Bluesound Vault 2i vs. Meridian Media Core 200 for first music server

I have approximately 700 CD’s loaded to my Vault 2 and never noticed any appreciable difference in loading time between the first and last.  My guesstimate is around 10 minutes per CD.  Of course, put your favorites in first.

Tidal is fantastic.  I’ve listened to a lot of albums that I had considered buying but after hearing some of them I’m glad I didn’t.  Tidal saved me from a lot of clinkers.  By the same token, I’ve been able to listen and enjoy other works that I would not have considered.  A big win for me.

thanks for all the input!  I'm looking at a monumental task on the ripping...1300 redbooks...but there is no rush so 3/day and I'll be done in a little over a year...sounds like the bluesound is the way to go and deal with the internal dac until I can upgrade my sacd/cd player to something with a digital input...

how hard is it to back up the files once they are on the bluesound?  does the bluesound rip to flac or wav and what are do you think of each?  

Backup is easy.  There is a function in the BluOS app for that.  Just connect an external hard drive and press the button in the app.  I recall the backup took around 6-7 hours.
Bluesound will rip to wav or flac.  I went with flac.  Couldn’t say one is better than the other since I never compared.  I am satisfied with the sound of the flac files.
If the new Vault 2i sounds like my Node2i, I seriously doubt you will find any reason to add an external dac.  It’s that good.

For anyone who has digital music files and wishes to play those files through the Vault (not ripping).
https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/200387457-Accessing-the-Bluesound-Vault-s-Internal-...

Been using a vault 2 for near 2 years.

Few more things to add to the already fine points and comments made.

It really is near enough an all in one digital source. You can stream any number of internet radio stations, Tidal, Quboz, Deezer etc.
You can access your NAS at any time as long as you set it up to point in the right direction, all info easily found on Google.
You can attach a USB drive that contains music and access all of that too.
You can stream another device to it via Bluetooth so having that library of music too.
And of course the CDs you ripped to its own internal drive.

Backup is as simple as plugging in a compatible 2tb USB drive and selecting full file backup in the settings. You can continue playing music while it is doing this.

Continuous updates to both the player and the Bluos app over the net all automatic.

Good customer support, usually reply to emails in under 12 hours.
It’s internal DAC is ok but you can do much better with an external one but has to support full MQA unfolding if you intend to stream Tidal MQA( you have to!). I use a Mytek Brooklyn DAC and the SQ floors me at times!

The Bluos app is available on both Apple and Android products and works flawlessly imho.

You really do need to spend 3 times as much to better it imho.

Oh, yes i do like it a lot.... Lol.