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Topic: [TOS #6] Newbie needing help with... just about everything! (Read 769 times) previous topic - next topic
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[TOS #6] Newbie needing help with... just about everything!

So I guess I am here to give most of you a good laugh… but here goes. 

I am a dinosaur… yes I admit it. School calculators were big machines with handles that you used to have to turn to add and multiply (these would be worth a bit now I’m guessing)… 

Okay, that said, I am trying my best to understand things, but I have hit “the wall” you might say, when it comes to knowing the best way to rip and play my CD collection.

Hopefully if I supply enough info, some kind soul here will take pity on me and point me in the right direction. Its not like I haven’t looked for the answer, but each of us have different set-ups, and needs, so I thought I would start a thread specific to mine.


My setup.
I have a good sounding Kenwood 3020E Amp, Kenwood CD player and decent Mission speakers. I also have a whole pile of CD’s cluttering up the HI-FI unit and spilling out of the draws.

I recently started to wire the house with CAT5e cable, and have started a mission to put in place a home server, so that we can store our “stuff” remotely, and also have streaming video/music etc. This is a huge learning curve for me.

That said, I love my music (also play the sax too), and have aspirations of getting a better speaker set up, maybe even different rooms etc etc.

Firstly, I want to reduce the mess by getting rid of the piles of CD.s , and have a clean and easy way in which to play them.

Secondly, I want NO less a quality than what I have when I play them directly. and a backup for replacing them if necessary (hence the FLAC idea!)

Thirdly, I guess I need a “nice and easy” screen of sorts (I have a mac book) by which to interface with the storage (library) so that I can see/control what I want to play… but I don’t see this as a permanent solution.

These are my main needs.



So…
I started to rip a couple of CDs, just to get the hang of it (using EAC) and my Windows based desktop, but it just shows everything lumped together in the same folder, and no way to reference albums etc.
I gather that I need to now use a “library” type of program (I used to use I-tunes) but I gather it doesn’t work with lossless (FLAC) files. I'm afraid i could spend days ripping, only to find i have done it wrong, or missed something out (like tags or something??)

I would love to find a program that will let me search/organise and play the way that I-tunes did, and maybe add album art or other details that are down-loadable from the net…

Then, also what do I “need” re an interface, at the HI-Fi end I mean? Should I leave my laptop there (but it’s a mac!). One good thing about the Mac, it has a neat little remote that I bought with it, which allows me to scroll through tracks, and adjust volume from the armchair (no volume on my Kenwoods remote)… but, does that mean I am then limited to what library programs I can use????

So, do I need spend more money, to get another type of interface/screen etc??

This is where I’m at…. Brain hurts, cant move forward…. What do I do for the best???

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.