First the vast majority of music CD’s are recorded at 16/44
If I use "a good CD copying software, ( Exact Copy Audio ) I have multiple choices for my end result.
Wav files, Flac files etc and at all kinds of upscaling all the way up to 32/384.
I use a Marantz 7011 AVR which has its own Dac capability as well a surround signal processing
Question: am I better off copying the cd’s at their native 16/44 and let the AVR do all the upscaling or is it better to upscale during the copying phase to say 24/192 and then have the AVR upscale or process from there.
Many of us use DBpoweramp to rip our discs. I’m more comfortable with down sampling than up sampling. Others can chime in. I rip them as FLAC with the least compression. DBpoweramp compares previous rips in their database and notifies you of discrepancies in the rip.
Since even SSD storage is so affordable now I’ve started ripping all of my CD’s as .WAV
I wouldn’t do any type of upscaling/sampling during the ripping process.
I use EAC and keep my rips native 16/44. I always ripped to WAVs, no compression. However Ted noted FLAC format has integrity checking to protect against bit rot. Yes, more to worry about. So I will flip my EAC default to FLAC from now on… although honestly, I am not so sure I should worry about bit rot… even if a bit gets flipped or dropped… a few out of the trillions… But given there is no cost in audio quality and FLAC is still bit-for-bit like WAV, I will flip my bit in EAC from now on.
My principles:
I could care less about tagging
I could care less about compression - disc and network transport is cheap and getting cheaper by the minute
I don’t want any manipulation of the bits… no up down sampling… I let that all up to the playback DAC.
To recommend players we’d need to understand how you (plan to) rip the CDs, (plan to) organizer and store the files, which software you (plan to) use, and last but not least what a budget might be (maybe in relation to your overall system). Sorry, if you posted that already somewhere and I missed that.
Btw: I’d also recommend ripping as Flac with no upsampling.
Paul did a whole video and post on ripping and best approach. I rip wav; however, Brett is right on tagging. I believe Apple has a zero compression equal to windows wav, yet supports info… AIFF
Hooboy… you are wading into a religious war… yikes.
I store my music on a NAS. So NAS to PC via Ethernet, Foobar player on PC to Directstream DAC via USB.
Let the war begin! Oh, my setup is the best and everything else sucks. Salvation is only possible through accepting Foobar as your player. I am obligated to smite all heretics.
I myself have liked Plex as a media player, why it reads files on my Nas, it does no music processing, I can access remotely and play music. And oh yes it also does photos and videos
I have Plex Server running on a PC and as an app on my Apple TV as well as a NVidia Tv all connected to my amp via HDMI
I also have a Raspberry Pi3 with a HiFiBerry Dac+ Pro connected to my amp via RCA cables
Of all the Raspberry Pi running Moode is simple easy and seem to sound best.
Just trying to get any last ideas to try before choosing one and forgetting the rest
dB Power Amp Ripped to AIFF onto my iMac. iMac backed up to Synology NAS.
My primary library software is JRiver Media Center, but my kids’ iTune/Apple Music purchases and rips are also available through the iTunes/Apple music software on the iMac.
All downloaded and ripped files archived on the iMac (including Apple Music files) are available to be played on my DS Sr. DAC via JRiver Remote, Roon, Mconnect/Mcontrol and Apple Music on my iOS devices via my wi-fi/Ethernet network and the Ethernet bridge (PSA Bridge II) installed in my DAC.
So far the best sound in my system is obtained when I play files using JRMC/J Remote; followed by Roon/Tidal and then Mconnect/Mcontrol.