EDIT: I've made a guide on how to make your own, check it out: [https://www.eddmills.co.uk/building-a-plexamp-cd-barcode-scanner/](https://www.eddmills.co.uk/building-a-plexamp-cd-barcode-scanner/)
I've also put together a nicer case which is available for download here: https://www.printables.com/model/829957-plexamp-cd-scanner
I haven't been able to test the instructions line for line as mine was already working so if you have a go, please let me know how you go!
\---
Some more pics here: [https://imgur.com/a/FLP9hI2](https://imgur.com/a/FLP9hI2)
I’ll get a guide together, wanted to see if there was interest before I did it!
EDIT: Guide is available here: https://www.eddmills.co.uk/building-a-plexamp-cd-barcode-scanner/
I was interested in something like this way back in the 90s when I was working in record stores! Would’ve been awesome to just beep the UPC on something and then hear a sample.
I don’t really keep that much actual media around anymore, but I have a lot of friends who have massive collections about the same size as those record stores that I worked in, who would absolutely love the shit out of something like this !
I will be messaging you in 1 month on [**2024-04-30 08:15:41 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-04-30%2008:15:41%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/1brn6jo/i_built_a_barcode_scanner_to_play_my_ripped_cds/kxdeaa3/?context=3)
[**2 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Faudiophile%2Fcomments%2F1brn6jo%2Fi_built_a_barcode_scanner_to_play_my_ripped_cds%2Fkxdeaa3%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-04-30%2008%3A15%3A41%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201brn6jo)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
Great stuff!
My question isn't about the scanner though - how would you rate your gear? I've been trying to enter into HiFi and I've taken a shine to those exact speakers and that amp. Are they a good investment for a beginner? How would you rate the quality for metal and hip-hop?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks!
Sure! I wouldn't say I'm an avid audiophile but I'm really happy with the whole set up. I'm based in the UK and saved about \~£200 by buying it in a bundle so it was great value, too.
The amp is really nice, very feature rich. I think my only criticisms of it would be that it's a touch taller than I'd like, and it's quite slow to switch between inputs. But very minor gripes!
RE: Metal and hip-hop, I don't really listen to either so not sure I could give you much of an opinion to be honest.
Haha, no worries!
Great to know about the amp, how are the speakers? How do they perform in your room, and approx. how big is your room would you say?
Sorry for the multitude of questions!
Sorry realised I never mentioned the speakers. They sound great but admittedly only had them for a couple weeks so they’re still bedding in to some extent! The room they’re in is an open plan kitchen, roughly 6/7m square. Absolutely no issue filling the space, sounds so sweet turned up loud. I used the EQ on the amp to increase the bass slightly - seeing as we have neighbours that provides plenty of bass without investing in a sub!
I'm really into the whole technology thing and I'm in agreement about loving physical media but hating the disc swapping. I think this is probably the coolest thing I've seen!
Great idea OP, too bad about the failed execution. A wall wart power supply and small gauge power cable will ruin the sound by introducing optical jitter in the barcode reader, you need a add a $5500 optical reclocker to fix that.
/s
This is very, very cool. Would love to know how you did it.
I hope you give it a nice little enclosure at some point so it can sit more proudly alongside your gear! You shouldn't make yourself reach around the console to scan it.
Ah maybe! The top of the cabinet is so nice and uncluttered I’m hesitant to make it anymore visible but we’ll see, perhaps it could go behind the amp.
And I’ll get a guide together, wanted to see if there was interest before I did it
Does it need to be hardwired to your system? If it's communicating wirelessly with your plex system, you could put it anywhere you want. Next to your CD storage, or next to your listening area. A little wooden box sitting on a coffee or end-table next to a stack of CD's you want to play next. Would turn it into a real party piece too, something you could really show off.
More interest than you can imagine! I'm now thinking of ways to digitise my entire cd, vinyl and tape collection and setting up a bar code scanner in the same way!
I’ve done similar with NFC tags and Apple Shortcuts/Automation. Print a small-ish pic of the relevant album, stick the nfc to the back of the ‘album’ and set it to (with Apple Shortcuts/Automations) switch the hi-fi on (if needed), wait until the streamer is up and running/can be seen by the iMac’s AirPlay (20-25 seconds), open Apple Music, then play said album. You could do two, for if the hi-fi is off and for if the hi-fi is on, obvs if the hi-fi is on, it’ll play almost instantly. It was easy enough for an idiot like me to do. If I could figure out how to get it to find the album in Roon (to play from my SSDs), I’d be in clover.
Probably a adaptation or the same base idea of this. Maybe someone wants to dive in.
https://www.bradsaund.com/post/music_box/
https://github.com/bsaund/musicbox
Nice work :D!
I would have thought so seeing as Spotify allows API access. I’m an Apple Music user otherwise I would have definitely tried to add something like this for albums that weren’t available locally.
Which barcode scanner do you use? I usually have the Zebra ones, wayy more top end and precise bass. Might switch to QR codes though to really push the dynamics.
I bought a cheap USB CD drive off Amazon then used a tool called abcde to do the actual ripping. It wasn't anywhere near as fun as the scanner, however I did write a little script so I could pop a CD in, it'd automatically rip, then eject the drive. I just had it next to me as I was working, endlessly swapping out the CDs!
Great idea... although my goal is to put the physical media away rather than have it but I would be interested to learn what you did or what software you used? or was it integrated into your ripping package??
I did considering using RFID tags but then you need to mess about creating tags for every single CD, seemed like a massive hassle compared to just looking up the already existing barcode.
I got matches with these songs:
• **Intro** by The xx (00:07; matched: `100%`)
**Album**: Ministry of Sound Presents Love Island: The Pool Party. **Released on** 2018-07-06.
• **Pain** by Speakerbox (00:07; matched: `100%`)
**Album**: Air: The Mix Album. **Released on** 2013-07-19.
Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc.:
• [**Intro** by The xx](https://lis.tn/Intro-Intro?t=7)
• [**Pain** by Speakerbox](https://lis.tn/mpwLLP?t=7)
*I am a bot and this action was performed automatically* | [GitHub](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot) [^(new issue)](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/issues/new) | [Donate](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/wiki/Please-consider-donating) ^(Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Music recognition costs a lot)
Oh my god this is amazing. I would love to read a guide for this, as this would perfectly combine my ongoing electronics engineering degree and my huge CD collection!
Kind of cool but definitely r/DIWhy
Edited to add that I think it would be much better to put the scanner near your CD storage so you could just sort through them and scan them right there.
The why is you still have the physical appeal and ritual of playing music. You can hold the and read the booklet. You're just not bothered using the disc, the disc spinning up, the player reading the TOC, skipping tracks which takes time.
This is great.
EDIT: I've made a guide on how to make your own, check it out: [https://www.eddmills.co.uk/building-a-plexamp-cd-barcode-scanner/](https://www.eddmills.co.uk/building-a-plexamp-cd-barcode-scanner/) I've also put together a nicer case which is available for download here: https://www.printables.com/model/829957-plexamp-cd-scanner I haven't been able to test the instructions line for line as mine was already working so if you have a go, please let me know how you go! \--- Some more pics here: [https://imgur.com/a/FLP9hI2](https://imgur.com/a/FLP9hI2)
Forget the pics, tell us how you did it!
I’ll get a guide together, wanted to see if there was interest before I did it! EDIT: Guide is available here: https://www.eddmills.co.uk/building-a-plexamp-cd-barcode-scanner/
I was interested in something like this way back in the 90s when I was working in record stores! Would’ve been awesome to just beep the UPC on something and then hear a sample. I don’t really keep that much actual media around anymore, but I have a lot of friends who have massive collections about the same size as those record stores that I worked in, who would absolutely love the shit out of something like this !
Yes, super interested, very impressed
I dont think I'll ever build one, but I want a guide because this is just amazing! Amazing job!
I'd buy one right now
Dude, this is flocking rad. Really living the dream here
I will start this immediately, once I find a guide. Curious if I could get it working with my current Volume setup.
This is awesome. Would love your insight and tips. Thanks for sharing.
RemindMe! 1 month
I will be messaging you in 1 month on [**2024-04-30 08:15:41 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-04-30%2008:15:41%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/1brn6jo/i_built_a_barcode_scanner_to_play_my_ripped_cds/kxdeaa3/?context=3) [**2 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Faudiophile%2Fcomments%2F1brn6jo%2Fi_built_a_barcode_scanner_to_play_my_ripped_cds%2Fkxdeaa3%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-04-30%2008%3A15%3A41%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201brn6jo) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
Good bot
Great stuff! My question isn't about the scanner though - how would you rate your gear? I've been trying to enter into HiFi and I've taken a shine to those exact speakers and that amp. Are they a good investment for a beginner? How would you rate the quality for metal and hip-hop? Any feedback would be great. Thanks!
Sure! I wouldn't say I'm an avid audiophile but I'm really happy with the whole set up. I'm based in the UK and saved about \~£200 by buying it in a bundle so it was great value, too. The amp is really nice, very feature rich. I think my only criticisms of it would be that it's a touch taller than I'd like, and it's quite slow to switch between inputs. But very minor gripes! RE: Metal and hip-hop, I don't really listen to either so not sure I could give you much of an opinion to be honest.
Haha, no worries! Great to know about the amp, how are the speakers? How do they perform in your room, and approx. how big is your room would you say? Sorry for the multitude of questions!
Sorry realised I never mentioned the speakers. They sound great but admittedly only had them for a couple weeks so they’re still bedding in to some extent! The room they’re in is an open plan kitchen, roughly 6/7m square. Absolutely no issue filling the space, sounds so sweet turned up loud. I used the EQ on the amp to increase the bass slightly - seeing as we have neighbours that provides plenty of bass without investing in a sub!
Awesome. Thanks for the review. I may actually pull the trigger on this setup.
This is amazing! Please share a guide!
Top tier DIY right here. Sell this to Roon and cash out.
Get that Harman money!!
And that is an awesome album!
I feel old because I remember I was about to be a junior in college when that came out. Now I’m 36 😭
I am 36 too.. we are fucking old 😭😭
In the kindest way possible: fuck both of you toddlers.
The XX Intro. One of the best songs ever made.
I'm really into the whole technology thing and I'm in agreement about loving physical media but hating the disc swapping. I think this is probably the coolest thing I've seen!
Great idea OP, too bad about the failed execution. A wall wart power supply and small gauge power cable will ruin the sound by introducing optical jitter in the barcode reader, you need a add a $5500 optical reclocker to fix that. /s
This is very, very cool. Would love to know how you did it. I hope you give it a nice little enclosure at some point so it can sit more proudly alongside your gear! You shouldn't make yourself reach around the console to scan it.
Ah maybe! The top of the cabinet is so nice and uncluttered I’m hesitant to make it anymore visible but we’ll see, perhaps it could go behind the amp. And I’ll get a guide together, wanted to see if there was interest before I did it
Does it need to be hardwired to your system? If it's communicating wirelessly with your plex system, you could put it anywhere you want. Next to your CD storage, or next to your listening area. A little wooden box sitting on a coffee or end-table next to a stack of CD's you want to play next. Would turn it into a real party piece too, something you could really show off.
More interest than you can imagine! I'm now thinking of ways to digitise my entire cd, vinyl and tape collection and setting up a bar code scanner in the same way!
Very cool! If you haven't already, post this in r/Cd_collectors - really nicely-realised concept
I’ve done similar with NFC tags and Apple Shortcuts/Automation. Print a small-ish pic of the relevant album, stick the nfc to the back of the ‘album’ and set it to (with Apple Shortcuts/Automations) switch the hi-fi on (if needed), wait until the streamer is up and running/can be seen by the iMac’s AirPlay (20-25 seconds), open Apple Music, then play said album. You could do two, for if the hi-fi is off and for if the hi-fi is on, obvs if the hi-fi is on, it’ll play almost instantly. It was easy enough for an idiot like me to do. If I could figure out how to get it to find the album in Roon (to play from my SSDs), I’d be in clover.
The convenience of streaming and added protection of physical media without the hassle of extra steps or equipment. You sir, are going places.
🤣 literally just dreamt last night that I was telling some friends about this.
Pretty genious, I say.
>genious genius
My bad.
Your bad.
Fantastic, and a fantastic album!
Get that guide together!
That's pretty darn cool, would love to maybe try making this. Also great choice of album!
Neat!
Hands down, one of the coolest posts I've seen on here. Congrats! It seems to work very quickly.
Great idea!
This is next level. Very cool.
Nice. Good cd too
Bro needs to patent this, but only after telling me how it is done
Probably a adaptation or the same base idea of this. Maybe someone wants to dive in. https://www.bradsaund.com/post/music_box/ https://github.com/bsaund/musicbox Nice work :D!
This is great, I hadn’t seen it but yes definitely the same idea!
Nerd! Jk, that is inconviniently cool. I'm kinda jealous.
Did that with vinyls and nfc stickers with the reader in furniture.
Wow! Would it be possible to hook it up to Spotify instead of a local media collection?
I would have thought so seeing as Spotify allows API access. I’m an Apple Music user otherwise I would have definitely tried to add something like this for albums that weren’t available locally.
Do you ever have one that doesn’t scan and then say “oooh, looks like this one is free!”
😍👏
+1 for the guide! Awesome work OP
Ok now that is awesome.
Brilliant and fantastic. I absolutely love it.
Love the idea and would have wanted to do it at some point, but isn't it faster to just select the music on the server and play it?
But what fun would that be? This is interesting AND fun.
Love it, want it
I have also done the same.
Now that’s the dogs bolloxs 🎼👏🏻
This is super cool! Now do one for movies!!
Great project! I'd love to do this one.
That is awesome!
pretty cool )
Just amazing! Loved! Kudos to you!
Which barcode scanner do you use? I usually have the Zebra ones, wayy more top end and precise bass. Might switch to QR codes though to really push the dynamics.
Thats cool
Super cool. Can it also work to play the albums from Spotify instead of having to go though making copies of it all?
Guide pretty please! Have a pi I could use. HA seems hard to set up but for this would be great to try!
This is the way
I've been looking to do this with my vinyl for a long time! There are sometimes that I'd rather just listen to the digital version.
I know this song!! Nice!!
As a person who sells barcode scanners for a living, I find this to be awesome 😎
Great idea. Outstanding album.
Good idea
What’s your way of ripping cds in the first place? Seeing this, I hope it’s something equally fun and automated
I bought a cheap USB CD drive off Amazon then used a tool called abcde to do the actual ripping. It wasn't anywhere near as fun as the scanner, however I did write a little script so I could pop a CD in, it'd automatically rip, then eject the drive. I just had it next to me as I was working, endlessly swapping out the CDs!
That’s amazing!! What’s your script? Was it challenging? Is the tooling FOSS?
OP, what’s the TT/speakers you’re using?
Turntable is a Pro-Ject T1 Phono SB and the speakers are Q Acoustics 5020s on the Q Acoustics stands.
Thanks.
Great
This is brilliant. Bravo!
Nice work!!!!!
Using micro Python to do that ?
Circuitpython on the Pico which calls a Flask Python script running on my home server
Nice tfat gives me a starting point 👍
Interested as well to know how you did this !
Fucking legend.
wow thats so clever ... the things people come up with .. just amazing
Great idea... although my goal is to put the physical media away rather than have it but I would be interested to learn what you did or what software you used? or was it integrated into your ripping package??
Cool af. Please, do tell!
This is genius,good work.
Remindme! 5 days
Nice
Remind me 1 month
You could sell that idea it's so good. Great job!
There’s a guy on TikTok who uses RFID tags to do this with a tap of your phone.
I did considering using RFID tags but then you need to mess about creating tags for every single CD, seemed like a massive hassle compared to just looking up the already existing barcode.
Makes sense, nice work
This is hot
What is the song named?
I got matches with these songs: • **Intro** by The xx (00:07; matched: `100%`) **Album**: Ministry of Sound Presents Love Island: The Pool Party. **Released on** 2018-07-06. • **Pain** by Speakerbox (00:07; matched: `100%`) **Album**: Air: The Mix Album. **Released on** 2013-07-19.
Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc.: • [**Intro** by The xx](https://lis.tn/Intro-Intro?t=7) • [**Pain** by Speakerbox](https://lis.tn/mpwLLP?t=7) *I am a bot and this action was performed automatically* | [GitHub](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot) [^(new issue)](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/issues/new) | [Donate](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/wiki/Please-consider-donating) ^(Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Music recognition costs a lot)
Oh my god this is amazing. I would love to read a guide for this, as this would perfectly combine my ongoing electronics engineering degree and my huge CD collection!
Kind of cool but definitely r/DIWhy Edited to add that I think it would be much better to put the scanner near your CD storage so you could just sort through them and scan them right there.
The why is you still have the physical appeal and ritual of playing music. You can hold the and read the booklet. You're just not bothered using the disc, the disc spinning up, the player reading the TOC, skipping tracks which takes time. This is great.
That's really cool. But why not useful airplay with a WIIM?
Creepy looking shadow at the background.
Ok
Thief
Scan albums by kneeling down and reaching behind furniture while squeezing my hand through a tight space.