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Best Way to Upgrade Digital

I have over 3K CD's and I am building a new system & not sure what is the best way to set up my digital.  Should I get A DAC & CD Ripper or a CD/SACD?  I'm leaning towards a CD Ripper with a DAC, given the number of CD's I have it will make it easier to play them & store tehm.  I have an old Benchmark DAC1, should I use this with a ripper?  Or get a new DAC? Do I need to update my Benchmark DAC?  Or should I just get a CD/SACD?  Trying to keep cost under $1,200 if possible.  Technology is changing so rapidly, that I don't want to spend lots of $$ for something that may be absolete or wothless in a couple of years.  Any suggestions?? I do own a Blunode Streamer, sounds ok, hoping the CD's will sound better.   
nyrican
flatblackround's avatar
flatblackround
279 posts
 
What are you using as a transport for your CDs now?  I continue to use a Benchmark dac1 pre and a Cambridge CD player as a transport.  Works well and sounds amazing.  Certainly you and I can spend a lot and improve, but we want to keep the cost low.  How many SACDs do you have?  Why don’t you know if CDs sound better than your streaming Bluenode?  I recommend you purchase a transport and listen to your Benchmark dac for a while and then decide whether to upgrade to a newer dac.   I primarily play vinyl.
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fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,629 posts
 
Ripping as you go with a PC is the easiest way to organize and tag. Whatever method you decide on is best for you.  The only way that the files will sound "better" than the CDs is if you have a crappy CDP.
But the difference is not critical and maybe barely noticeable.
soix
9,597 posts
 
Sell the Node and buy a Vault and just load all your CDs into that.  Then, when you can, upgrade your DAC and you should be in good shape.  Best of luck. 
ho249's avatar
ho249
77 posts
 
For low-cost CD ripping: there's a free program called "Exact Audio Copy" to rip your CDs using a Windows PC. Very important to use care with the program settings to get the best resolution with the ripped files.

A step up from this is JRiver Media Center software, which has an easy-to- use CD ripper. JRiver starts at around $60 and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It works well to maintain and play a digital music library, and it has video capability.
Down side for both is the time involved to rip 3,000+ CDs. A good project for a Covid-19 lockdown...
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