NOT DEAD YET! CD ripping AND playback w/ AURALIC

Camera: Olaf von Voss | Editor: John Darko | Motion GFX: John Darko
PATREON: / johndarko
Back story:
darko.audio/20...
NOT DEAD YET: CD playback w/ Hegel, PS Audio and Pro-Ject:
• NOT DEAD YET: CD playb...
AURALiC Altair G1 (€2399):
darko.audio/20...
AURALiC Firmware 7.x and CD playing/ripping notes:
community.aura...
AURALiC products that support CD playing/ripping:
ARIES G1 and G2
ARIES Femto & LE
ALTAIR G1
ALTAIR
POLARIS
NOLYTH CD/DVD USB 3.0 drive (€25):
www.amazon.co....
_________________________________________________________________
CDs featured in this video...
Andrew Weatherall - Masterpiece
www.discogs.co...
Robag Wruhme - Olgamikks:
www.discogs.co...
The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight (Glass Fish):
www.discogs.co...
Built to Spill - Live:
www.discogs.co...
Grandaddy - Last Place:
www.discogs.co...
Matthew Sweet - Altered Beast:
www.discogs.co...
Television - Marquee Moon:
www.discogs.co...
Spiritualized - Medication EP:
www.discogs.co...
Youth Group - Skeleton Jar:
www.discogs.co...
Daft Punk - Homework:
www.discogs.co...
_________________________________________________________________
Also seen in this video:
MP3TAG:
www.mp3tag.de/
Rosson RAD-0:
www.rossonaudi...
Roon Nucleus:
roonlabs.com/n...
Hifi Racks Podium XL:
www.hifiracks....
All cables by AudioQuest:
www.audioquest...
Why are comments turned OFF?
darko.audio/20...
#cds #audiophile #auralic
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• What the bloody hell a...
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/ johnhdarko
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Darko.Audio is a web magazine covering new and exciting developments in the audio world and we aren’t afraid of indie rock or techno.
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[@arthurwatts1680]

I maintain just one CD, and I never ever play it. Fans of the movie Inception will recall that we all need a totem to ensure that we arent living in an alternative universe, and that Nickelback CD is mine. I have no memory of how it came into my possession, and I have entire days where I cant remember where I left it but its always there. I have zero Nickelback in my music collection or on my Spotify playlists - its my spinning top and nothing more.

[@DarkoAudio]

Comment of the year! :)

[@cool3rking]

Can I borrow it?

[@lamecasuelas2]

Something very similar happened to me (twice) with a DVD of the movie Roadhouse and also with Lock Stock and two smoking barrells. I have never seen It and It doesn't even sit with my collection, how did i get that? I'll never know

[@NicB-Creations]

@@lamecasuelas2 I usually have the opposite, CD's that I've had for 2 decades suddenly disappearing from my collection without having touched them in recent memory.

[@howiecourt3445]

@Jeet Singh Now *this* is comment of the year :)

[@johnfire3194]

CD: pay once, own forever STREAM: own never, pay forever

[@Clonefall]

You should also add - CD: store forever and fight about it with your significant other because they, "sit there and you never listen to them."

[@johnfire3194]

@@Clonefall if that happened, I'd Start playing them, so loud that I'd drown her out. Or i would point out that she just sits there and i never listen to her! 😁

[@TheRailroad99]

Correction: own until bit rot comes. So own around 30 years. Of course ripping eliminates that.

[@R3TR0R4V3]

In my experience.. If stored in a climate controlled environment, a CD will last many decades. If stored in your car or some other place w/unpredictable weather, expect bit rot/deterioration. YMMV. 🤷‍♂️

[@johnfire3194]

@@nhennessy6434 well to each their own! I'm not a "comfort of my chair" kinda guy

[@MrRocktuga]

That error correction procedure while ripping has been available in Exact Audio Copy for more than 20 years, called “secure mode”. I’ve had amazing results at ripping heavily scratched CD’s with a Plextor DVD-RW drive, taking up more than an hour (the ripping was well below 0,5 speed!!!), but ending up with a flac file that no dedicated audio CD player could play without skipping. I don’t thrust anything else (as much) since then for high-quality CD rips. But I do see a value on a more user friendly unit like this one, at least for some people.

[@TattiePeeler]

Plextor Premium (4x) + EAC = .flac image & .cue file. I hope I can get replacement rubber bands when they eventually perish in the optical drive..

[@williammay8413]

I don’t trust streaming service cause they can remove music anytime they want and owning your own music is the best one can achieve.

[@DesimaVEBO]

Sure you do sir, I myself own about 80GB of Flac music as my personal collection and prefer losing my girlfriend than my music.

[@TheVinylGuru]

william may yes! I say this all the time!

[@charlesferguson6678]

I agree

[@Nephilim-81]

You can download the file and commit it to a high quality hard drive or an SD Card and I believe that can be a lock, however I so see your point and prefer like you to have a physical database.

[@GOLDMATT123]

Well, yeah? You're not paying for access to specific albums, you're paying for access to the streaming service and what it offers for you. It's not that you don't "trust" the service, you don't understand what you're paying for.

[@Name-se3lf]

CD will never die. Best music medium ever imo. Secure rip with XLD to lossless and your collection goes anywhere.

[@scholzdigital]

Another XLD fan here!

[@anonymousmc7727]

Tru dat;)

[@TheSwartz]

I've recently *rediscovered* the ritual of just playing one CD at a time. Loading. Unloading. Browse the CD case art, etc. Makes me wish I had such a nice, expensive, HiFi set up when I was a kid and originally listening to these CDs. I don't see going back to all the complexity like what is shown here.

[@7evive]

Same with vinyl

[@marciosr8504]

When most people talk about "music", they are talking about pop/rock songs. Streaming is very good, but not perfect on that department. But If you like jazz, you start to feel the difference. If you like Classical you know that you will never leave your record collection. Streaming services might have 10 different versions of the 9th, but you know you will never hear your favorite 9th again without your record collection

[@asterickjones]

I still rip a lot, buying 2nd hand CDs and the charity shop and have built up a huge album/singles collection.

[@grahamevans9606]

At last, someone who actually has remembered CD's. Ok...the loudness wars in part ruined the format, but there are still many people out there where this is still their main format for music. Well done John.

[@markwilliamson4834]

Love CDs (thousands and counting!) and still support artists by purchasing direct when possible. You nailed it....so many deluxe versions, alternate discs, and mastered versions are not available on the streaming sites. Buy it, rip them straight into a Bluesound Vault 2 and manage the collection with Roon. Amazing!

[@Wordsalad69420]

Here is the problem. At this point when you start worrying about power sources, what are you really doing? Are you listening to your CD or are you listening to your equipment? This setup is just way too complicated for no reason. You can enjoy those CDs with any good CD player.

[@mlykke]

Yeah, it's a classic example of people loosing focus. You see this all the time among amateur photographers - They spend all their time reading about cameras and buying new equipment, but rarely actually do any photography. It's like an author worrying about the paper instead of writing.

[@omgwtfpwnd]

True!!

[@mountainslopes]

Honestly this isn't that complicated though. I agree there should be balance, but the ripping process is more complicated than simple playback and if a device can automate some of that, then great! You can indeed get the same effect from a PC with good hardware.

[@mornecoetzee735]

I bought 21 CDs today, love the media 🎶🎵💿

[@legrandmaitre7112]

CDs won't go away. What so many mugs struggle to understand is that it's actually about the MUSIC. That's what really matters. Although CDs have been around for fewer years than vinyl, the same logic is already starting to play out. There is an enormous amount of rare and exotic music out there on vinyl, now the same is true for CDs. So much fantastic African music, reggae, soul, jazz, psychedelia, progressive - everything, classical music too. The advantage of buying used CDs is that 99% will play perfectly. Not always the case with vinyl, even with a fantastic turntable and cartridge. All you need is a half decent CD player and Roberta is your transexual aunt. Put simply, the music companies and hifi industry are trying to sell you the same stuff all over again - and a pile of fiddly new gear to play it on. Huh! I remember when they deliberately destroyed vinyl back in the 80s to usher in CD. Being the obstinate old fart I am, I kept my vinyl - and likewise I'm keeping my CDs.

[@mickeyparker]

I remember the time I ripped my whole CD collection over the time of two months. I did it CD by CD, tagging it very carefully by hand with proper covers because automated tools were not available back then or resulted in an utter mess. Lots of mooos. I don't know, a clean tagged rip, a clean tagged collection is absolutely satisfying. 🤓

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

I ripped my collection in 2007 using Nero for WAVE files and iTunes for M4A files. Compressed files for use on mobile phone. iTunes does not do that anymore. Both programmes included metadata and made only a few errors (completely the wrong album). MP3TAG added Metadata to WAVE files with a later release.

[@syedabdulsultan6642]

Can you please guide me to rip CD to FLAC?

[@mickeyparker]

@@syedabdulsultan6642 I'm on a Mac, I used iTunes back then to convert them into AIFF (lossless) or M4A (lossy). Nowadays I use an app called XLD (X Lossless Decoder).

[@Nephilim-81]

Another thing about CD ripping is you have the assurance your getting what you paid for, especially in terms of quality and original mastering. Personally I find a lot of original mastered CDs from 80’s a lot better sounding than remastered albums. Some streaming services don’t indicate that your getting a reissue or RM and of course an original master. Lastly. Straight up I love having a physical library.

[@mattycairns479]

100%. I always check dr.loudness-war.info for the best master before hunting down the catalogue number on eBay.

[@Nephilim-81]

Matty Cairns it does help. It is not always an end all be all, but based on your own listening experiences you know what your getting if you see an album that has DR average of 5. Yikes! :)

[@gxdjoeybaby07]

CDs seemed to be very quiet until around 1990 or so. The original Japanese 2-disc release of Pet Shop Boys Behaviour is one of the "newest" quiet CDs I have, but it sounds amazing!

[@markbayles8536]

John, I just trialed the Auralic firmware upgrade on my original pre-G1 Altair* purchased new with a built-in 2 TB SSD. I couldn’t be happier. Or more surprised. So, many thanks for the heads up. Spun the CD with a very cheap CDROM drive powered from an external hub and everything worked as you described. A quick scan of the product support page filled me in on the settings to listen with upsampling and rip to the SSD at the same time. 8X ripping, the slowest setting, goes into idle and waits for realtime disk playback to arrive at the next track. Sounds great on AQ Nighthawks driven by a SimAudio integrated. Next I should see if it’s possible to listen to web radio or stream Tidal while ripping; wouldn’t that be nice! All this detail to say that your channel’s videos are essential viewing for all fans of music streaming. There’s something for everybody. Now I have to make another run at getting PiCorePlayer to work with LMS on a RPi 3B+ topped with a Hifiberry Digi+ Pro. Seems LMS couldn’t find my player. And, further hints on adding Material skin would be greatly appreciated. *Auralic’s website says this upgrade also applies to: Aries, Aries LE, and Polaris.

[@mountainslopes]

I really appreciate that you don't go down some dark hole of arguing that the laser on the CD drive affects the audio or other nonsense. There are a couple channels out here that I've straight up blocked so I don't have to hear their nonsense. Thanks for the proper info!

[@Kristoffer_2]

The piano track in this video is "Cody High - Another Night".

[@HD-su9sq]

Thanks Kristoffer! I like John's reviews, but his and my musical taste are usually miles apart. However this tune really struck me, and so I'm off to search for the CD now

[@antoinep9733]

Kristoffer Thank you so much! (Here was I thinking it was Henrik Schwarz)

[@0CCYlupo]

@@HD-su9sq very much the same here

[@paullawson2842]

thanks for the info - just found track on Amazon music & added it to my library

[@patting]

Thank you for listing the featured CDs out, love the CDs you've mentioned.

[@lorcro2000]

CD's are great. Personally, I believe 44.1k/16 is already past what any human ear can possibly resolve. I ripped mine on the PC, using Exact Audio Copy which does some checking to make sure the rip is accurate, and then encoded them to FLAC files; you can integrate the FLAC encoder into EAC and rip, encode and then apply metadata about the rip in one step. But yeah, streaming services are fine for casual listening or discovering stuff, but - the stuff is only there as long as the streaming service keeps it there, you have no recourse if they remove it, so the unique stuff you want to keep you need actual copies of, be it digital files or CD

[@archiemacdonald553]

still like the physical side of cd .im old school

[@MaximilianEuler]

I did it exactly the same way. For me there is no point in subscribing to one of these services, who knows what will be in the future. If I like an album I buy it (CD or digital).

[@praxis22]

Me too

[@richardsinger01]

Croft I did it the same way, but the album art side of Exact Audio Copy is a bit hit and miss especially with classical CDs. I use Discogs as the source of any missing album covers (quite common with EAC) and MP3Tag to tag it to the flac files. I also ripped all my LPs to flac using Audacity so I can stream them round the house too. That was a real chore.

[@QoraxAudio]

Theoretically the human ear can hear up to 20bits of dynamic range. The 44.1k sample rate should be sufficient for the reconstruction filters of high end DACs. But with badly designed filters a higher sample rate *can* provide a little improvement, because those filters don't need to be as steep for higher sample rates (remember the hype of "upsampling DACs" during the early 10s?) Dithering can be used as an alternative to the higher sample rate to solve those filtering issues.

[@stigotmarbjelland6819]

I have been buying CDs since 1985, and I now own about one thousand. Many of my old CDs still are in beautiful condition. I think I have bought about 50-100 CDs the last couple of years alone, so here the CD is very much alive! I rip every CD I buy using WMP, and use the data to make my own mp3-collections for the road. Cowon have fantastic mp3-players, and software that handle most files. At the moment I have a Cowon DB2 in my car. This player is brilliant, and lasts many years! So to all: check out Cowon!! I also play a lot of CDs of course, both in da house and on the road. I guess I am very old fashioned, any that works very well for me:-) For me it`s not about hardware or software, it`all about enjoying the music I love! Cellphones and music, streaming etc. etc., no thank`s!!

[@keeferdog5617]

10 seconds after Darko said, “This version of Cortez the Killer” is better than the original, I was on Fleabay and purchased that cd! Thanks John for the heads up. One of the best tunes of all time people...

[@keeferdog5617]

Pete is never wrong You know what? YOU’RE RIGHT- because Pete is never wrong

[@Lttlwing16_]

It's actually still on Spotify in the US and I am listening to it for the first time as I type this! EPIC!

[@gregorclunie7670]

No way is 'kayche' a legitimate pronunciation of cache! John is such a (loveable) oddball!

[@thesafetyoflifeatsea]

Oh no - I’ve been saying it that way! (I’m in Australia, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!)

[@DarkoAudio]

'Cayche' is how Australians say it.

[@praxis22]

@@DarkoAudio so you're an Aussie? I thought you were a Brit...

[@bugslayer1127]

It is pronounced "cash"

[@draztiqmeshaz6226]

@@DarkoAudio Australians have their vowels on a decoder ring, you can't trust them. And anyway, noi... Noi they daint spoeek in that manna. It's quiche. And we'll never let you live this down.

[@jimfarrell4635]

Haven't read all comments so if I am treading old ground I apologise. I just want to mention that the iFi micro power supply works great with that RSHTech USB hub and I'm sure improves the sound of the £30 Asus transport I have in case anyone wondered if they could use it. I suspect a lot of us have an iFi lying around as I did. Thanks for this video, John. I have an Aries G2 and had not been aware of this upgrade so I rustled around in my study and found the Asus external cd drive I never use, browsed Amazon and found the same powered USB hub you were using (£17.99 with voucher) and pulled out an iFi micro power supply which was currently unemployed (£49.99 new but always some on eBay). Hub came yesterday - love next day delivery - and turns out the iFi fits perfectly without even having to use an adaptor tip. Ripping and playing cds in minutes and it sounds great. I ripped all my cds with Poweramp years ago but I have kept them all. I do still buy some which are not available on Qobuz and I reckon ripping on the Auralic might give better results than ripping on the PC but who knows? It's just fun to play physical media sometimes, which is probably why I still buy vinyl. I had an old Pioneer DV 757ai which I played discs on occasionally, but I reckon the Auralic sounds better. I love that Auralic continues to innovate and provide extra value for its existing customers.

[@mornecoetzee735]

I remember in the 80's my cars CD player also buffered the data into cache so it doesn't skip when you drive on a dirt road.

[@berkut6313]

I love my CDs...Again...After years of streaming-only through Deezer....thanks to you...And I subscribed to CD-Quality for streaming. And I’ll be buying and ripping CDs again. Full Circle....

[@markflower8885]

Nice to see there's still some love for CD's out there. Would be nice to see a comparison between the Auralic and the Naim Uniti Star which has virtually identical features. Great video as always John. 👍

[@sandyjust]

For me, CD means I own the disk and the music and I can listen to it without seeing any advertisment.

[@shawnsteuer9951]

I don't see any advertisment in streaming either.

[@shawnsteuer9951]

@M B I have >1000 CDs btw

[@380stroker]

With CD you buy once and own it forever. With streaming you don't own it and pay forever.

[@walriley48]

I might have even ventured back to vinyl if I thought pressing quality had been upped since the 80's but, apparently, it hasn't. And that was the very reason i went over to the silver disc in the first place.

[@thomas79marshall]

Vinyl pressing is a lost art.

[@Nephilim-81]

I’m a ripper indeed. Great video. I can identify with John in this video immensely.

[@limmar23]

"I love CDs so much." So do I.

[@pauloposts5953]

So I am enjoying Music again, for me your approach is working. I don’t have crazy expensive equipment but your explanations and knowledge are helping informing my decisions. My set up is singing. Thank you!

[@frostycanada6404]

Mr. Darko, I just love your content. Tidal has both albums available to stream in North America. Take care, Brian.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

If you invest all the effort into storing a music collection on a digital jukebox and the time to get the Metadata correct and include the CD artwork you need to back it up and perhaps even have a second backup.

[@Pallidus_Rider]

I like CDs also, but use them in a different way. I will use the CD just once, to extract, then I place the CD in storage container. I would be interested in any CD storage videos/suggestions.

[@TheBudgie29]

If You have any with the Square Sponge In, and It has turned Brown or going Brown. Take It out and Replace with (None Colored) Kitchen roll sheet folded a few times., or It will start to attack the Disc. I lost Two of My Early Now That's What I Call Music Disc's dew to this. Keep Away from Heat or Humid, and Damp Places and You'll be Good. Don't pack them In to Tight, just enough with a little movement. Use Cardboard Box's New not used, don't use plastic ones. I know this cause I have Thousands of them and more coming everyday still In 2020. Good Luck

[@gregoryreid8106]

I do this too, I barely touch them once ripped and I get an accuraterip. I get so scared about damaging them 😂😭😭😭

[@debolism]

Ripping through the Auralic is the most painful process. I tried what is mentioned here and gave up after my tenth CD. Most of my CD's(I own hundreds of Indian CD's) were not recognized by the ripping software. It is slow, painful and after sitting through ten disks, I was like..to hell with this. Just used dbpoweramp on my windows 10 desktop to rip all my CD's to flac on my internal ssd drive. Saved it to a sandisk external ssd drive and attached it to the Aries/Altair/Vega via HDD connection. Now I have perfectly indexed CD's, will album art(you can add your own album art in dbpoweramp), track names and my library looks a lot more organized. Thanks for taking the pain to explain this because there is no way I would have figured this from the Auralic documentation. Just in case you are wondering whether there is a quality difference with ripping in Auralic vs dbpoweramp... I have a fairly revealing system and I cannot hear a difference in quality.

[@roscoejones4515]

Or, you could eliminate the cost of the streamer, and just play the cd and listen to it. It then becomes a ritual, like playing an lp except easier, and you are then far more likely to actually listen to the entirety of the artist's work instead of skipping to something else when you're momentarily bored.

[@lamecasuelas2]

That's one.of the reason why i still Buy CD's and movies ok physical media

[@farrellmcnulty909]

I have an I tunes account onto which I rip any CDs I either borrow or purchase. I used to have an I pod, and I used to have a 2 hour commute every day, so that came in handy. The I pod wore out, then I picked up Google Play Music and have been uploading music from my I tunes library onto the Google library

[@raksh9]

This is a really good point. I've noticed this from the time I got a high capacity mp3 player in the 2000s. Rather than listen to a whole CD, I find myself skipping from song to song when the choice is immediately available.

[@filippotommy4701]

I’ve to confess that in addition to the content of your postings, I like the video itself. Excellent job!

[@BopWalk]

I always rip my CDs to FLAC and play them digitally with my music player, a lot of fun in that to hear the differences in mastering between CDs of the same albums.

[@petertreyde3212]

Thanks for the belated heads up on the Built to Spill cover of Cortez the killer. An absolutely wonderful performance!

[@Coneman3]

Keep it real and spin those discs! You can't beat the original, physical source.

[@DrFeelGoodKali]

I absolutely love your videos. You keep it simple, to the point and real. And now, you're a CD Lover like me. I LOVE MY CDs, and I'm still buying them. I hate Apple and MP3s for killing off the CD/Record stores. I used to go down to Virgin Mega Store in Burbank CA, after I had gotten paid on a Friday night and come home with a Stack of new CD's. ready for a the week. I have a Video suggestion for you. You have a substantial CD collection, how about making a Video about the CD's not available on the streaming services. Something we can add to our shopping list. Thanks for the great Videos John. The Doc.

[@daverich3352]

I'm still buying CDs but only to rip them, I've yet to understand why digital downloads in flac are so expensive. This is especially the case with older albums, where a second hand cd is so much better value than the digital download.

[@mihir1997]

Server infrastructure to store flacs is more expensive. The base cost still goes to the production house/studio and the artist.

[@quatie]

Once ripped how do you play them?

[@user-qr7ee2cp4y]

One of the big screws is lack of physical media... no more cd's, movies, software and video games and at full price! Imagine no more used media... you have to buy new and when you're done you can't sell it.

[@SuperReview]

Supply and demand.

[@bassandtrebleclef]

@@mihir1997 the cost of storing a flac file is a tiny fraction of the cost of manufacturing CDs, shipping them and selling them in a store. Chalk and cheese.

[@darrencurtis4442]

Ive been collecting cds for years and continue to do so

[@Date08202011]

Thank you, Sir Darko! Its Saturday morning, and you've already fulfilled both my ''build a shortlist for front-ends' AND my 'learn more about HiFi' fix. Even before breakfast. Priorities. 🙂

[@rosemeyer1939]

Only here to say..... That Cortez the Killer cover version is incredible. and sounds incredible. The guitar is on it.

[@surkhablife]

That Robag Wruhme album is on Tidal. So glad you did this video. Thanks

[@ryanthomastew]

@John Darko - this is one of your top videos. Love it!

[@paulsweeney70]

16:06 - Grant Lee Bufallo's "Fuzzy". I thought I was the only person who had that album. "Jupiter and Teardrop" is a classic.

[@PimpinBassie2]

I prefer ripping cd's the 'secure' way with Exact Audio Copy. Don't fall for the Plextor snobbery; a LiteOn iHAS124 will do a perfect job.

[@richardcarmichael8915]

I love CD. And I love Japanese versions of CDs. It feels that they put a bit more effort in their CD manufacturing process. High quality CD, case, booklet, etc.

[@asokthiagu131]

Already watched this video before and liked It and now watched again as if i never watched it before!

[@michaelsk87]

I sold half of my vinyl collection and turntable, went back to cd. Upgraded my dac and transport, cd’s are so cheap now compared to vinyl!

[@nunofernandes4501]

I love CDs, especially now that I can buy them for €2 a piece in flea markets. Of course I still buy new CDs too. I listen to them with a Marantz CD6006 and oh boy do I enjoy myself, it is still a great format and so simple. Slide it in, press play and listen. And if there is a zombie apocalypse, if you have a diesel generator you can listen to them while the streaming companies' staff have their brains eaten.

[@paulwibb.8944]

The 6006 kicks butt,,👍

[@nunofernandes4501]

@@paulwibb.8944 can't beat it for the price. I paid €422 brand new. It has revealed so much detail in CDs I've had for 30 years that I'm enjoying all that music all over again.

[@lazycalm41]

For me personally my listening is about 50/50 CD's and Vinyl. I rarely stream, only for convenience and variety , playlists etc. I love vinyl for all the usual reasons so I wont go into them. However I still have a huge CD collection that continues to grow. Some...not all...CD remasters can sound simply breathtaking and way better than their Vinyl or streamed counterpart. Case in point , the 2017 remaster of Hotel California is stunningly good. Same goes for some of the remasters done by Steven Wilson (Yes, Rush and so on) Also thanks to the so called vinyl resurgence CD's are now so cheap!!

[@johnz4860]

CDs! I have been buying them since 1986 and I keep listening to them. It is simple. put one in your CD player and push "Play". Easy! All that business of ripping, streaming, DACs.. I don't understand a word.(and I don't care!) What I do undertsand is that nothing can erase the wide smile I have when I listen to my CDs.

[@rocknez2604]

I still buy cds today, you can get them buy the bunches at garage sales and it's a physical media to have ...

[@theelectronic4051]

The Weatherall CD set is fantastic. He was one of my favourite DJ's, such a shame he's no longer with us.

[@monitochileno]

Great video John as usual and great music! cheers from Chile!

[@FliskerX]

I keep wondering, why not just rip it on PC/laptop ?

[@jp-rj7yq]

EMI noisy environment, a good clean power supply is a must,motherboard sound-cards are usually low Quality therefore exterior DAC is a must for cleaner and natural sound.

[@ridirefain6606]

Used to then stopped. When I purchased a product that was designed to be a dedicated network streamer, ripper, and music server. Computers are not designed to be audio play back devices. They are jack of all trades, master of none workhorses, they do not isolate the signal from other components that it contains. For me the hum from their cooling fans I found really irritating. The music server I use now is fan-less and has shielding that further isolates the signal from the power supply. The transport is even damped so as to provide the best possible read of the CD when ripping. Add an SSD and the background noise now becomes dead silent. For me that is a real advantage, and lets more of the music come through, rather than music plus fan noise

[@michas.5141]

@@jp-rj7yq What has a soundcard and a DAC to do with ripping a CD?

[@gxdjoeybaby07]

I was thinking the same thing, but that's also what I use. I built (and have updated) a dedicated PC, and use WAV rips inside WMP. The SB0570/Sherwood/KLH combo makes for a pleasant analogue sound. No one that's listened to it has been disappointed, and I enjoy the sound quality. That said, I think it did sound a little more vibrant under W7 than it does under W10, even though the soundcard and driver are exactly the same.

[@DenyTheZeitgeist]

Love cds. Excellent audio and it’s something for my eyes, hands and ears. Even if I rip them for WAVs they’re still mine. All mine.

[@EllasPOSEiDON]

That is why I use EAC on PC. Can do all of these and even can calibrate your CD reader head to make it more accurate. :)

[@markloughtonUK]

I was reading the comments thinking "why has noone mentioned EAC (Exact Audio Copy) ?". I have used it for years. It's free and gives perfect copies. I then use MP3Tag tower metadata. Lovely :)

[@DinoSoldo]

It would be interesting to see how audiophile equipment compares to pro musician audio gear. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion each group has its share of woo and voodoo marketing. I’ve bought dozens of DACs over the years and even had a UA Apollo as my central audio system in the living room with surprising results. Love the channel. D

[@paulwibb.8944]

Don't sell your CDs after adding them to your Darta/ Datta/ database,🤔,, well not the good ones anyway,, remember what happened to LPs.

[@gumbyno5808]

Beautifully made as always!

[@itisifelix]

Love this channel. So funny, I’m keep grinning with your pronunciation flips - this needs to be the new norm on all KZbin channel. Found your work from the PX7 review and got them off the back of that. Not a massive audiophile myself but enjoy your candour and the daaata conveyed therein! Your insights are stella.

[@ronsenzel9056]

John - the more I listen to your reviews the more I like and enjoy what you offer and add to the audio review community. I appreciate your flavor as I can listen to the review of a piece of gear from other reviewers and then listen to your review and come away with information I just didn't get from other reviewers. I will be in the market for a streaming solutions in the near future and have moved from the Node 2i to the Cambridge CXN V2 and am now very interested in what I'm hearing of the Auralic streamer.

[@djbujwit]

Awesome intro. Built to Spill - Cortez the Killer (Live) is on Apple Music (US) currently. Thanks for the recommendation. Great song.

[@jimmorgan6005]

It's also on Amazon Music (in the US at least)

[@flohmann]

Also available on Spotify in the US -- listening now!

[@bandogbone3265]

I use cdparanoia on linux to rip to wav, then use flac to convert to flac, then play using audacious on either linux or windows to play directly from the files and folders (no playlists needed). I prefix the track file names by the track number so they play in the proper order. Sound quality is identical to CD because all the bits are copied exactly. I play the files on my android phone using the neutron music player app, which also can play directly from files and folders, without playlists. I transferred hundreds of CDs to a single USB memory stick this way, and I can thus copy my entire archive with a single operation. Most of my CDs are solo classical piano, which is particularly sensitive to compression artifacts (phase distortion, comb filtering, aliasing, etc), so I chose lossless flac format to avoid such problems. I still have boxes of vinyl records, but no time to digitize them yet -- very tedious.

[@johnz4860]

CD + CD player + amp + speakers = sonic bliss! It is easy and straightforward! What is all that hassle now with ripping, buying DACS and paying for a streaming service?

[@SuperReview]

“Tag Editor” on MacOS is a good option for Mac users. I think it’s even in the App Store.

[@lindsaywebb1904]

So am I missing something... What's the purpose of ripping cds when you have a perfectly good CD player? I suspect digital libraries generate different listening patterns and constrain the fortunate happenstance implicit in a physical collection...

[@sheer2waist637]

Because a lot of us travel around more now and want a good selection of our music to take with us, Just use your imagination and think of a Sony MP3 player that has every track on it that you actually like that you’ve personally chosen from your CD collection, so ripped in either 320kbps or even Flac. But Flac does use a lot of space up on your MP3 player i personally rip my cd tracks at 192kbps because I like a lot of music and I can get more on my player...sound quality is absolutely fine some may prefer 320 I’m happy enough with 192, anyway an MP3 player is an amazing bit of kit and when I’m at home I stream from my MP3 player to my Sony Bluetooth speaker...I know I’m not alone in doing it all this because many others do the same I think maybe you should get used to the way people listen to their music nowadays, ok it may not be for you or anyone who just listens to music at home and is not adventurous in having their music to take out on the move.

[@yeahhnah]

iPod classic

[@nohandle54]

Say it however you want to say it, damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead. (also good video, I didnt realize the Auralic had this option)

[@deevnn]

You and I are birds of a feather...I also think CD’s are fantastic. I use an Arcam CD player with a Woo tube amp and am very interested in what you’re proposing here. Absolutely terrific video. Thanks, so much.

[@andrewwilliams1798]

I buy more CD's now than I did 20 years ago. Mostly second hand and dirt cheap. I rip to iTunes still for my ipod classic to listen in the car or gym. For detailed listening where sound quality is required I shock horror listen to my CD's on my old Linn setup. Suits me at the moment. I did have a panic when the new Tool album didn't get a mainstream regular priced CD release. I looked into streaming but ended up just getting the fancy version. Bloody good job it's amazing.

[@shankarkarmakar]

Cortez the Killer - Live (20 min) is on Spotify here in India. Love it.

[@powermix24]

I have been going to Goodwill and finding some gem CDs, I also bought a Sony CDP c335 from there for 15$ made in Japan and works flawlessly. The quality of CD is unmatched vs streaming

[@StuartSuper79]

After watching this video I went & grabbed a CD & put it into my DVD player witch also has a USB connection on the front & after a few minutes I figured out how to rip my CD’s with out a MacBook. Only downside is that my DVD player dose not have an Ethernet connection so their was no names on the tracks. Plus I’d have to rip each CD three times because of my three hard drives for back up & media playback. So for now I’ll stick to the MacBook, but still a very interesting video 👍🏻

[@Unix_Based]

I use CDex to rip from CD to FLAC or mp3 and use Mp3Tag to integrate the coverart picture into the files themselfes. MP3Gain to adjust volume. These programs have served me for many years. I even installed a VM and a complete WinXP pro 32 bit on my macOS Mojave to do just that. The programs are indeed superior to anything other on the market

[@markphilpot4981]

Still rip, edit, tag all my CDs into my laptop. You get only what you want that way and still have your physical media. You’re way overthinking this pronouncing thing. Your diction is not an issue John. If they can’t understand you, it’s their fault. I know you are very conscientious about this, but there will always be those who want to pick at you over it. It isn’t an issue. I really wish you would get a Project 2RS T transport and use it with the Auralic for an update video. It has the same transport as the Gryphon player.

[@KeenAesthetic1]

The Cody High track (and album) is my favourite music I've found from this channel :)

[@brunorivademar5356]

One thing I don't like about streaming services is the inhability to choose between diferent releases of a particular album and that's a huge win for the CD!

[@xouat]

Props for the Built to Spill Cortez the Killer plug. Let the people know!!!

[@Slammy555]

I ripped my CDs to FLAC on my computer HDD using EAC then, later, dbpoweramp. I connected my analog out on my PC and use Foobar2000 with the subwoofer add-on for playback. This allows me some advantages in sound manipulation, for example I run separate equalization for each speaker. I have over 1600 CDs and albums that I store on my PC.

[@ThatSashaBee]

I’ve been collecting CDs properly for the last couple years or so and people think I’m a bit mad and never understand why I don’t just go an use a streaming service. I have two massive binders full and still going... only a small collection just over 8k songs. I typically go to charity shops or if I am near one go to a car boot sale however I’ll also have a look in poundland as they get CDs from Music Magpie, occasionally I buy new but not very often

[@pujaastika]

I love ripping CDs, both into FLAC and m4a. They have superb sound even when converted to m4a which is lossy format. Of course I have a portable CD player too. I use it when I want to just play the CDs without ripping

[@MOWFWDU]

Like you John, my music is 95% + on CD's I own, the rest are red book or higher download purchases. I don't rely on music services. I have less physical space now so I have done away with the jewel boxes and the cds are in 3 x 30" boxes with dividers that make it easy to find albums and accompanying lyrics and artwork, although I hardly ever go there. I have not owned a CD player for 10 years, but I am toying with the idea of buying a Cambridge CXC transport just to see if I can hear the difference. My system is a MacBook Pro running Pure music with SSD storage onboard and another external SSD - backup to GTech drives. Airplay to Node 2i feeding into a Benchmark DAC3 HGC which sends the music to Genelec 1020b with 1040 sub (space is small so I listen in near field). DAC3 HGC is my headphone amp too. Sometimes I hook the laptop into the DAC3 HGC using a Audioquest Carbon USB cable. Yeah, the sound is better but less convenient as the cable is short and I have to get up. It's about the music.

[@FireMunki63]

Yay, mp3 tag, great to know you are using it too

[@jazzydog5635]

I love CDs (and vinyl) but a trip to the local charity shops will very seldom reveal any hidden vinyl treasures at any price, these days. Not so CDs, where my last trip gave me 2 CDs (Alicia Keys and Tori Amos) for the princely sum of £1 for both and they play perfectly. I find some metal albums from the 1990s (for example WASP or Doro) sound best on the original CD format they came out on and not the subsequent vinyl issue.

[@TheoK_HD]

The Built To Spill Live is available on Amazon Music streaming, in case you’re looking for it.

[@jimf5160]

Thanks for the reference to mp3Tag...very useful! I only have 7500 or so cuts in my digital collection, but that program helped me clean up the tags from files which had been ripped over a long period. BTW...I have kept all my cds...as a backup and sometimes I just prefer to play a cd...and the Blu-Ray audio and some audiophile discs don't rip easily anyway.

[@howequalspeace]

ripping cds is the way I roll too. won’t stop

[@DaveFlash]

XLD on Mac or PC is your friend then.

[@theaudiocircle]

“Skeleton Jar” ☝️💿 I love that album.

[@neccros007]

Album Art Exchange is a great source for obsessively good album art

[@stevensmith8793]

Hello John. Just want to tell you we listen to you for your knowledge, not your pronunciation. You can say words any damn well you please, just keep the great information coming! Thank you.

[@jroviraesteve]

Built to Spill Live is still on Spotify in the US

[@birgerolovsson5203]

I'm waiting for 20 CDs that I just ordered and I also got 6 new ones yesterday so no, the CD lives as good as ever with/for me.

[@rogra2087]

Fascinating. Loved the information. Been dreading transferring the one of no other cd-r collection, as it is getting close to 30 years for some. Anyone else concerned about the longevity of their collection should research and learn about how cd-r media-substrate compositions makeup is subject to degradation at the aforementioned time. Likewise, the current state of consumer electronics is very narrow in the optical drives choices and quality. Top notch show mate, going to subscribe. All the best.

[@Guovssohas]

I love cd's, but i don't rip them, i like to play the actual cd.

[@leadpaint1969]

Great video. I'll never part with my cd collection. Well done.