New user. Want to start fresh on dedicated iMac

Roon Software Discussion
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Will be installing Roon on a new 240 Gb SSD on an older iMac, then going through a Meridian Director to an older McIntosh integrated amp.

The plan is to get started with this smaller SSD drive for now, then migrate to a Synology NAS setup in 6 months or so. I’m going to burn the CD collection again, this time skipping iTunes altogether since this will be a dedicated Roon/Tidal player now.

Setting up the software Roon asks to import. I don’t want to import, just add new rips one at a time. I also want to keep the transition to the external drives in mind.

I’ m starting at square one which is a good opportunity do get on the right foot. Any step by step advice from experienced users out there? Rip to flac?

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@C_Richards

Welcome to Roon.

https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_What_are_the_minimum_requirements%3F

I pasted the minimum requirements in the above link for hardware.

Personally, I run Roon core on a late 2014 imac with attached USB HDD and SSD.

You can add new music files one by one, but you don’t have to it that way unless you choose too. Importing works nicely as well. My initial catalog was broken down into alphabetical subdirectories for both hi res and CD quality flac files. Roon sorted them out nicely. I add new flac files ripped by JRiver Media Center since that’s I was using prior to migrating to Roon. Certainly, other ripping program options are available.

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Yeah, I checked the minimums, mine machine is a few years older but it looks like it will be adequate with the new drive and extra RAM.

Since everything was ripped to Apple lossless, we figure we will take a long term view and re listen and rip to flac.

So it sounds like we still need separate stand alone software to rip the cd’s to flac.

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Hi, That’s correct. I use dBpoweramp on a Windows PC (There is also a Mac version now) but there are many other options XLD for example.

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or rather than re ripping just convert from apple lossles to FLAC using something like DBpoweramp batch converter.

1 Like
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I just realized I ripped them to SD2f not Apple lossless. I think it’s a Roxio (Toast) lossless. It looks a bit more cumbersome but still probably easier than redoing them. I’ll check dbpoweramp

edit: If I recall correctly, I used SD2f because it is a disc image and an easy format to burn a new disc.

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Not sure if this is still supported in OS X, but apparently you can (or could) convert from SD2f to ALAC in Finder:

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My preferred Mac Ripper/Converter is XLD.
It also supports sd2f according to their website (under release note 2013/4/7),
Before starting converting your audio files with it, take a look at the naming conventions. XLD can already create your preferred folder hierarchy. It can save a lot of manual work, when setting it up properly at the beginning.

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great. exactly what I need it seems.