You don’t need that large of a SSD…500 CDs in flac would fit on a 250gb drive.
SSDs are expensive, and the larger sizes are even more expensive. Save your money and spend it on more music or a Tidal subscription. If you want to have the SSD get the 1TB model…you will save $400-500…
Hi David
The most important thing is a “stereo” system is the music you listen too. No point in having the best unless you can listen to what you want and be able to enjoy it. Lets start with that. I cant help but think that a streaming solution would be best for based on your writings and responses. Have you logged in to a free account on Spotify just to search the titles available, same for Tidal? You might be surprised at the selection. If they have what you like/ have / want, it will be a whole lot easier to get an all in one player, stream from a subscription service to a pair of room appropriate speakers. If your in NY then you have a host of stores that can show you various all in one products. Naim, Sim audio, Peachtree, Atoll are some of the better quality buys, but there are literally over 100 to choose from. Buy local. You can go back and ask questions. However if you absolutely have to be able to rip your cd’s to files then Andrew Gillis had the best response. You still need an integrated amp and speakers. I’m willing to bet a NY dollar that 80% of your CD’s can be found on a streaming service if not more.
With this you can explore more and share playlists. You can also add a CD player to an all in one box. I have a large collection of CD’s and Vinyl bought at different points of my life that I will never listen to again. My goal is to have 500 of the best titles on a play list and then only add to it when one is displaced. Just like in business when we fire the worst client only to be replaced by a better one. If I have 500 “Albums” on a shelf, I can only hear them perhaps 2x a year if I play one a night. That’s my thinking. It’s all about the music and not the gear. Your set up needs to be good enough so that you enjoy it. After that focus on your music. Go to a store and have a look. A rule of thumb is if you cant figure it out with just a few pointers its too complicated. The remote, set up, operating and searching all have to be able to happen without you asking someone else how to do it more than twice. FYI Muti room is not an issue only more expensive.
Six rooms sounds like a Sonos soulution to me. Hope that might help.
Cheers
Steve
This is great advice but what if I start falling in love with Hi-Rez music? I’m afraid if I start buying albums in this format I will eat up the space pretty quickly.
It’s your money 
Hi res stuff is nice, but a good 16/44.1 plain old CD can sound pretty darn good…I probably have 1000 CDs and 100 hi-res, DVD audio, SACD albums…everything I have minus the SACDs fits on a 500 GB drive.
Then just add another external drive. Piece of cake. Roon - or most any digital music app - can pull all your music together from multiple disks.
Im starting to think @David_Hunter should give some serious thought to whether he even needs Roon at all in this case. Bluesound speakers, a good music streaming subscription, and a Bluesound vault for ripping those few CDs he just can’t find on a streaming service. Easy Peasy!
Spinning HDD are really dirt cheap. a 4TB drive is costing ZAR 2000 ($160) here , probably cheaper elsewhere.
Just calculate how much that means in CD’s are 300Mb each (6666 albums) even 2000 24/96 Hi Res
If you can listen that much in a life time …
Beware though, some of the Seagate Back Up and Desktop Extension drives are not that silent. I only use them for BU and far away from listening areas. Maybe a smaller but more silent SSD would be a good investment and top up from Tidal.
Mike
You all are making me think I should get the SonicTransporter with a 1TB SSD instead of the 2TB SSD. With Roon, I can see myself listening to subscription music more and more and won’t really need to download a whole lot of albums.
One thing to consider is that unless your ST will be in your listening area then having a spinning disk might not be an issue. To be honest I have many spinning disks in my listening room (it doubles as an office) but I have other spaces to listen too without spinning disks…as Roon Server its out of the network it really doesn’t have to be in your listening space unless you are connecting a DAC via USB to it.
I have a Fanless windows system running now with a 12TB HDD drive and I can’t honestly say that I hear it as my AC is on and music playing too are all above the noise it makes.
It all sits on a NAS with 8 spinning drives and 2 fans too that honestly really don’t bother me either. At the other end of the room is another NAS with 2 drives spinning away and a fan.
I have to have AC on as Singapore is seldom below 24 Deg C even in the dead of night…and even if the AC is off a ceiling fan would be on anyway.
I just had a nice telephone call with the folks at Innovative Audio here in NYC. They agreed with me that my choices of music and fondness for particular classical and world recordings necessitates a Roon setup. BluOS and Sonos are way too limiting and I would find myself frustrated.
I’m still waiting to hear from Andrew about whether or not I should get a 1 or 2Tb SSD SonicTransporter but this seems like a done deal at this point.
I’m still on the fence about Bluesound speakers, however. A tech guy at Bluesound suggested yesterday I get the Pulse Soundbar for my movie watching and music listening in my bedroom. The Soundbar has mixed reviews.
So I’m asking myself, why am I wedded to Bluesound? Are there better speakers that are also Roon ready. I’ve been reading about the KEF LS50’s. Two of these in my bedroom for stereo music and TV watching can be great. I would just need to be synched to other KEF speakers if this were the route I were to go. What are your thoughts?
Are you talking about the KEF LS50 wireless? If so, they are not fully Roon Ready, they can be used as an endpoint, but cannot be grouped to other zones in Roon. I have a pair and they are great. Except that I just had to send them back to KEF for repair…do some research on them to see the issues people have had. Still waiting for them to tell me when I will get them back. They did say they will honor the Just expired warranty. But like I said I am still waiting for the outcome.
If you want hifi quality then your best to build a system from single components than buy an all in one. It will be more rewarding but not as simpler solution. If you want active speakers you need a DAC/preamp combination that is Roon Ready or a separate endpoint and DAC/Preamp.
Roon doesn’t need to be complicated! Although reading this forum would have you think otherwise… 
Sounds like you are down the path somewhat, but here’s what I have evolved to (all in the name of simplicity)…
I have a house with ethernet coming to only one room. My Roon core is set up on a MAC with ethernet. All of my music is on the 1TB Samsung SSD you referenced, which I back up regularly to another drive. I also subscribe to Tidal through Roon.
Ethernet also feeds my system in the same room, for which I am now using an Oppo 205.
For other systems in the house, I use:
Since ethernet isn’t an option in other rooms, I either use wi-fi or the ethernet output from my Eero mesh wi-fi (a trick which essentially converts wi-fi to ethernet). BTW other options are available for this, such as a device to run ethernet through your power lines (although this approach was too noisy for my tube amp).
Hope this helps!
I forget the last time I played a cd…most likely the last time I didn’t stream something I was likely playing vinyl.
David, as you can see there are lots of people with lots of advice! Here’s mine…
Tell me, do you have a main listening room, one where you generally listen to music and where you will sit with friends when they come around…? If so, have you considered having your best set up there (your oppo with a small simple integrated amp and passive wired speakers - there are lots available which will sound great without breaking the bank). Your transporter would be near your router as you plan. Then bluesound in all your other living spaces. That would give you better sound than your bose in your main room (great for showing Roon off to friend!) and the ability to play the odd cd there if someone brings one round. As you now know, the cd would not be streamable around the house but that won’t be a problem…just rip it on the transporter when you get a second and play it via roon.
You clearly want a ssd not spinning disc, so why not go with 1tb rather than 2 and add a small usb drive if you need in the future ( they should be very cheap by then! That would give you a combination of a fantastic quality rig with all the convenience of easy multiroom in a simple, low maintenance set up.
I follow your way in the roon world with interest, @David_Hunter. While I can’t really help you with your questions about Bluesound speakers (though I got curious in the course of this thread) or the choice of a good amp, you may consider the advice quoted above. You mentioned the KEF LS50. I own a pair of the passive version, and they are really great sounding little fellows. If your listening space is on the small side, you should definitively give them a try.
The active version (LS50W) seems to have some reliability issues at the moment, so go for the old and trusted. 
One other suggestion I would make… you don’t need to go all in at once. Buy one or two Bluesound speakers, get a streaming subscription, and try it out for a while. You can easily build on from here. Roon. More speakers. Different speakers for different rooms. There is just no reason you have to do this all at once. Just make sure that whatever you start with is Roon-ready so you can add differnt types of endpoints and you’re not locked into a single brand (that’s one of the drawbacks of Sonos).
Thank you for your advice. The way I look at it is, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this right. An SSD has less moving parts than an HDD and will last longer and have less noise. I’m not sure which room the SonicTransporter will be in, as of yet, but I want it to be built like a Sherman Tank. I don’t ever want to have to think about or be worried about it.
So Andrew just got back to me. The difference between a 1TB SSD and a 2TB SSD is $350. This in negligable considering the overall cost of the SonicTransporter. I will get the 2TB SSD, just to be safe.
Thanks to everyone here and your helpful advice. I have now made two purchases:
Now to the speakers. I do not have to make a decision right away about them and I’m waffling back-and-forth. So far in this discussion, it seemed like Bluesound was the way to go. Now I’m thinking about getting the Naim Muso for my television and bedroom listening and the Naim Muso Qb’s for the rest of the apartment.
Has anyone had experience with Naim speakers and how it interacts with a Roon core device?
Per my recollection, all of the Naim units support AirPlay, but only one model supports Roon RAAT.
AJ