PC Audio - Digital Files

Baetis Audio - The music streamer

(Note - the YouTube title could have been MUSIC SERVER as this is primarily a system to store music although it can also be used as a streamer)

Here's some info on the Baetis Music server product. I'm still waiting for my upgraded unit which I purchased used via internet (US Audio Mart) and had upgraded to current version.

Many thanks to David Snyder for the informative replies and his new YouTube video. As a now retired computer programmer I recognized instantly his expertise in Linux. Well done indeed!

Scott

Thanks for all of the very detailed replies!!!!

I am to receive ripping software, JRIVER, with the Baetis unit - any thoughts on that vs the dbPoweramp which is also recommended by Baetis?

Don't be too impressed with the price of the unit. I will be the third owner and simply paying for the upgrade to the newest model. Baetis products are rarely found on the used market. When I found this one I jumped at it and was lucky to get a unit that was still upgradable.

From what Baetis tells me - both the beta data and the accuracy of the data will be better when not using iTunes. That said, I am very tempted to use my iTunes library (loaded at the highest resolution) to load the Bluesound Node which I am preparing as a gift for a relative.

As for loading the Baetis, I am thinking of purchasing an Acronova Nimby auto loader. I recently loaded one thousand CDs into iTunes and that took months. The auto loader is something that I hope will keep me out of "reload jail." Anyone used one of these before?

I'm bound to have more questions about this process as I progress. Many thanks for the support.

If you already have the 7,000 CDs into iTunes, that potentially 90% of the battle. The question I would have is at what resolution to did you rip them. When I originally did this, I did not rip them as lossless, so I have been going back sporadically and re-ripping them at 16/44 AIFF. I also used dbPowerAmp which has the benefits discussed by David Snyder. I only have 400 CDs, so it didn;t take too long. Re-ripping 2,000 with the error checking and more than 1 pass and tracks insertion can take a bit of time.

I used a dedicated MacMini and Roon to store my collection of CD and vinyl album rips (over 3,500). The Mac has an external 2 TB HDD that I will upgrade to 4 TBs SDD one of these days to improve playback.

I use my VPI Prime/Ortofon Cadenza Bronze cartridge to feed a dedicated M2Tech ADC. I use Isotope RX software to record the raw files at 24/192 and then use VinylSoft to download the album information and track breaks. I store the vinyl rips at 24/96 AIFF. Playback is through Roon to a Mytek Brooklyn Bridge DAC

Hope that helps.

Dave Sockel

Just realized that, although I don't know anything about Beatis and can't find much information about it, I can answer your questions about what I'm using. :)

John and others will tell you that I'm a pretty fan of Roon (https://roonlabs.com/). You can read a post that I wrote about it for Roon Labs here: https://blog.roonlabs.com/what-is-roon-used-for/

Between my wife and I, we have around 2,000 CDs, all of which I ripped using dBpoweramp. I still buy CDs, but I have not owned a CD player for over a decade. When they arrive, I immediately rip them and then put them carefully into storage. They show up seconds later in our Roon library. With Roon, we can play them with perfect fidelity to any room in the house or even on the go in our cars via Andriod Audio integration with Roon ARC. Quality of the listening experience is only limited by the particular system in each room.

I enjoy not being limited by the quality of whatever DAC is in a given CD player. I also have absolute confidence that I have good rips because dBpoweramp has verified them (we have maybe a half-dozen or so that could not be ripped perfectly and had to be replaced).

I'm also a relatively new turntable owner. For recording vinyl (in cases where the album is not available on Qobuz, TIDAL or CD/SACD), I use a Parks Audio Puffin phono stage with TOSLINK S/PDIF output, which I run into an Optical to USB adapter from hifime. This enables me to record the digital output at 24-bits, 96 kHz using Adobe Audition.

http://parksaudiollc.com/

https://hifimediy.com/product/hifime-ur23-spdif-optical-to-usb-converter/

The results from recording vinyl sound identical to live vinyl playback, but that's mainly because I'm using the same phono stage for both. :)

There's really nothing like having immediate random access to the decades of albums that my wife and I have collected. Roon seamlessly merges these with newer albums that we've added to our Qobuz streaming library.

Congrats. I don't know much about Beatis, but it must be nice for $12k. :-)

I would suggest that it's far too nice to be used with iTunes and anything from Bluesound. For CD Ripping, arguably, the best solution (most accurate, etc.) is dBpoweramp. Here's a link to their setup guide:

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper-setup-guide.htm

What it offers that other solutions do not is verification of your rips against the AcourateRip online database. When you're ripping 7,000 albums, you usually don't have time to listen to each rip all of the way through to verify they are good. dBpoweramp handles that for you by comparing checksums against what other users saw when ripping the same CD. If there's a match, you can be assured that you have a good rip. If not, you can try cleaning the disc, using a different drive, or (if the album is important to you) replacing the disc with a better copy.

Bluesound's products are okay for a starter or second system, but they are not adequate for a high-end audio system, IMHO.

Besides that, I can't offer much help since finding information about Beatis Audio online is difficult. I can't find a website or manual. You'll have to work with your dealer to get detailed support.

I've finally purchased a Beatis Ref 4 music server. It's a new model and I'll have to wait another week or two before it is shipped. Meanwhile I am racing to load 7K Cds (via a dump from iTunes) into a Bluesound Node which I am gifting to a relative.

Would anyone who has made this transition comment on what server they use, how many CDs and/or Vinyl albums they transferred and how that process went. Also, is the end result better than physical media? Many thanks!!