Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming 500GB: how many albums?

I beg to differ. I'd say 1TB would be a much better choice today (C15, MC200)

Hi John, it's mainly rock, folk, pop, some jazz and about 50 classical discs on it.

I have a hand full of hi-res albums on it too but do intend to increase this significantly.
I have DVD-As to rip and converted to 2 channel FLAC, but I've not done it yet.
I do wish Sooloos would support FLAC5.1 into the v6 via ID40. Please M soon.

I've actualy have more albums ripped but on a 2G backup HDD, I realy need more space on the Sooloos but at present I'm sitting on fence with regard to getting a TwinStore.

Regards,
Carl

I have ripped 1100 albums to 315GB FLAC compression level 5 non-Sooloos system, of which about 500 are classical. All include 300x300 to 500x500 album art so doing even better than Carl. I have a fair few more to go. Do we think Sooloos takes more space because it also stores reviews etc? In a few cases with classical albums that have two major works by different composers I rip them as separate albums, but I shouldn't think that the few like that makes a significant difference.

Hi Carl
Four questions......

a) Is Jass the correct Queen's English Spelling???

b) You mention approx 1,450 Albums in the 500Gb of the Control 15........does this include the MP3 versions which I believe that Sooloos creates Automatically??? (I'm not 100% sure about the automatic part)

c) Is ControlPC still limited to only playing the MP3 versions???.........i.e. ControlPC on a Windows OS cannot play the FLAC version direct from the Sooloos Storage???.....(I know you can export the FLAC and play from that new storage location)

d) For the non-standard Cover Art that you've stored, is this EMBEDDED into each Album Track, or is it at the "Folder" Level for that Album??

Actually this is the truth, for me at least. While going thru the library (listening), I am amazed at some of the stuff I buy that sounded so-so (more like crappy) and am still keeping them.

Maybe its because of being sentimental, maybe its because its such a waste to sell them off for a penny. Seriously, with the 1359 CDs ripped, and say I listen to 2 CDs a day - every song in it, it will take me almost 2 full years to complete ONE cycle. Not to mention I am scouring Amazon (both US and UK) everyday for CDs.

Rationally, I must have let this hobby went wild. Still, I like to continue to be crazy.

Keep the masters though, even if they're boxed up and in storage.
You bought them for a reason, you may be in the mood again one day.

Steve.

Agreed.

My sentiment is that if you are going to keep the master CD in the loft, you may as well have ripped it before putting it there. I find long lost tracks get much more plays since it all went on the network.

If you really don't like something then get rid, but, one perhaps need to check purchasing methodology. Previews and samples really help these days I find.

Thanks for the info!

Looking forward to reading your 'MC200 listening test' post David.

Regards,
Bob

I thought about filtering out duds too. I'd be still trying to decide if I did.

The whole point of the server is to rediscover your music I listen to stuff I'd never dream of

Your mood changes daily what sounds like a dud today may sound great tomorrow

I find that CD's vary between 300MB-550MB using FLAC at compression #5

So, another way to scale it is to use averages

For example, I have 511GB with 21556 files in one of my folders just for 44.1k FLAC

This gives an average of 24MB per track (including pro-rata artwork)

A ripped DVDA folder has 587 files for 45.8GB => 78MB per track

Individual file size of course varies a lot with both CD and DVDA as does number of tracks per disc.

Scale the maths to see what you need if you guess at average number of tracks per disc.

Failing that....rip it all and report back

Hi,

One thing to note is the on the C15 the 500G HDD is also used to store Windows and the Sooloos software so this will take up space from the 500G before before any album are ripped. The majority of my albums still have the sub-standard 200x200 art work, however I'm slowly updating them to 600x600 or higher if available (circa 100 done so far).

The reviews and extra meta-data will add to the space required per album, but only by a few thousand bytes, if that.

Regards,
Carl