Bluesound Vault 2i, Cocktail Audio X40 or ??????????

Long time ripper here. I would like to add some thoughts to the process. I recently bought the Vault 2i and I think it is good for its job, however you may want to consider a different approach. 
When I started the process I bought the pro version of Dbpoweramp. (Worth the investment) being from the IT background I was concerned about fault tolerance and corruption. I decided to go the NAS route with disk (RAID) protection. I ripped with maximum error correction in FLAC and zero compression. This became my base master. I then ran a batch conversion to apple lossless to upload to Match. I also ran a conversion to a 320 mp3 directory for compressed data for a iPod store on my Harley (outdated today) The point here is I could do whatever I wanted with the master after it was ripped bit for bit. Up until now I have been using my SB Transporter ( still have 3 if anyone wants to buy them). What intrigues me most about the Vault 2i was the Apple integration and a single interface for all our music and music services. In addition to our class A music room we also play music through HomePod pairs ( yeah I know they are pricey but sound good in pairs) in the Kitchen, bedroom and sunrooms. The vault 2i shows up as a target on airplay2 and the music app is easy for my wife and she can simply tell Siri to play the music to any combination of targets. 
We have 40k songs ripped, Apple Music, and Tidal. I feel that I have achieved access to high quality music of my choice and ease of use for my wife and as any married man here can attest. Happy wife Happy Life!!!! To prove the point... I told her I am going to sell my ATC 5.1 system and buy the new ATC20 pro combo with the ATC P2 mk2 bundle and she thought it was a good idea 😉

Oz

I have a Vault and I’m just about to  finish ripping 700 cd’s. This took 9 weeks just walking over and inserting the cd and replacing it when it finished ripping.  The nine weeks could be much longer if you are not as on top of it as I was. 

I couldn’t imagine doing this through my computer it wouldnt be worth saving 500.00 for all the extra labour involved.

I know someone who ripped 2700 cds with his computer and wished he would have purchased a vault. He could not believe the time involved. 

The vault ripped in bit perfect. 

I ripped them all into wav, I am not sure why anyone would want to rip them into flac not unless your music collection will fill the Vault's hard drive of course.

While the Vault was ripping them into wav I set it to also rip all cd's into vbr so I have a copy in wav and vbr.

Anyway this is my experience with the vault. 

Has anybody transferred flac files from an NAS to the Vault?  Is it easy to do?

So what’s the difference sonically between playing by cds that I’ve copied to my iTunes account and ripping them to a Vault (or something similar). In either case I need my iPad or iPhone to select tracks to play. Is Bluesound’s software preferable to the iTunes interface?  In the first case I use Bluetooth to connect to a Bose soundlink unit that connects via optical cable to my preamp. In the second, I still need to use my iPad or iPhone, and the Vault would connect via RCA cables. In the first case does the Bluetooth link degrade quality? Will using the highdef ripping options on the Vault really sound different? Is there any generic difference between an optical and an RCA cable or does the quality of either matter more? Managing disk storage is an issue either way. Seeking wise counsel before investing in equipment and time.

I purchased a Bluesound Vault 2i late last spring and at first it worked but was so complicated to operate that several times I needed telephone help from someone who I had take control of my computer and made a copy of the music library I had made on the Vault by ripping my collection of about 175 CDs into it. For purposes of ripping CDs, the error correction from the slow multiple passes over each CD and automatic internet connection to put cover art for each CD together is far more than any ripping software you can put into a computer. But the way it stored and indexes is designed for pop/rock songs and performers. It has a way to index music by composers but this process is as daunting as trying to put together a wardrobe for a hermaphroditic transvestite. In time the cable connection to the internet went bad and it took them about a month to eventually send me a replacement.
The Vault has a capacity of, is it one terabyte or two terabytes? Since all 175 of my CD's and several 24/96 downloads I purchased, which all sounded noticeably better using a vintage MSB Platinum external DAC into an 833A SET which I built myself, only consume about 30 GB, which easily fits onto a USB flash drive several times the size rather than in the hard drive you get with the new Vault. My library was easy to reassemble into a collection of folders on my laptop, one folder for each composer. I put each folder onto an external USB flash drive several time the size of my library. Since I will never rip another CD because I can download albums most of which are in higher resolution than 16/44 for the same price as a CD, I have no need to use the Vault's hard drive. I plug the flash drive into the back of the Vault, click on the USB icon and select from an alphabetical list of composers, open the file, and play it that vastly simpler way. Whenever I want to add to my library I download the work, CDs having rendered obsolete for anything but listening to in my old car, and I can place it in the composer's folder on the flash drive, and I do not have to spend hours updating a library in the Vault's hard drive. This has another possible advantage. I do not know if the Vault's hard drive has any moving parts to wear out but I don't have to worry about it because I am not using it.
I still would like to consider streaming music through the Vault, but I am not interested in taking out any paid subscription. Are there any free high resolution sources through which I can do so?
The other sources in my system are a vintage Magnum Dynalab FM tuner I connected with a homemade antenna selector switch for choosing different towered antennas each pointing towards a city which had a classical music station. These stations all play CDs or files of CD's in 16/44 and HD radio and listening over the internet offers less resolution, an OPPO blue ray player which is the only way I can play my 5 channel SACDs because copyright laws do not allow an external 5 channel DAC to decode them, not that I could afford such a thing at this time, and a turntable for vinyl.