[akfaulkner]

Originally Posted by SAPHANA

This is a topic I am interested in, and in the past, I tried multiple approaches, then settled down with dBpoweramp (Rip CD) + Roon.

I have 10K+ CDs. It's, a lot, I mean...a lot.

Initially I used iTunes to rip the CDs to Apple Lossless, but found many were ripped badly: too many cracks and pops. The worst part is: you don't know what the quality is until you listen to the files.

After multiple other tries and failures, I ended up with dBpoweramp, which runs on PC, and cost ~$50.

The advantage of dBpoweramp over iTunes is quality and metadata.
The advantage of dBpoweramp over free Exact Audio Copy is tags: it allows you to access 4 online metadata libraries, 3 of them are not free.

Now I have Roon, which has eased some pains of metadata management of my music library.

My current workflow: 4 CD/DVD/BD-DVD drives ripping CDs simultaneously on a PC, then import to Roon.

Results: for 13K CDs I ripped so far, only 1.7k cannot be identified by Roon, which I don't blame Roon because I know most of them are brand new CD releases from historical recordings.

So, My cost is just ~$50 ripping software + 4 drives + an old useless PC + $500 lifetime Roon membership.

That's interesting, I have never had a problem with lossless format burning via iTunes. All sound superb.