Question Plex, Itunes, CD and apple music

[RAINS]

Hi i have been using Plex for over 10 years and originally ripped some of my CD collection via itunes.
I transferred this to my NAS and that's how it has remained since.
I think this was a mistake as ripped as MP3 or AAC in itunes rather than a higher bitres.
I note that Plex only shows my original CD collection so i want to revisit this if possible and try and get it to update with any new purchases / additions.

1) clear out plex and start again. I have a lifetime pass so can now use Plexamp?
2) rerip the CDs again in a lossless format. How's best?
3) rip them to the NAS direct
4) move across any purchased music my iphone to my NAS. How best to apply.
5) any additional pointers etc

Many thanks

 

[RAINS]

Hi i have been using Plex for over 10 years and originally ripped some of my CD collection via itunes.
I transferred this to my NAS and that's how it has remained since.
I think this was a mistake as ripped as MP3 or AAC in itunes rather than a higher bitres.
I note that Plex only shows my original CD collection so i want to revisit this if possible and try and get it to update with any new purchases / additions.

1) clear out plex and start again. I have a lifetime pass so can now use Plexamp?
2) rerip the CDs again in a lossless format. How's best?
3) rip them to the NAS direct
4) move across any purchased music my iphone to my NAS. How best to apply.
5) any additional pointers etc

Many thanks

Just to add to the above... do i just not bother and get a Tidal subcription?

 

[next010]

Your iTunes library folder must exist on the NAS if its to download its purchases onto that.

You need iTunes installed on a Mac/PC and have it download your purchases. .

If you want higher quality rips select ALAC (apple lossless) in iTunes settings. However I'm unsure if Plex plays ALAC, it may transcode the audio format. Maybe plex forums can shed more light.

You may want to use something other than Plex for music playback or don't bother re-ripping if Plex just transcodes to mp3/acc.

 

[wormvortex]

Re rip all your CD’s to FLAC and replace the current files. Plex can play FLAC files.

I made the exact same mistake 10+ years ago ripping everything at 96 or 128kb/s. Only recently upgraded them all to FLAC now that storage isn’t an issue.

 

[mickevh]

I ripped all my CD's to FLAC using a program called Exact Audio Copy. It's supposed to "do" things to the drive to get it all aligned "just so" to do the optimum job of ripping and then uses some form of checksuming to compare your rip with others that have ripped the same title and see how they compare. It may even have gone to the Web and retrieved the meta-data, but I can't remember for sure. EAC was free when I used it.

JIC you are not aware, FLAC uses bitwise compression (IIRC it's a variant of Huffman compression akin to what things like PKZIP used) so that the file shrinks a bit, but nowhere near as much as .mp3 which diddles with the waveforms and effectively transcodes the original.