Hi
Can I please ask a newbie question in the hope that someone can give me a very basic “idiots guide” response. I have used an elderly Roon ROCK server for a couple of years simply to stream Qobuz to my integrated amplifier. I have an attic full of old CDs gathering dust and my plan is to purchase a new Nucleus and understand this has capacity for up to 10,000 albums. I’d like to store these on the Nucleus but how do I do this? Do I connect my CD player (which has RCA and digital outputs) directly to the Nucleus? I would like to save the CDs in the highest resolution possible. Any advice would be much appreciated - thank you.
No - this won’t work.
You need to “rip” your CDs to turn the data stored on the CD into audio files. These files then need to be made accessible to the Nucleus.
There are options to choose from for both the “ripping” process and for how the subsequent files are made accessible to the Nucleus.
Do you have a PC or Mac? Either can be used to rip CDs with the addition of a USB CD-drive and suitable ripping software.
Alternatively, the USB CD-drive can be attached directly to the Nucleus, since the Nucleus has a ripping function built in. The caveat with this though is that the ripping function does not handle boxsets very well - there will be need for a lot of manual adjusting of the metadata using Roon’s editing functions, and this can be tedious.
This is why many of us prefer to rip using a PC/Mac and a ripping application, where manual adjustments of the metadata can be done in advance of the actual ripping into the audio files.
As for storage of the files, this article gives you an overview of the options available:
Be aware that the Nucleus does not come with any internal storage of media files out of the box - if you want to go that route you must add a 2.5" drive internally yourself.
Please come back here with any questions you might have and we in the Roon Community will be happy to help further.
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10,000 CDs ripped to FLAC will fit comfortably on a 4 TB drive. You can buy a nice solid state USB-attached model for $250 and use it with your existing Nucleus. No need to buy a new Nucleus unless you want to for other reasons:
If you have a Mac or Windows PC, using external USB storage is advantageous. You can temporarily disconnect the drive from your Nucleus (after shutting it down) and attach it to your PC. Doing so makes it somewhat easier to add and organize files, perform backups, etc. It’s also possible to perform these activities with the storage attached to the Nucleus over a network connection, but that adds some complexity that you may wish to avoid. USB storage (formatted as exFAT) is also a Roon best practice:
If you have a lot of CDs to rip (“an attic full…up to 10,000 albums”), you’ll only want to do this once! Trust me on this. That means doing it correctly with reasonably accurate metadata, embedded album art, meaningful folder and file names, and rips that are verified to be free of errors. The ripper that Roon Labs provides in Nucleus (Roon OS) does none of these things. However, a relatively inexpensive (under $50) software application called dBpoweramp does. It’s arguably the most popular CD ripping solution for folks with more than a few hundred CDs. Once it is installed and setup, it’s very easy to use. You will find setup instructions here:
https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper-setup-guide.htm
If your PC does not have an optical drive (few do these days), you’ll need to buy one of those also. You’d also need one if you went the Nucleus route. This model is very popular:
Finally, although individual CDs rip pretty quickly (generally three to five minutes each), ripping thousands of them is an investment in time that will span months. Again, you only ever want to do this once, so creating backups as you go is imperative. Therefore, you’ll want to buy a second USB storage device with backup software. I’ve not personally used this model, but it it’s popular and gets good marks:
So, your total investment is roughly:
- Solid State Music Storage (4TB): $250
- Ripping Software (dBpoweramp): $50
- Optical drive (LG): $30
- Backup Drive (5TB): $170
Total: $500 (a lot less than a new Nucleus which would still require most of these items anyway)
Well, that plus roughly a thousands hours of work to actually rip ~10k CDs. 
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Edit: Experts following along at home will be quick to point out that backup best practices include maintaining a second copy of your files that you store off-site…for example, in a safe deposit box or at a trusted relative or friend’s house. This is to defend against natural disasters, fires, theft, etc. It’s good advice, but adding files to this off-line copy is inconvenient, and you’re months away from needing it. Once you have completed the task of ripping all of the CDs that you want, consider purchasing a third USB storage device for your off-site backup. This model (or whatever is available when you finish six months from now) is appropriate:
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Let me offer an alternative as you already use Roon with Qobuz.
You can add an extension called rooplay which will allow you to play your CDs through Roon without the effort of starting from scratch and saving the CDs to files, it might be a simpler solution.
@DrCWO is the author.
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Please visit my rooExtend Page. There you get all Information on my Roon Extensions.
For rooPlay I also run a support thread here in the forum
rooPlay - From LP, CD and iPhone to Roon - Audio Gear Talk / rooExtend - Roon Labs Community
Best DrCWO
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