Does anyone still use or like vinyl?

[Dave2002]

You can now buy chassis-mount 3 TB SATA drives for £100. Reckoning 1 CD=250 MBytes, that's 0.8p/CD! OK, 1.6p/CD if you use shadowed back-up.

Interesting this. What's your recommended storage system then?

I feel it's going to cost rather more than £200 for a 2 x 3 Tbyte system (for redundancy/failure protection). Many unpopulated RAID units cost £00s so the minimum cost could be £500. Cheap systems don't seem to be recommended.

Can the RAID systems copy one drive to another without interaction with a computer or network?
i.e. if one drive fails, and a copy from one of the remaining good drives needs to be made.
Maybe some can.

I now use magnetic storage extensively, but my final/worst case backup is usually the original CD or DVD. I know some have been tempted to dispose of the CDs once ripped.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

I should think most people will manage with far less than 3 TB, unless they're storing a huge video library!

I use Netgear NAS Pro, but not just for storing music files. It also handles storage of pictures, esp.from digital cameras, videos, computer backups, document storage, etc. It runs Squeezeserver, streaming to any number of Squeezeboxes in the house. All users in the house can 'see' the NAS, and access the files it holds. (If you want some files to be private, that can be done). If needs be, you can attach a USB printer to the NAS and use it as a print server, but that's not quite so useful now in these days of network-attached printers. Considered on that basis, it's not such an expensive item. If you want a backup for the NAS (and I do), buy a cheap and nasty external USB drive; one touch of a button on the NAS dumps all the NAS data to the USB drive, which can then be walked off to the garden shed.

Squeezeserver (which is freeware) has an iPlayer module capable of handling the HD stream, which I play through Squeezebox. If I want a recording, I take it using a Sony PCM1, then dump that to the NAS simply by plugging in a USB lead between the Sony and the NAS.

RAID has many different levels. RAID 1 is essentially disc-shadowing and requires two discs; obviously, the storage capacity is equal to the capacity of the smallest disc in the array. RAID 5 requires n discs, the capacity is (n-1)*1 disc capacity. Netgear have created RAID-X which allows capacity growth by either increasing n or disc capacity. All discs in the RAID are managed autonomously by the RAID platform without any user intervention.

[vinteuil]

... I must say (after having read some of the above... ) I rather like my simple system.

I buy the CD I want.

I put it into my nice CDplayer.

I listen.

.... Simplify. Simplify. Simplify...

[An_Inspector_Calls]

... I must say (after having read some of the above... ) I rather like my simple system.

I buy the CD I want.

I put it into my nice CDplayer.

I listen.

.... Simplify. Simplify. Simplify...

I download.

I play.

I listen.

.... Simplify. Simplify. Simplify...

[vinteuil]

I download.
I play.
I listen.
.... Simplify. Simplify. Simplify...

... sounds good!

[John Wright]

Originally Posted by An_Inspector_Calls

I download.
I play.
I listen.
.... Simplify. Simplify. Simplify...

... sounds good!

I take LP off the shelf.
Put it on the deck.
I listen.

Sounds gooder!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I take LP off the shelf.
Put it on the deck.
I listen.

Sounds gooder!

I buy CD. I play. I listen.

When there's no CD, I buy FLAC download. It won't open. I e-mail for help. None comes. I don't listen, because I can't. I scream.

[umslopogaas]

I will help anyone who has a problem with vinyl lps, in so far as I can. Call me via French Frank. I have many, and have collected them for many years. They are a record of the past, and need to be remembered.

[Bryn]

I buy CD. I play. I listen.

When there's no CD, I buy FLAC download. It won't open. I e-mail for help. None comes. I don't listen, because I can't. I scream.

What did you try to open the FLAC with?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What did you try to open the FLAC with?

It automatically sends me to WinZip, which says its does not recognise the filetype. Any suggestions appreciated.

[Bryn]

If you are using Windows XP, download and install Flac Frontend (free). That was literally written for the job. If using Windows 7, flac Frontend might be problematic, (or rather, Windows 7 might be a problem), so try Winamp or Foobar2000. The latter would need configuring to convert from FLAC to .wav but in my experience Winamp's disk writer should do the job fairly straightforwardly.

VLC Media Player (free) should play FLAC files directly, too.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thanks. I'll look into these in the morning.

[Stunsworth]

For any Mac users out there you can use XLD (it's free) to convert FLAC to Apple Lossless (or most other formats), and add them to your iTunes library automatically. Works with high bit recordings as well as standard 16/44.1

[MrGongGong]

A sort of serious question.......

Why do people want to own/posses so many recordings ?
It sometimes strikes me as a bit like the libraries in many stately homes where the pages of the books haven't even been split (there's a technical term for this that I can't remember ???) and the library is more a "badge" or the owner appearing to be "educated".
I am someone who has thousands of recordings but sometimes wonder why ?
When I go way on holiday I no longer listen to any music at all , preferring to hear the sounds of where I am

and am reminded of Cage (in "M")

moved to the country for city reasons: to start summer theatre; to set up electronic music studio.
Instead took to walking in the woods.

(I've only just noticed that he spells "Theatre" in the English way .......... hummmmmm)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A sort of serious question.......

Why do people want to own/posses so many recordings ?

I agree. It is silly, but I do it nevertheless.