Affordable CD Ripping / FLAC Encoding Service! (Move to PC based audio today!)

The Computer Audiophile · « **Reply #80 on:** 7 Dec 2007, 06:42 pm »

Wow, this is a pretty great service at a great price!

- Chris
Computer Audiophile | Turn Down The Silence

http://www.computeraudiophile.com

kbuzz3 · « **Reply #81 on:** 7 Dec 2007, 07:52 pm »

Basic question for this service. I use both PC and Mac, do we have to commit to a specific platform for ripping?

Tirade · « **Reply #82 on:** 7 Dec 2007, 09:29 pm »

Quote from: Bill Laurent on 7 Dec 2007, 02:59 pm

Yes,

And I still have two more boxes of disks for Tirade.

Cheers,
Bill

You are the reason for my latest post Bill

Tirade · « **Reply #83 on:** 7 Dec 2007, 09:30 pm »

Quote from: kbuzz3 on 7 Dec 2007, 07:52 pm

Basic question for this service. I use both PC and Mac, do we have to commit to a specific platform for ripping?

Itunes doesnt support FLAC, so if you are on a Mac and use itunes, then my service wouldnt be right for you. Otherwise, you do not have to commit to a platform as long as your player of choice supports FLAC.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #84 on:** 20 Dec 2007, 07:00 pm »

The BToH just delivered my CDs and a new 500GB music drive from Tim. Everything was very well packed and looks great. Hopefully I'll be able to get the drive hooked up tonight and make my wife happy with some Xmas music through the Squeeze Box.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #85 on:** 25 Dec 2007, 08:27 pm »

Oh yeah, this is nice. The set-up could not have been easier, just plug in the new music drive, tell SlimServer where to look, do a rescan and I was up and running in less than 15 minutes. The sound quality from the HDD through the SB3 and DAC is excellent, better than my old CDP through the same DAC. Almost as good as the sound quality is the convenience, being able to play my entire collection, small as it is, without having to swap CDs is great. And the random options on the SB3 mean I get to hear a lot of songs and even albums I hadn't listened to in a long time.

I might re-label some of the files, most of my wife's of the Xmas albums are labeled as pop, country or classical, rather than Xmas. I've also found one album (out of just under 300) that apparently didn't rip properly. Otherwise, everything seems to be working great. Thanks Tim!

anthony a. · « **Reply #86 on:** 11 Jan 2008, 04:21 am »

I had my collection ripped by Tim late last year and am very happy with the service. I also bought a HDD from hi, all came well packaged. A++++++

Dean100 · « **Reply #87 on:** 23 Jan 2008, 04:28 pm »

Tim

I sent you an email in regards to ripping my collection. Need your address and phone number for shipping. Have everything ready to send. 242 CD's most of which are in your database.

Thanks

Dean

Dean100 · « **Reply #88 on:** 5 Feb 2008, 03:29 pm »

Hi Tim

Just wondering what kind of progress you are making on my collection. Hopefully you are not having too much trouble with the wife's CD's. She has not taken as good of care of them over the years as she should.

Dean

Tirade · « **Reply #89 on:** 6 Feb 2008, 08:59 pm »

Quote from: Dean100 on 23 Jan 2008, 04:28 pm

Tim

I sent you an email in regards to ripping my collection.

Dean

Dean, Ive been replying to your emails, I'm not sure if they are going to your spam filter or not.

I don't check the forums daily, but I did send you a PM just in case your email is not working.

Tim

cloudbaseracer · « **Reply #90 on:** 8 Feb 2008, 06:41 am »

Tim,

I have read through this post and find your service to be one I am very interested in using. I do have a unique question for you. I have several discs that have these "hidden" songs on them. They do not cue up as individual numbered selections and are accessible by letting the disc continue to play past the end of the main song. The most recent one I have purchased is from Damien Rice and it has 2 songs at the end of track 10. Approximately 1 minute after "Eskimo Friend" (track 10) ends another song begins, plays and then another 1 minute or so span elapses until the second hidden song is played. I am wondering how you would handle this feature? The songs do not have names listed on the cd case. Personally I think it is a foolish way to "market" an album/songs but oh well. Mainly it is just frustrating to not be able to go directly to these songs and I could see it as a problem if someone selected track 10 in a playlist and there was this dead silence for a minute before it cued up a song you didn't even want to hear.

I hope you understand my question and that you have an explanation I will be able to understand.

Thanks,

James

Tirade · « **Reply #91 on:** 10 Feb 2008, 04:43 pm »

Quote from: cloudbaseracer on 8 Feb 2008, 06:41 am

Tim,

I have read through this post and find your service to be one I am very interested in using. I do have a unique question for you. I have several discs that have these "hidden" songs on them. They do not cue up as individual numbered selections and are accessible by letting the disc continue to play past the end of the main song. The most recent one I have purchased is from Damien Rice and it has 2 songs at the end of track 10. Approximately 1 minute after "Eskimo Friend" (track 10) ends another song begins, plays and then another 1 minute or so span elapses until the second hidden song is played. I am wondering how you would handle this feature? The songs do not have names listed on the cd case. Personally I think it is a foolish way to "market" an album/songs but oh well. Mainly it is just frustrating to not be able to go directly to these songs and I could see it as a problem if someone selected track 10 in a playlist and there was this dead silence for a minute before it cued up a song you didn't even want to hear.

I hope you understand my question and that you have an explanation I will be able to understand.

Thanks,

James

The hidden songs can be ripped as additional tracks, no need to wait for the pause

cloudbaseracer · « **Reply #92 on:** 2 Mar 2008, 05:39 pm »

Tim,

Maybe you explained this and I didn't understand or maybe I didn't explain my question accurately enough. You say they can be ripped separately. What if you are sent 500 discs to rip. Does someone need to tell you which specific disks have these hidden pauses/tracks? None of them are listed anywhere on the jacket or disc info.

Sorry for my not understanding. I am just frustrated with the album producers and see a potential problem with ripping this to a music file and then just hitting random.

Thanks,

James

Tirade · « **Reply #93 on:** 2 Mar 2008, 05:54 pm »

When the CD is inserted the entire disk is scanned. If youre hidden songs arent separate tracks (i.e. track 10 has a song that is 10min long but only the first 5min has music then there is 2min of silence and then 3min of more music which is another song but the same track) then it does make it more difficult. Sometimes though the CD is done in an odd way. There may be 99 tracks on the CD with tracks 1-10 being songs and then tracks 11-97 are 0 second tracks and then track 98 & 99 are the 2 "hidden" tracks. If the hidden songs are separate tracks they will be ripped as separate tracks and any 0 second tracks are removed (so instead of 1-99 you have 1-12). If the hidden son is imbedded in the last track after a long pause it will be ripped as 1 long track usually. If I know in advance which tracks have imbedded songs its possible (I believe) to test these tracks for silence and split the track into separate songs. I know it can be done and I think its pretty painless, Id just need a little time to look it up. I think its uses the EAC Test GAP for Silence function.

Dean100 · « **Reply #94 on:** 6 Mar 2008, 03:24 pm »

Just wanted to let everyone know that if you are considering having Tim rip your CD's, do not hesitate to do so.

I sent my collection to Tim and he kept me updated throughout the entire process. Received everything back and am extremely happy with the results.

Will be receiving my new squeezebox duet today and am anxious to play some flac files over my main system.

Thanks Tim!

Tirade · « **Reply #95 on:** 10 Mar 2008, 07:36 pm »

IMPORTANT INFO!

Beginning April 1st I will be raising the prices from $.50 per CD to $.65 (if you contacted me already then the .50 price will still apply).

While the cost increase still places me significantly lower than anyone else offering these same services, it doesn't come without a reason (and no its not inflation!).

Ive recently invested in a new robotic duplicator which allows me to decrease the amount of time required to rip your collection by almost 50% and helps keep my hands off your CD's. The subscription service I use for metadata (tagging your music) now charges me between $.07-$.20 for every CD I look up, but I can now search 5 databases at a time in order to ensure your CD's are tagged accurately. This time savings also allows me to ability to spend more time getting higher quality cover art for your CD's and doing a better job of organizing your music library for you.

If you're currently waiting for my services, please send me a PM or email so that I can get you scheduled ASAP. I have openings coming up in the next few weeks.

Tim

Tirade · « **Reply #96 on:** 2 Apr 2008, 01:30 pm »

New baby is on the way, so my availability might be limited come the middle of May. If you haven't got those CD's out to me, you might want to do it ASAP. Ripping times are very fast right now and most collections under 500 CD's can be done in a week. Its still first come first serve though so don't delay and its not often that I'm not backed up.

Tirade · « **Reply #97 on:** 6 Apr 2008, 04:28 pm »

Weekend bump.

Mrmb · « **Reply #98 on:** 22 Apr 2008, 12:19 am »

Kudos to Tim:

If you're thinking about having your CD's ripped, I highly recommend Tim's service. I just received my 600+ CD's back and the process couldn't have gone more smoothly! Tim's communications were excellent. He kept me informed of his progress, and packaging and shipping were top notch!

Over the last several years, I ripped about 200GB's worth of tracks into wav files -- culling the most popular tracks off my CD's. When I began doing so, PC audio and iPod's weren't on the horizon. I was using the Wav’s I ripped, to burn compilation CD's for home and car use. Tagging information wasn't necessary. In fact, I wasn't aware of the presence of metadata.

After jumping head first into PC Audio a couple of years ago by divesting myself of a Wadia 861 CDP and acquiring a Wavelength Brick Silver, I quickly discovered that I wanted entire discs in my library, and having tagging data became more of a necessity rather than a luxury. And along came Tim's service to my attention, and the rest as they say, is history!

So far, I've managed to view most of my tracks Tim ripped and have played many. I've compared the Wav's I previously ripped via EAC with the FLAC files Tim provided, and quite frankly, I haven't been able to notice a difference, and I would consider my system to be a fairly highly resolved one. I'm using J River Media Center and Vista. My preamp is a Supratek; amps are CAT's, and my speakers are Soundlab M1's. In addition to digital, I'm running a Galibier tt with a Tri-Planar arm. The latter is my primary front end, as my return to vinyl a few years ago, placed digital a distant second, and seeing my Wadia gathering dust suggested that I needed to divest myself of it and take the proceeds to buy a laptop which I could use for tasks other than audio (unlike the Wadia) and a USB DAC. Switching to PC audio, and going back to vinyl have been high points in my audiophile life. Both have added immeasurable pleasure to the hobby. Intermingling the old and new has really been a blast! Now, if I just had that old Revox B77 tape deck back….(grin).

With that said, I'm really pleased with the quality of the FLAC files, the tagging that was done and Tim's service, and wanted to give it a hearty recommendation.

Mike (Mrmb)

Tirade · « **Reply #99 on:** 30 Apr 2008, 04:20 pm »

Thanks for the kind words Mike!

Sorry for the slow reply and I apologize to anyone that is/was waiting for a reply from me over the last week or so. I do have a good excuse though... Im a new daddy!!! The baby came a little early but mom and baby are doing great. We are scheduled to go home tomorrow, and I'll try and catch up on emails this weekend. I'll try and get a pic of the baby and proud parents up soon.

Tim