Hi guys,
Soon I will receive a BS5/BM5 combo. I will do the SSD upgrade as discussed in another thread and I am looking very much forward to install the stereo. I was just wondering which format you guys use when ripping CD's to the HDD and which programme? The CD ripping device stores the CD's in WMA Lossless but I heard that many prefers FLAC. Is there a big difference in fidelity? And can I start ripping the CD's now and then later transfer them to the HDD in the BM5? Afterall it takes some time to rip the entire CD collection :P
I hope you guys can help
BeoVision Eclipse 55, BeoPlay S8 (sub+rears), BeoPlay A9 MKII (living room), BeoVision Avant 32 DVD (retro gaming, basement), BeoLab 4000 (entertainment room, basement), BeoSound 8 (workshop), 2x BeoPlay S3 (PC), BeoPlay A1, BeoPlay H2/H3 (on the go)
1. I would rip to FLAC lossless - WMA Lossless is a rarity these days and it will allow you the flexibility to stream to a phone, TV, etc in that format. No difference in fidelity and FLAC is more transferable to other devices.
2. No loss in quality - lossless is what is says - no loss of quality.
3. You are aware that the Bs5 may be coming to the end in sales in the next year or so arent you? B&O are releasing a new audion product in early 2015. If you love your Bs5 and want to stick with it then this is not relevant.
4. Yes, start ripping now and you can transfer to Bs5 later very easily.
Hi Frederik,
You want to install a SSD!
I don't know how big your collection is/will be - but have you considered having your files on a Nas and let the BS/BM5 get access to that. And just have the OP of the BM5 on the SSD. That would also make things easier, if you swop to another BS (Moment) in the future.
Since you are mentioning 'WMA', I suppose you use a Windows PC.
PowerAMP has a very good ripper - for tagging I'd suggest using MP3Tag.
I prefer ripping to FLAC - is more flexible than WMA Lossless.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV.
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is the best rip program.
Hi everyone. Thank you very much for the feedback. I will go for FLAC then. I got a very good deal on a used BS5/BM5 (1100£). Been interested in the BS5 for years now but the prices always were to high. Now I finally got a good deal and decided to take the plunge. I am aware of the upcomming audio system but I like the desing of the BS5 and the fact that you do not use touch controls.
@Millemissen. I have already bought an 512gb SSD for the purpose. I am not that fond of NAS or other wireless streamer (AirPort Express as the only exception). My collection is only about 300-400 CD's. Should be plenty of space left for future downloads.
I have done a few tests and it seems like FLAC does not always play gapless. It is not horrible - like MP3, but if you listen to a lot of music where songs blend into one another (classical, pink floyd) and think you'll be annoyed by very small gaps, then you might want to reconsider WMA. My test album was Jeff Beck's Blow by blow, and there are times when I hear a gap with FLAC that I don't hear with WMA.
I totally agree with others that FLAC is more flexible and much more widely supported (and sounds identical, aside from occasional, tiny gaps) - because WMA "lossless" is different from WMA, it's even hard to tell if a device actually supports it or not. I ripped most of my music before the BS5 supported FLAC so I went a different route and found a portable player that supports WMA lossless (Fiio X3).
Also, what is the purpose of upgrading to an SSD? Reliability? It's not like you need fast disk access to play music. Just curious what benefits you hope to achieve? Faster boot time for a device that you rarely reboot?
Thanks,
Stan
Hi Stan,
Thank you for the inputs. Much apreciated. I will upgrade to SSD for security reasons as the spinning discs in normal HDD will have a limited life span. Plus I heard that navigating the menus and the general flow of the operating system will be grately improved.
Best regards,
Frederik
SSDs have a limited life span as well - and often not a very long one either under heavy use.
Anyway, in a system such as the BM5 the usage should be mostly read only, and that doesn't wear an SSD that much, and the other benefits will be nice. Besides, everybody has a backup of their music on those little golden discs, right?
--mika
tournedos: SSDs have a limited life span as well - and often not a very long one either under heavy use. Anyway, in a system such as the BM5 the usage should be mostly read only, and that doesn't wear an SSD that much, and the other benefits will be nice. Besides, everybody has a backup of their music on those little golden discs, right?
A good point, SSDs are not a complete panacea, but as you say read cycles don't age them as fast as read/write cycles, so hopefully once all the music is in place there won't be that much writing. I am not up on the latest life cycle numbers for SSDs, I know I have had two 1 TB HDDs in my RAID 1 NAS for over 6 years now and they still work fine.
Definitely though, make sure you have a backup, to another HDD or DVDs or something, if you're truly paranoid you'll make two backups and keep one at your folk's or kid's houses, one offsite is a good plan.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Now that I have a functioning BM5 again, I am returning to ripping CDs. I am using DBPowerAmp, which really is a great tool. I also have a Mac and listen to music on my Iphone. Here is the process for ripping a CD to achieve lossless data on both the BM5 and Apple Music/Itunes
Open DBPowerAmp Music Converter, and click CD Ripper
Under Preferences in DBPowerAmp, Tags & Filenames, Options, Tab Album Art, Write to drop down menu, select Folder.JPG (only need to do this once)
Load CD, and the album information should come up in the CD Ripper main page.
On lower right, on Rip To drop down menu, select FLAC. In drop down in middle of page, select Level 5 Lossless (also only need to do this once)
On lower right, on Path drop down menu, select the iTunes/Apple Music destination folder. On Catalina, it is Music/iTunes/Itunes Media/Music (only need to do once)
If the album art did not come up on lower right, click the art image and it should present you a set of choices from the internet. You can also browse to find it.
Click Rip. It will make the FLAC files of the music and create the album art in folder.jpg
Once down, copy the artist folder (if it is the first music from that artist on the BM5), or copy the album folder (if you already have that artist folder on the BM5) to the Music folder of the BM5. You will now see the album art and be able to play on the BM5.
Itunes and the Iphone can not play FLAC, so now you need to convert the files to Apple Lossless.
on DbPowerAmp, click File Tab, then Open. Select the FLAC files in the album folder on the MAC.
On the popup menu, on the Encoding drop down menu, select Apple Lossless
On the Output To drop down, select Existing Source Folder
Click Convert
The files will be converted in a few seconds.
To free up space on the Mac, then finish by deleting the FLAC files on the Mac.