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High Density CD-Audio Solutions?
Deagol writes "Like many of you, I've got a fairly good-sized music CD collection. I'm having a problem with managing the sheer number of CD's (about 350, which I know isn't a lot by some standards). My current setup consists of a Pioneer 6-CD changer CD player and 50 of the cartridges, each numbered, and a tome affectionately known as the "List O' Music" which is a 3-ring binder listing the contents of these 50 cartridges. Not horribly efficient, but the best I could manage when I started. I've recently began cloning my CDs, and using my burned copies for every-day use and keeping the rest in storage -- this came about after having to use paranoia to recover some child-scratched CDs. Along the way, I decided that the 6-CD cartridge thing isn't satisfactory anymore. I've thought about those 200-CD changers and maybe having a couple, and I've also thought about the MP3-type stereo components, though sound quality matters (I use flac for my CD archiving). For those of you with 100's to 1000's of CDs, how do you store and index them, either on the shelf or in the player?" Most of the questions like this involve managing large quantities of mp3's rather than disks.
...is twofold.
Number one: CD changer, enough to hold ALL of my CD's. Sony's 400-disc changer would be enough to hold your current collection with some room for growth.
Number two: Turtle Beach's Audiotron MP3 player. No onboard storage, it pulls directly from your SMB-enabled shares. Very cool piece of tech.
These are linked together with a MySQL database. This database holds the information on all 130 of my CCD's, and all 1200 of my MP3's. A simple web interface allows me to search by title, artist, etc. Thanks to the Audiotron's API, a hit on an MP3 in my database can be immediately played via the AT. With this, I can search for a song, find it on CD or MP3, and get a list of exactly where in my carousel or where on my server I can find it.
If you're really interested, I can let you have the scripts. They're pretty basic.
I have over 800 cds (811 at the time of this posting). I use a 1 disc player in my office, a 1 disc player in my bedroom (plus another cd player in my alarm clock!), and a 5 disc changer downstairs in the living room, and a 1 disc player (well apex dvd player) in the kitchen. I do NOT use a 200 disc changer, because I hate them. I hate them because unless you actually want to store your music in them and never remove them, they're a huge pain in the ass. If you have more than 200 cds, they're not a viable option (you could get multiple changes are use S-Link or something to connect them, but $$$). If you have more than one listening location, they're not a viable option (centralized audio is not a solution in a house with roommates). If you listen in your car cd player, if you bring them into the office, if you like the liner notes & packaging, ...
For actual storage, I use shelves. Boltz makes some truly great cd racks that hold about 600 jewel cases. Run out of room? You can expand it to 1200, though it takes up a fair amount of wall space in this configuration.
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If you really are strapped for space, you could use those caselogic books, but they're a big pain if you want to keep your music sorted (with shelves with a little extra room, insertion is basically O(1) rather than O(n) ).
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With 350 CD's your a prime candidate for Sony's 400 CD changer. They have a couple models and they all work like a charm. They're also outfitted with Sony's S-Link technology which allows you to chain the units seamlessly when you get your 51st new CD. There's also a gadget out there called the S-link-e (Slinky, get it?) or some such that you can find out there on the internet. It uses S-Link, IR, and a PC interface to automate as much of your AV devices as you want, and it only costs about $50. My friend hooked it up to an old laptop he got for $100 bucks from Ebay, and has his whole music collection catalog with a great interface for building and running playlists and what not.
-Andrew
I never understood anyone who would want to keep their entire music collection in a cd-changer. As someone with hundreds of cds, I can say that I love my 200 cd changer, but only because it allows me to load twenty or so cds at a time and to have continuous music play as I'm working at home or studying. 3-cd changers run out too fast and require constant tending to, and also make it impractical to listen to singles, which may have some great b-side tracks.
As for the organization, I recently invested in some oustanding free-standing shelves, initially getting 2 and then quickly realizing I'm going to need a 3rd very fast. They were only about $25 online, and I'm very happy with them, though my memory fails me at the moment. When I get home, and if I remember, I'll try to post the brand or even a link to these shelves. Regardless, after a few hours of alphabetizing, I was able to get rid of all my old plastic single-insert storage, and now have shelves that allow for easy insertion of new titles. I'm very happy with my current arrangement, and would choose it over any cd-changer-loading, cross-linking, or database-catalog solution.
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I just picked up some CD shelving from Media Play last weekend that stores 532 CDs and cost me twenty dollars. But if you feel like paying that much, feel free to send me the extra money instead . . .
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