HI Krutsch,
Which drive are you using? for $50 id like to try the new features. $1300 seems very very steep for a cd ripper that does noting else but rip and enable playing a cd through the BDP. Id like to see/test the power of its ripping software, and how it holds up to the features and ease of use of XLD and the likes.
One of my main concerns is where the ripped tracks are stored, or are they stored at all ? Whats your experience up to now?
Thanks,
Marius
Any of the USB 2.0 drives will work, AFAIK. I use this one:
http://www.lg.com/us/data-storage/lg-BP50NB40 ... which was $80 US at BBY. It's very quiet and fast; powers just fine from the upper, back USB port on my BDP-1. Yes, it's cheap looking, and that matters to me, so I am interested in adding a BOT-1. I would be interested to learn if there are other advantages to the BOT-1, technically speaking, over a cheap spinner.
James has answered some of your questions, regarding usage, but my experience has been a good one. I buy a LOT of used CDs from local stores and Amazon, so I am sort of ripping all of the time. I've ripped directly to a flash drive or a hard drive and then rebuild the Bryston DB (which is very fast now, with the latest BETA).
CD Playback is a really nice feature; the sound quality is identical to ripping beforehand and playing back from your storage. A really fantastic concept from Bryston which obsoletes dedicated CD players - except for the fact that I have a large collection of BD, SACD, DVD-A and DVD Video discs, in addition to Redbook CDs. So, I have a stand-alone SACD player and a Blu-ray player, in addition to the BDP-1... it all takes up a lot of desk space:
