Hi,
as I'm simply getting out of room to have CD's on the shelf I'm thinking af alternative choices to have my music played. One would be to get a large frive (1 TB) and transfer all my CD's as a lossless codec
and then have something controlling it..and this is where the troubles start. The only solution that comes close to this would be to have my music on Apple Lossless codec (Mac user here) on a Mac and a large drive + Salling Clicker and some bluetooth PDA or phone to access it but I'm not sure about how good this would work. Anyone else have other suggestions...are there gadgets that would connect with computer and allow play stuff from there ?

Thanks

have you looked at Imerge M2000 thay dont have a 1TB but i belive that thay can do larger ones if you ask nicely and you can control via softwre on PPC Xiva tacta.

[Link: imerge.co.uk]

Request.

[Link: request.com]

Yep Request. Our rep just came by yesterday, They have one for 2000 cd's uncompressed, with the ability to grow the hard drive as larger drves come available.

Thrice Request.

Somthign tells me 20k+ is out of this guys budget.....

Get a PC.............. Fill it with hard Drives........... Run XP Media Center.... COmes witha remote.............

Rip everything to WAV and your all set.

Mac user here also. Why not set up a server, a nice G5 maybe (or one of the old G4's that had more bay space) and then just toss a cheapie G3 ibook off of ebay into your listening room. Or, if you do get the G5, which is a pretty cheap alternative considering other options, you have the digital outs. Only pitfall being the lack of easy control with your existing or nre remote system, but with a little ibook sitting there, its not tha big deal.

And use the EAC ripper if you want the best WAVs from a CD.

Some of the others are not as picky about dropping bits to get the rips done more quickly. EAC stands for Exact Audio Copy and takes longer to rip, but it is a bit-for-bit copy of a CD and can easily match the SQ of a high end CD player when outputted into an audio system from a PC or Mac with an upgraded sound card like the Creative Sound Blaster cards.

WAVs outperform any lossless codecs because every bit is there... FLAC ans AAC are fine as the second tier, and 320 MBPS MP3 is next and the lowest acceptable compression setting in my opinion.

I even hate buying music from iTunes store because it is only 128mbps AAC. That an I hate that there are "usage restrictions" on music that I paid for.

Sorry... anyway, you can still use iTunes to control this, iTunes plays back WAVs very nicely and there are plenty of ways to control iTunes through third party devices.

Just throw out all of your backstreet boys discs and you should be able to go back to the ol 5 disc player.

Hi and first thanks to all of you for giving me options :-)
Imerge thing does not work with lossless codecs and therefore is not suited for me.
I want to turn my whole over 1500 + CD collection and ever growing :-) into something that could easily be managed. I used iTunes as an example because it it great at just doing this.
ReQuest seems to fit what I would like to have preferctly (Tera) but I can't find any pricing info and if it's really 20 k + then I might as well buy a new flat and get more space to CD's :-) :-)
but if Impaqt or anyone else know any info I'd be happy to see it :-). I even looked at XP Media Centres but there's nothing there that I couldn't have with my Mac so....

Carl, that was my intention...to get a Mac mini as an iTunes server + LaCie big drive and use my phone with Salling Clikcer as a remote but is still not an ideal as I would have to find a way to add my Mac mini to my plasma which is pretty crowded already and that would mean that at least when opening and closing Mac I'd have to use TV on. ReQuest really seem to be ideal for me but if the pricing is for the Ozzy Osborners only, then... :-)

2nd Rick, interesting combination of having a hi-endish ripper (btw. never had any problems with any of the rippers I have used) and then using it with Sound Blaster ;-) ;-) and lossless codec is called that way because every bit is there :-). I have no problem using iTunes Music on my iPod..128 k is OK for having half of my collection in my Pocket and listening to it in bussed, trains etc.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for responses, even if I might have been on the wrong forum :-)

I'd also look seriously at the Squeezebox 2, http://www.slimdevices.com/

The server software will run on a Mac, it has a good screen and interface and will deal with they qty of tunes no problem, it also has native support for FLAC lossless compression.

Yeah, that would be my 2nd choice after Salling Clicker...I would just like to have a remote where to look instead of trying to see what (even if it's a big one) is displayed on the other side of the room.
I'm in no rush of buying this so maybe I'll give the newly found Apple-Intel a year or two to see what they will come up with. Damn, that ReQuest would be nice but if the price is out of range....