Bluesound Vault 2i, Cocktail Audio X40 or ??????????

I have asked this question before. I have not taken any action on it but one line of thinking is that if you have a computer and good CD ripping software (dBpoweramp...free) you can rip them yourself onto an inexpensive hard drive, plug that HD into a Blue Sound Node 2i and save yourself about $500.

If you go the route of the Node 2 and use whatever software you could potentially use with a cd ripper and hard drive make sure the file folders are set up for Bluessound to read, otherwise a lot of extra work is needed for each album file folder. (Cover.jpg is the default label for artwork. Look at the far bottom of the link.)

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/200271926-Why-is-some-of-my-Album-Cover-Art-shown-a...



mobile_site=trueuesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/200347887-What-Formats-are-Supported-by-Bluesound-?...

In other words, these are the music formats Bluesound will recognize and this is how each album art (metadata) has to be labeled in each music file folder.
 

Fine tips. Thanks. But if you don't have the node2 to start with, the extra cost for a Vault2i isn't that high. You miss the wifi streaming though.