music. Also there's a thing called a headphone jack, might be before your time but if you are at home you can listen just fine. I don't think it's so much about streaming but more about archiving. Everything is rented these days and not owned. Some people still want to own music not just rent it. I archive music on my server so I can download it into devices I'll be taking out to areas with no cell coverage. I work out in the country a lot and streaming doesn't always work.

[@Vern_Levine]

Earbuds? I do have airpods pro but I also have a Sennheiser hd 800 s & an audio/speaker system that’s physically connected to my mac mini.

[@Mr.KnuckolasCage]

What is a music library? What's a CD? 🤣 Jk but that's what a Gen z prob thinks... I however remember when music was more magical you went to the store, bought a CD and read the booklet and treasured it now music is becoming disposable. Don't let these kids piss on your parade i salute you for archiving.

[@centermass4552]

If you stream is, you dont own it. Love live physical media. And yeah, rip your stuff. Rip your CDs, DVDs, and Blu rays. Run a media server and done. I run Plex and Plexamp and they work great for me but run what you like. And for those feeling the FOMO of new music, heres a secret, they still make CDs. All (well, most...) of the new albums that hit Apple Music and Spotify come out on CD. Spend $10 on a physical disc instead of money to a streamer and you own it forever.

[@cassio2999]

you talk to much and you don't really say anything STOP wasting peoples time

[@thejasontlewis]

Thanks for the tips.

[@21Million]

Costs way too much. Nope.

[@johnwade7430]

The other thing that I dislike about Streamed music is the lack of info; who played what instrument for example…..