Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Yes, some of it, about 10% from personal experience. Couldn't justify a Brennan in my personal circumstances as it's too easy to find good software to streamline the process. I guess there are situations where it would be worth it.

It also depends on your end goal. I'd favour a streaming system based around a roon core running on intel nuc with tidal or qobuz subscription and all your cd's ripped to a hard drive. No doubt the Brennan is cheaper and convenient though.

A lot depends on what motivates you to listen to music. Does the Brennan do playlists for example?

Damn, saw the Brennan 2 after your post. Then saw there is the Bluos vault 2i which would integrate even better as we are using Bluos here.

But finances (or utter lack of them) is a problem. I do have a huge cd collection I’d like to rip to a shared drive.

For me, NAS->laptop->DAC is a better option than something like a Brennan.

It's much more flexible, much less prone to redundancy, you can chose your own software and interfaces.

I ripped 1000+ CDs using dB Poweramp which is a decent bit of software. Yeah, there are quite a few I've never listened to but there are many hundreds that I have listened to, and still do, regularly.

My sources of music:
Ripped CDs
Internet Radio (Fip Jazz, Fip Groove, occasionally Radio Paradise)
Vinyl
DAB (Radio 6 Music)

In approximate order of decending usage.

Yep, I'd agree with NAS and Chromecast or Raspberry Pi or whatever to play.

The player is the bit that's most likely to date so I'd try and separate them and you'll also gene more flexibility for multiple players (e.g using Plex to play remotely).

I also used DBPoweramp for ripping. It's good for ripping with decent tags and minimal errors.