I’m making my way to roon, I know I’ll end up there at some point but just getting my feet wet for now. I got the ez cd converter, slick app, gets all of info from the cds cover art etc, pretty easy process. I have some unique cds that can’t be found on steaming platforms so I was going to rip them anyway.
I tried doing it in dsd, I also have a cd transport that up samples to dsd and my conclusion is the same. Dsd sound too buttery, lacks dynamics in my system. My system is fairly smooth so the added smoothness makes it sound really bland. I preferred just ripping to flac instead.
I put all the cds on a 256gb fit drive that was like $60 off amazon. Plugged it into the back of the ZS and it worked flawlessly. The interface is nothing special but it does the job, tracks don’t glitch when they play, gapless etc. Also does dsd.
The sound was really good, I maybe even better than when steaming but jury is still out on that. At the very least I can say it sounds just as good. To me this is a proposition with a lot of value, I can basically ditch a cd transport and sell my cds because the sound is better. I’m still kind of attached to the cds so I don’t want to rush the decision of ditching them.
The one thing that I don’t like is that I don’t think there’s a safe way of ejecting the usb drive from the ZS so when you connect it to the laptop it props you to scan for errors. Maybe there’s some workaround for this.