Really Off Topic- about CD changers

[Gene@mpls]

I have a 400 disk changer and a 300 disk changer that play music CDs all
day (and sometimes all night). These are Sony Mega Storage and they are
pretty much the only thing that I buy extended warranties on. But they are
getting long in the tooth and I know that they take a real beating from the
dust etc in the shop. Is there a way to rip all of the disks to a harddrive and
output the music to a RCA jack to drive my receiver/amps to drive my speakers (about 12).
I have googled everything I can think of and find nothing
but music servers which are kinda $$$. I have 10 computers in here and I can
add a Harddrive or 2 to one of them. I gotta believe that it can be done?
thanks Gene

 

[hammered]

Yeah just RIP them using whatever software you like, I use Media Player. And out of your soundcard you have a speaker plug that is just an output. Go to Radioshack and get an 1/8th" to RCA cable and bam, youre listening to your music via stereo.

 

[cgsigns_jamie]

I like iTunes. Then just use one of these cables to output from your sound card to your amp. Or if you spend $100 you can get an AirPort express and wirelessly send music from iTunes to the amp.

 

[flyinhawaiian968]

I'm still old school with ripping music, use a program (which is now freeware) called Audiograbber, and use the Lame encoder at 256K. I then play it through my computer via Winamp, and pipe it into my Pioneer stereo system via digital coaxial cable.

So, there's really nothing that you have to buy for this setup, except maybe an rca from your computer to your stereo, or if it has digital input and your computer has a digital output, then one of those cables! I love the fact that I can play songs, albums, or even genre folders (rap, ambient,80's music, whatever you listen to...), and even shuffle them so it doesn't get monotonous listening to all eleven of my Rush albums in order!!!

Oh yeah, its always a plus to know when you have email arrive while you're working in the back of the shop! A little beep and I know I have mail!!! Now to figure out how to hook up the alarm system's door chime feature to the computer and I'll be set!!!

Chris

 

[njsigns]

I did this very thing for a restaurant several years ago, infact they had the same Sony Mega Storage changers had and the same concerns. Essentially I just ripped all the disks onto a computer with a huge hard drive and a decent sound card. Then got an 1/8" stereo to RCA cable from Radio Shack (same as cgsigns_jamie suggested) and hooked it up to the receiver - bing - instant jukebox! It did take a while to rip all the cd's though. Then I made him buy an external hard drive and backed up all the data, and stored that off site. He jacked the computer up while drunk one nightand and lost all his files, luckily we had a backup and I just transferred a copy of the music back onto the computer.

Good luck! It's totally worth it in my opinion...

Gene

 

[OldPaint]

now the tuff one to do is take VINYL LP ALBUMS........to youre hard drive or CD)))))))))
i did this with a couple the wife has that have long been outa production and any cd/tape.

 

[flyinhawaiian968]

Not a problem any more! Costco (and a hundred other superstores I'm sure!) now sells a USB turntable!

Costco's Turntable

Haven't used it yet, but it probably does a decent job at ripping vinyl to mp3. I'm thinking of getting one just because it allows you to rip (via software) 78rpm records! My dad had a huge collection of Hawaiian records dating back to 1915 IIRC, I'm sure they're worth some money but would wanna rip a copy for my mom who's still alive.

Chris

 

[Gene@mpls]

Thanks for all the info- I ordered a 500g NAS from buy.com today for
$140 (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206215246&adid=17654&dcaid=17654) and will start ripping. What is the best 'code' to use- isn't
MP3 kind of low quality? Gonna take a while for 700-900 disks but they are
all in order, cataloged and organized- and I have a half dozen (fast) computers on my LAN. Thanks Gene

 

[cOrKinSA]

I rip my cd with Windows Media using my Rip setting at 192kbps (86 MB per CD) with an MP3 Format.
Some say for crisper sound you can use
256 Kbps which uses about 115 MB per Drive Space
or
320 Kbps which uses about 144 MB per Drive Space

others say for smaller sizes you can use WMA with quality of
128 Kbps which uses about 56 MB per Drive Space,
160 Kbps which uses about 69 MB per Drive Space
or
192 Kbps which uses about 86 MB per Drive Space
all-in-all it's up to you. CDDB is your friend.

 

[flyinhawaiian968]

Yep, he's got it right. 128k is FM radio quality, 192k is "near" cd quality, 224k is almost identical in sound to 256k, which is CD quality, and 320k is pretty close to an exact digital duplicate of a CD.

I usually rip at 256k(stereo, high quality settings set in Lame/Audiograbber) if its a good album with lots of bass or very precise audio such as classical music, and 192k for everything else.

If you're using this for your shop though, and you don't have a great stereo system, 128k will probably be plenty enough, but I just don't see any reason not to just go 224k minimum if you have the hard drive space. At the moment, I have 7971 songs in my mp3 folder, and its only taking up 55 gigs worth of space!

Chris

 

[TheSnowman]

If you can, use an old computer that you don't do anything on, and just load that sucker down w/ music. I did that w/ my old laptop, and it just had MP3's on it, and just used it for playin' music.

 

[ProWraps™]

what are cd's? damn old paint, that must make you OLDER paint.

 

[Gene@mpls]

Thank you all for the audio info- good stuff- except for tecdady whose
avatar I consider very offensive. I thought that kind of hate-mongering
had moved to the talk-trash category of this board. Thanks Gene