I just wanted to say that I am a fan of THIEL speakers as well.

I strongly recommend the Music Collector software package, which is only $30 or so and is excellent. I have used it for years.

It saves all of the pertinent information about the CD (or SACD or vinyl or whatever) on a comprehensive file page, plus you add notes.

It organizes everything by genre and type of software and many other categories, which you can organize and prioritize for screen display and printing of listings.

It is very powerful but quite easy to use.

You can also put a disc to be added into your computer's drive and it will scan online databases and find it and bring up the info and cover art for filing, so you don't have to enter it all manually.

As for playing the music from your computer, a USB connection to a CD player or other device is one option; there are many others. You can also buy a dedicated file server and put it all on it.

Pretty much most freeware "CD rippers" these days are also decent. Are you using a PC, Mac or Linux? If Mac, I find them best...but freeware is available for all three.

I typically rip a CD straight to .WAV, then the software automatically converts the .WAV to .FLAC...then I copy the FLAC files over to a free-stanging external NAS ..which means Network Access Server... A little inexpensive server typically running an easy to use version of Linux with a menu GUI accessible via intranet and containing one or more hard disks.. I would recommend one with at least 2 disks and set it up as RAID 1 (mirror)....this allows for a backup in case on of the disk fails. I learned this lesson the hard way when I lost over 4.5GB of music a few years ago.... nearly a tragic event for an audiophile!!!!!

As for making the process faster, if you have a very large library, there *may* be services available...try google search.
Otherwise, it's pretty straightforward... one disc at a time. But the software does place artist and track information automatically as the previous poster indicated. I am also aware most CD/DVD players in modern computers "rip" cd's much faster than older ones..so if you have a very old drive, spend the $30 or so and get a new, faster one. That would be a huge time saver. I haven't done this in quite awhile, but if memory serves, I think it takes under 5 minutes to both rip and convert a typical CD tp FLAC. Not bad.

Best of luck -

Ron

I suppose I'm probably going to catch a lot of flac for saying this, no pun intended, but unless one treats the CD and the ripper one is not going to0 obtain optimum results. Not at all. the same issues exist fro ripping that exist when playing CDs straight from the player. Note to self: this should probably be a thread unto itself.

Geoff Kait
machinadynamica.com
advanced audio concepts