Music Servers/External Drives

ge a nas roon reconizes nas but not external hd

rip flac and you are good

I rip to ALAC using free XLD with "max retry"  set to 200.  Recently I used internal Jriver (Media Center 30) ripper and it seems to be fine.  FLAC is more universal, but does not work with ITunes (that I used before) while ALAC is native Apple format.  Both can be easily batch converted.   XLD can be used for that, but FREAC is even more convenient.  FREAC (freac.org) is wonderful free small program for ripping and converting.  I use it for batch converting only to HE ACC for car.  Advantage of ripper over CDP is that it can go over given sector multiple times (unitl proper checksum is obtained) while CDP can only read once (working in real time).  Some rippers do this better than others and knowing number of retries plus getting detailed report (both in XLD) is important.  Any external drive will do but mechanical drives are a bit noisier.  I used them but now I use 1TB SSD with two backups.  Reason for backup is obvious, but second backup is just extra precaution.  For instance computer failure (hardware or software) during backup can make both HD unusable.  In addition I keep one of them outside of my home in case ot theft, fire etc.   I update one at home every 5 or so rips and from time to time I exchange them.  I have so far 1700 CDs ripped occupying 600GB. 

Any external drive works fine but spinners need a separate power supply.

Nowadays there is no reason not to use SSDs Smaller, faster and USB bus powered.

I wouldn’t know about Roon but if it only likes DLNA via NAS then that’s another reason to avoid it. I sold my NAS, not looking back.

If the network drops its handshake the NAS disconnects. Phooey.

dbPoweramp is my choice for ripping. Flac all the way. I tried alac but it doesn't sort for shit in Windows. Flac is universal.