I’ve been playing around with PC audio for awhile now and need to stop wasting time and get serious before my collection gets any more out of control. I know this has come up before but I’m having no luck with the search function.
I’m looking for recommendations on software to rip, manage and playback audio files on my VISTA
PC. No desire to put anything on a portable player other than perhaps a laptop.
Originally I was just using the built-in WMP ability to rip CDs to WMA files but recently I’ve been using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to rip them to FLAC on my network server. For playback and management I just started playing with Media Monkey (MM) which seems pretty cool but before I invest a bunch of time in re-ripping everything to FLAC and using Media Monkey to organize everything I wanted to know what people are using and any advantages it may have over the above. I’m Generally of the Unix Philosophy of using simple discrete utilities that do one thing really well and then stringing them together to do complex jobs, but I’m willing to bite the bullet this time if it’s worth it, Media Monkey, for example.
A couple specific questions. Is there really any advantage to using EAC over MM to Rip or am I just wasting a little time switching between them? Also both MM and EAC use the Free db which seems to have many holes in it for the things I listen to any other options?
Also, presently I’m using the onboard SoundBlaster audio from the MSI Diamond P7N motherboard. Will I likely see much improvement if I get a dedicated soundcard and if so any recommendations?
Additionally, is there any advantage to getting dedicated media server other than my network server?
Thanks again for advice already given elsewhere and in advance for the help here. I’ve already saved lots of money and time by listening to the advice around these parts.
Cheers,
Dean
