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Digitize my CD's

zarathu

zarathu

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2003
652
362
I’ve decided to get out of the 1940’s since my car no longer has a CD player.

I have no problem digitalizing my entire cd 900 unit collection into a 2 terabyte external SSD drive and running it off of Vox Player(or maybe something that will respond to Siri).

I’ve discovered several hi-fi bluetooth receivers, one with a separate digital to analig chip in it.

Does anyone have a choice for the blue tooth receiver that would be hi fi audio--at least 16 bit CD quality?
 
Last edited:
"Quality sound" + "bluetooth" = oxymoron.

Does the car audio have a USB connector?
Or an SD card slot (I've seen that on some)?

What file formats does the car player support?
It will certainly support mp3, what else?

My suggestion:
1. Encode to mp3 with HIGH BITRATES, such as 256bits. At 256bits, mp3's can sound remarkably good.
2. Put this onto one or more USB flash drives (may require more than one)
3. Use them with the car player IF it has USB input.

Be aware that unless the metadata is properly "brought over", the car audio system may not be able to organize the albums/songs properly.
 
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zarathu said:
Does anyone have a choice for the blue tooth receiver that would be hi fi audio--at least 16 bit CD quality?
Click to expand...

To preserve the original CD quality you want a lossless rip. In iTunes:

Screen Shot 2019-05-25 at 00.25.31.png
 
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HD wrote:
"To preserve the original CD quality you want a lossless rip. In iTunes..."

BUT... if his car player can't handle Apple lossless -- it does nothing for him.

That's why I suggested high-bitrate MP3 -- because virtually EVERY car audio system out there will support it.
 
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zarathu said:
I’ve decided to get out of the 1940’s since my car no longer has a CD player.

I have no problem digitalizing my entire cd 900 unit collection into a 2 terabyte external SSD drive and running it off of Vox Player(or maybe something that will respond to Siri).

I’ve discovered several hi-fi bluetooth receivers, one with a separate digital to analig chip in it.

Does anyone have a choice for the blue tooth receiver that would be hi fi audio--at least 16 bit CD quality?
Click to expand...

The Audioengine series of DACs is quite nice. I am guessing that you are looking at the Audioengine B1 bluetooth receiver with its built-in DAC which is very nice if you've got the ears to notice the depth and clarity of your recordings. I have an Audioengine D1 myself for home HIFI use which I bought from a fire sale new. CD quality isn't hard to achieve with a bluetooth DAC especially with 16bit dynamic range and 44.1Khz high frequency response (Nyquist response means you get 20-20Khz response) and the Audioengine B1 can do that. I personally think it's a super overkill to buy a bluetooth receiver with a HD DAC that can go up to 24bit/96Khz and a VOX player capable of HD Audio output. I mean, you're in a car and it's not the ideal place to listen to high quality audio through a DAC unless you've got some really fine audio system in your car as well as good sound insulation. Otherwise, outside noise will reduce your frequency response that you're probably be better off buying the much cheaper $20-$30 bluetooth options if you insist in going wireless. An audio cable is a cheaper option, but if you must go wireless and bluetooth give the audioengine B1 a look.
 
Fishrrman said:
HD wrote:
"To preserve the original CD quality you want a lossless rip. In iTunes..."

BUT... if his car player can't handle Apple lossless -- it does nothing for him.

That's why I suggested high-bitrate MP3 -- because virtually EVERY car audio system out there will support it.
Click to expand...
Every apple device supports it.

My suggestion to OP would be to get an iPod classic, or an older iPod and upgrade it. I mainly use an iPod Mini with a 128GB CF card. I also use an 80GB iPod classic 6th gen that's stock. You can fit around 3,000 or so songs on the 80GB in ALAC (apple lossless). With USB or 3.5mm "aux" cable any system can support ALAC paired with an iPod.

I would suggest against using any compressed format, if you're coming from CDs. I can tell the difference between a 320 MP3 and a CD, especially if its a "busy" song. I personally find it a waste of time and energy to import CDs as MP3. If you import them losslessly, you make a new copy of whatever songs you want as MP3 or compressed AAC if you wanted to, while preserving the lossless files on your computer.
 
Project Alice said:
If you import them losslessly, you make a new copy of whatever songs you want as MP3 or compressed AAC if you wanted to, while preserving the lossless files on your computer.
Click to expand...

What software do you recommend for converting the lossless audio on the computer to MP3’s for the car? Right now, I have to produce full quality CD burns, and my car media player rips the CD’s to it’s HDD in full quality. I’d rather it use MP3’s to conserve HDD space in the car.
 
NoBoMac said:
iTunes? See post #4 and change the rip settings to MP3. Select tracks and iTunes > File > Convert.
Click to expand...

That would be fine, except the original CD’s went with the EX when she cleaned me out. All I have are the already ripped files (lossless format). I want to convert/export those files to MP3 and load them onto the car’s HDD. I get a message that these files (along with iTunes purchased music) can’t be converted. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, I’ll try again.
 
crjackson2134 said:
That would be fine, except the original CD’s went with the EX when she cleaned me out. All I have are the already ripped files (lossless format). I want to convert/export those files to MP3 and lode them onto the car’s HDD.
Click to expand...

try Permute 3 worth every penny - will convert almost anything to audio - quickly and easy

For free versions
VLC
All2MP3
 
I use it a lot - great for batch conversions

I tried a ton of free apps and there is nothing close IMHO

Check out Downie too - very cool

Meta data and artwork are another matter :(
 
crjackson2134 said:
I get a message that these files (along with iTunes purchased music) can’t be converted.
Click to expand...

Odd. Never had an issue down converting or trimming a track in iTunes.

In the case of the purchased tracks, might be old Apple DRM blocking things.

Lossless stuff from CDs, those in FLAC? iTunes will not handle those.
 
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NoBoMac said:
Odd. Never had an issue down converting or trimming a track in iTunes.

In the case of the purchased tracks, might be old Apple DRM blocking things.

Lossless stuff from CDs, those in FLAC? iTunes will not handle those.
Click to expand...

I don’t remember exactly what methods I used originally. I used to always rip my newly bought CD’s right away, and always played them from my computer to the surround sound system in my Gym. When my EX made her departure, she took all of my CD’s just to mess with me (she didn’t even like my music) but she didn’t know I played all my music from my computer. Yesterday I decided to load some of my older music to my Car’s HDD and iTunes refused to convert 90%. I had to burn about 20 CD’s, and today let my cars DVD/CD drive rip the music again. It was a horrible experience (slow), so I would rather just transport the music by way of MP3’s on a large USB stick or USB HDD. Transfer would be a lot faster I believe. Plus, I’m just throwing the CD’s in the garbage when done. I have no further use of them. The whole process is inefficient currently.

Permute 3 looks like a great app. I’m going to grab that and try again in a day or two.
 
mikzn said:
Meta data and artwork are another matter :(
Click to expand...

Sadly, I learned that although iTunes can burn the CD text that gives me track names and band info, it didn’t load the album art. When I play or rip commercial CD’s directly to the car’s hdd, it also transfers the album art for display when playing. My car’s player even plays the videos included with some music CD’s.
 
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crjackson2134 said:
It was a horrible experience (slow), so I would rather just transport the music by way of MP3’s on a large USB stick or USB HDD. Transfer would be a lot faster I believe. Plus, I’m just throwing the CD’s in the garbage when done. I have no further use of them.
Click to expand...

oh no - please don't do that - keep the CD's - it is worth the effort! put them in a binder without cases etc - but keep them?
[doublepost=1566692072][/doublepost]
crjackson2134 said:
Sadly, I learned that although iTunes can burn the CD text that gives me track names and band info, it didn’t load the album art. When I play or rip commercial CD’s directly to the car’s hdd, it also transfers the album art for display when playing. My car’s player even plays the videos included with some music CD’s.
Click to expand...


Yeah - that is a given - but that said, as long as you can play the songs you want to hear - that is a good first step ?
 
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NoBoMac said:
Odd. Never had an issue down converting or trimming a track in iTunes.

In the case of the purchased tracks, might be old Apple DRM blocking things.

Lossless stuff from CDs, those in FLAC? iTunes will not handle those.
Click to expand...

This is what I'm greeted with when I select a song to convert...

Screen Shot 2019-08-24 at 8.34.40 PM.png
 
Did you change the rip settings? iTunes > Preferences, then the Import button at the bottom of the General tab. Change to MP3, ok, then save. The you should see the MP3 option.
 
NoBoMac said:
Did you change the rip settings? iTunes > Preferences, then the Import button at the bottom of the General tab. Change to MP3, ok, then save. The you should see the MP3 option.
Click to expand...

Not for this particular screenshot, but when I tried that route yesterday, that’s when I got the msg that most of my files couldn’t be converted. All of my music was ripped from CD’s and I now have several iTunes downloaded albums as well.

I’ll make the preferences changes tomorrow and grab a screenshot of the message.
 
You can always try audacity, load each file and export it as mp3.
Haven't tried it with flac, but it should work.
 
NoBoMac said:
Did you change the rip settings? iTunes > Preferences, then the Import button at the bottom of the General tab. Change to MP3, ok, then save. The you should see the MP3 option.
Click to expand...

This doesn’t seem to work for albums purchased on iTunes.

Here’s a general question along this line however... Yesterday I purchased a new album for my wife. She wanted this for her car (which isn’t equipped with a HDD). The album had to be spanned across multiple CDR’s. I burned them with full CD text data. She wants this on one CDR, so MP3 seems to be needed once again...

If I rip or otherwise convert this to MP3’s in a different folder on my cMP, can I also allow my computer to gather the album art and MP3 tags from the internet and have that be included on an MP3 CD?

I only use CD’s for the purpose of downloading onto my HDD in my Mustang, but she is stuck with inserting CDs for playback. Damned 370Z system... She can live with multiple CDs if there in no way around this, but she really wants ID3 tagging. I think this is possible, but I haven’t messed with this since decades ago.
 
crjackson2134 said:
Thanks for this. I had a very legitimate need to download an instructional video in HD onto my iPad. They gave me 50% off by using my university’s email address. Absolutely the best app I’ve ever used to download a YouTube video.
Click to expand...

Great to hear - I love both apps - fantastic - simple - easy to use
 
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