DiscoMusic.com » Disco 101 » Technical » Storing and Playing Your Music On A Computer Via iTunes

Storing and Playing Your Music On A Computer Via iTunes

How to rip and store CDs on your computer via iTunes a.k.a. How To Say Goodbye To Your CDs

I began ripping all my compact discs into the Apple Lossless format (no MP3s here!) a while back and it is truly liberating not to have to break out a CD each time I want to listen to music. More importatnly though is the ability to quickly search and play almost any desired track and create a playlist based on certain criteria such as year, genre, BPM...

I play the songs through Apple's iTunes music program on an Apple Mac running OS-X. The signal goes out via Firewire to an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile Interface, which feeds my home stereo via a digital coax cable. The audio system consists of the following:

• B & K MC-101 Sonata preamplifier


• B & K ST-202+ (Plus) Power Amplifier


• Magnepan / Magneplanar MG 3.6R Speakers


• VPI Scout turntable with Dynavector DV20X (Low) moving coil cartridge


• TEAC VRDS-10 Compact Disc Player


• Sony DTC-60ES DAT Player

The music was originally stored on two Western Digital hard drives striped as a single RAID unit in a dual firewire enclosure. That configuration was eventually replaced with a LaCie d2 Quadra 2Tb external hard drive unit that supports eSATA, Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 so it is versatile and offers many connection options.

Since I'm storing music in the Apple Lossless format the file sizes are substanially larger than MP3s yet I've managed to cram over 30,000 songs on the external drive. I am very concerned about preserving audio quality and am impressed with this format as it sounds great, but is roughly half the size of raw uncompressed CD files. Whether it's on a home system or an iPod/iPhone I've found the Apple Lossless format to be excellent. I still keep the CDs for full-fledged listening, but I'm finding that I can simply play the Apple Lossless tracks from iTunes in almost every case.

The sound quality is exceptional and so good that I am now making the Mac my primary music source. The ripping of CDs is time intensive and although I started last Spring, I am nowhere near done yet with the CDs. I still have all the vinyl to transfer and clean up, but that's another story. All in all, it is worth going this route for the convenience and sound.

Many Mac users leave their computers running all the time. In effect they are running like servers and you merely access the data wirelessly through items like Apple's Wireless Air Tunes or you can simply connect to your home theatre systems with standard audio/video cables.

Check here for some basic information on the Apple Lossless format...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=150301

Submitted by DiscoMusic.com (3705)