Ripping 300 CDs on Mac Mini

[sjsanford]

Hi everyone - quick question. I just got a Mac Mini to use as a music server, and I have about 300 CDs in my library to rip. Is the internal CD/DVD drive on the Mini up to the task? Or should I go with an external?

 

Wondering if folks have ripped a similar number of CDs without incident on the Mini.

 

Thanks!

-Steve

 

[Clueless]

Hi Steve,

 

I bought a new mac mini about 3 months ago too. I have ripped 735 albums since buying it using the internal drive. I used XLD to rip them. I had a few issues where CDs wouldn't open, I'd just eject it and try again, tgen it would read ok. On the whole it worked fine. I thought about an external drive but decided against it.

 

I hope this helps and good luck with the ripping!

 

[sjsanford]

Great - that's good to know. After doing a lot of research, I was also planning to get XLD (for ripping and converting FLACs), so I'm glad to hear you've had good results with it. I'm really digging the Mini with VNC apps on my MacBook and iPhone, plus the iPhone Remote App. Everything sounds super. And I haven't even inserted a DAC into the chain yet (which is the next step!).

 

[Clueless]

This was my first foray into computer audio and I'm very pleased so far. I also use the iPhone remote app which is excellent. I've just added a little Arcam rDAC for now, I plan on getting something better over the next few months, so far I'm loving the whole setup!

 

[Clueless]

Hi Steve,

 

I bought a new mac mini about 3 months ago too. I have ripped 735 albums since buying it using the internal drive. I used XLD to rip them. I had a few issues where CDs wouldn't open, I'd just eject it and try again, tgen it would read ok. On the whole it worked fine. I thought about an external drive but decided against it.

 

I hope this helps and good luck with the ripping!

 

(used iPhone to post and it posted twice, can't see an option to remove, sorry!)

 

[Erwin S]

I ripped about 1,500 CD's with it (in 6 months). First, with iTunes, there were some unexplained incidents where the CD would be "lost" right after iTunes detected it and not appear on the screen. The CD always reappeared after restart. I now use XLD and this never happens anymore.

 

By default, XLD automatically sets the correct offset value, which is different for every drive (though you can set manually after you look it up)! I am not even sure that iTunes would do this with an external drive. Another plus for XLD is the rip-report ofcourse, so you know if all went well or not. And XLD is perfect to open FLAC downloads, which are then output to AIFF (or ALAC if you want) and added to iTunes.

 

You are ripping at least in Apple Lossless, are you?