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A to D to SACD to A: A Natural Progression?

Despite having purged my collection of the obvious excess, I still clutter my apartment with hundreds of redbook CDs, most of which I never listen to and even when I do I find it a mediocre and unengaging experience.

For many of my pop recordings and even some jazz, there are one or two tracks only that I wish to keep and the rest I truly never listen to.

Which makes me wonder: as much as it might make me roll over in my audiophile grave, would it make sense just to copy 2-300 CDs to a hard drive and then put them in storage or chuck them? What is the best way to do this?

Then, having blissfully cleared my living and listening space from this cluttered, mediocre medium, the only jewel boxes remaining would be SACDs for my trusty SCD-1 after which I could allocate the rest of my space, budget, time, shelves and audiophile obsession to a super high end analogue rig.

Does this make sense? Has anyone else evolved in this direction? Maybe its just me, but I still rarely get a kick out of redbook. And in the mean time, my shelves are a mess.

Thanks for your thoughts.
cwlondon
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,235 posts
 
What you suggest can be easily accomplished for about $2,300.

Get an Apple iMac ($799), an Apogee Mini-Dac ($850 street price) and two OWC Mercury Elite 180Gb firewire hard disk ($340). The iMac will run the iTunes software, the Apogee has a USB I/O and a high quality DAC to connect to your preamp and a single 180Gb HD will store up to 300 CDs (use the 2nd HD as a backup drive).

Hook up the iMac with an internet connection, start the supplied iTunes software and place a CD in the CD-ROM tray. Within 3-5 minutes the CD will be ripped onto your HD with the album info/song titles info. It will take you maybe 20 hours to fully rip 300 CDs. Once completed the iMac does not require an internet connection. iTunes has the ability to make multiple playlist so you will have enormous control over what music you want to hear. The sound quality will be approximately equal to a high end stand alone CD player.
ohlala
1,236 posts
 
You could chunk the jewel boxes and just store the discs in those case-logic type books.
reb1208
518 posts
 
Perhaps you should purchase a better cd player that is more involving than your Sony.
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Onhwy61:

Thank You!!! Exactly the advice I needed, and I can use the Mac for other things as well.

I guess what I meant was: A to D to SACD to (SACD+A+HD).

Reb1208: I am not an SCD-1 groupie, but I can't imagine its that bad on redbook and I think it sounds pretty good on a well recorded SACD. My Levinson didn't do it for me either.

By the way, when can we do this just as easily with DVDs with good video performance? A high resolution movie jukebox! Now that would be cool.

And also help me chuck more clutter.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,235 posts
 
Cwlondon, one word of caution - I don't know how loud the fan in the iMac is. I had to place my G4 within an enclosed cabinet in order to dampen the noise. Things are never as simple as they could be.
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