SSD for the Nucleus and how to rip CDs for it

Roon Software Discussion Nucleus
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I just signed up, having read this thread.

I have 2 problems, but one seems solved by that thread.

I already possess a MacIntosh DAC (MAC 7200 - which is a Receiver and integrated system in one very heavy box). Connected to MacIntosh desktop speakers. With the new upgrade to it. I know it works together since I can get FM on a nice classical station. (The FM was not a necessity but the only way to get in the US this 200 watt machine, which my dear departed spouse had wanted for me, to keep me company after his death. We had 6 yrs advance warning of that death, so no need to imagine I’m depressed or inconsolable.) The PURPOSE of this purchase was theoretically to digitize our CD’s and have a MacIntosh that knew about the internet. (We still have our old MacIntosh 100 watt system, which includes a CD player and lovely huge KEF speakers - all in a small retirement apartment.)

All of that in order to remark that, based on that thread, it seems to me that with the Roon Nucleus and a the Roon software, my Roon-tested DAC is sufficient, given a USB connection from the Nucleus to the DAC and Ethernet cable from the Router to the Nucleus.

I gather that should give me good sound from internet radio using the Roon Nucleus. And this iPad I’m currently typing on once I download the Ap (and connect all that)?

I’m guessing the answer is YES. (To me simplicity is crucial here! As I am basically a Luddite, though do have as Ph.D. Retired Clinical Psychologist.)

My second problem is pertains to getting SSD for the Nucleus.
I’m old Foggie and Classical Music is my greatest joy. That and a certain amount of ethnic music from other parts of the world - especially as my spouse was a native of another country/culture. Because I have yet to digitize these CDs (maybe 500-750 of them), which has to occur somehow, unless I just keep playing them on the old system - which gives great sound - but I have no way to find things except endless hunting.

So I need either to be pointed to other threads re what to do with regard to ripping and cataloging and the problem of accurately tagging classical music.

Or will my desire to rip and catalog CDs affect the advice to use the Roon Nucleus?

I appreciate any advice. As long as it’s not too technical. Because technology is leaving me behind so fast that even words like “rip” and “tag” and “DAC” are recent vocabulary additions.

I should add here why MacIntosh. My dear departed husband got his Ph.D. at Binghamton - where they’re made. And long were the years before we could afford them.

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Greetings @TheraP

Adding an external CD drive to the Nucleus will let it rip CDs.

Roon has problems categorizing classical music. You may have to do some manual tagging.

Instead of an internal SSD, you might be better served by a USB external drive. Performance is the same.

Welcome and don’t worry. You get more than enough help (and opinions) in this forum.:smile:

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@xxx,

Thank you so much!

External CD drive. I have one. So I put the CD in there. And then what? The Roon Ap can control the rip?

Simplicity is crucial here with regard even to storage. So the Nucleus will rip the CDs somehow and then I use a Thumb Drive to store what’s ripped?

Thank you so much for the reassurance about asking questions.

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Be careful. You need a CD drive that can attach to the USB input on the Nucleus.

Here’s an example, only an example -

Not a thumb drive, but a USB drive.

Another example -

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Not a thumb drive, but a USB drive.

Another example -


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I have the correct kind of CD external Drive. That attaches via USB.

I’m sure I can get a USB drive. Ok. Got it! Sorry abut the mistake.

And thought it’s for a laptop, which I do have actually, instead it connects to the Nucleus?

And somehow the Roon App helps me with all that?

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If it’s of the type in my example, then yes it attaches just like to your laptop.

There’s nothing special about a Nucleus. It’s just another computer.

Not sure what you mean by this.

Roon on the Nucleus is the Roon software. From there you can rip CDs. The CD drive and the USB drive will be recognized.

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Why is the external drive better? To me it’s one more “thing” that needs to be connected. That I have to keep track of. And find a place for.

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You said not to be too technical, but If you can install an internal SSD drive, then go for it. :smile:

An external drive is about the size of a card deck and it stays connected to the Nucleus.

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Somehow I mistakenly thought you could order the Roon Nucleus with SSD inside it. I guess not.

In which case is the Nucleus still the best thing for me? And I should just get an external storage device.

I would hesitate to open up a machine. If that’s what it takes to install the SSD. Do they gave external SSD too? Ok. It’s tiny in any case.

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Yeah, maybe from a shop, but I don’t think you can online. Dunno.

Apart from CD ripping, Roon will run just fine on your laptop.

It’s free to try, as a proof of concept.

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As I think about it, this is sounding doable.

And I presume when I get to how the classical CDs are catalogued, there are threads already that can help me with that. As I know classical can be a pain for sorting through.

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I’m sorry for your loss.

Yes, the answer is “yes”. Nice bit of kit you’ve got there.

Well, there are organizational schemes which could reduce the amount of hunting you have to do, and there are services you can ship your CDs to, to have them ripped.

But you might think about just signing up for a streaming service, probably Qobuz, which works with Roon, and give you pretty much every CD in the world, plus (with Roon) a way to wade through them. Then put your CD collection in storage.

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Mary, you keep replying to yourself.:laughing:

To reply to a specific person use the Reply button on their post.

That way they’ll get a notification that you are talking to them.

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Hello @Mary_Ann_Benavides. Welcome to the forum.

For ripping that many cd’s I would suggest a Desktop or Laptop with the player built in or attached and DBPOWERAMP cd ripper software. Or have that done for you. I have the NUC with a usb attached player and it does work well but is a much slower process. I ripped my small 300 cd library on my desktop with DBPOWERAMP over several days and now add new cd’s using the player attached to the nuc.

As @xxx mentioned the music files can all be stored on an internal SSD drive in the Nucleus.

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I tried DBPoweramp. And i did not like it. For a number of reasons. It didn’t do well with classical mostly. And though I picked the CD photo from the case, it didn’t use it.

I managed to change my User Name to TheraP. And hopefully soon the photo will follow. Or maybe I have to do that again. I have a Gravatar with another email address. And hopefully it did follow me. On the preferences.

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I suspect you were not doing something correctly with the artwork. dbpoweramp has a powerful art selection option. It will choose what it thinks is a best fit, but will also show you 100s of potential art items and allow you to choose the one you want. You simply click on the “3 dots” near the artwork in bottom right of CD Ripper screen to get these options. I’ve ripped many 1000s of CD with dbpoweramp and I’ve never seen it NOT use the artwork I selected.

dbpoweramp is, in my opinion, the best CD ripper out there. It can do very sophisticated things and has almost unlimited settings to customize things the way you want. This said, no ripper I’m aware of does a good job with the metadata (tagging) of classical music. This becomes very much a manual process. But at least within dbpoweramp, one can do a lot of this metadata editing before ripping.

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And after ripping as well

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Dirk

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Good grief! Too many choices.

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Fortunately, the one dbpa intially chooses is the correct one 99% of the time. In this case one has to do nothing.
edit: and even when looking at the other options it proposes, these are generally ranked in the most likely one would want. In the few times I do choose other than the intially proposed art option, the one I want is one of the top 5 items listed. Also note that once an also point at any file one has to be used as the artwork. So on some very obscure CDs, I have scanned the artwork and told dbpa to use that jpg file.

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The added possibility to let Roon rip your CD:s has made all the difference to me, when it comes to simplify my “computer logistics” at home.

So far I have been lucky and all things I put in the drive has been recognised by Roon. Nothing could be more simple: Attach the drive to my NUC (DIY pretending to be Nucleus device) and a few minutes later the CD comes out again and the music appears in Roon. I do nothing else.

With classical music and getting the metadata right, I am sure you need to do more manual labour, but as far as copying the music to your library, it is as simple as it goes.