Mac Mini based music server?

[BMWR75]

For year's now I've been using iTunes on a PC and AppleTVs and Airport Expresses to stream music throughout the house. The PC is used for everything else I do too (not dedicated to being a music server).

Bought JRiver Mediacenter last year sometime and am just recently discovering how much better it sounds thru my desktop speakers compared to iTunes. This has got me to thinking about setting up a dedicated music server when we move into the new house.

Have been thinking about getting a Mac Mini and moving the iTunes library over to it. The library is nearly 100% CDs ripped to Apple Lossless files, no low-res downloads. Ran across this article today that describes how to set up a Mac Mini to deliver bit perfect tunes.

What to y'all think about this approach?

http://www.psaudio.com/ps_how/how-to...-music-server/

 

[orange]

Friends here and there have sent me CD-Rs and even DVDs with golden happiness and one even sent a 500 GB HARD DRIVE full of oldies so along with Audacity (which IS available for Apples) and things I've found on used computers, ripped CDs and other found music and even VIDEO I have my own arsenal.

I use it to make mixes and backup copies of my CDs, especially to use in both of my changers. I still use CDs but am lucky that I ripped some of them when I did as they are broken (cracking at the spindle hole is more common than you think too).

Windows Media Player does fine for me usually and I can go through the trouble of making a playlist if I want to but I usually pick them as I like from my libraries one at a time...I'll often sing along and keep the 'karaoke pipes' in tune.

Don't forget that I have just about every audio and video format I could want and titles for them, except for 78 rpm at this time.

 

[MarkWComer]

My nephew used his Mini to serve video as well as audio, just connected external drives. It worked well- for a long time, too. A lightning strike eventually fried the mini after 4 1/2 years.

 

[Bob Boyer]

Mark, I get excellent sound out of my Macbook Pros using a now-nonexistent shareware music server program called Songbird to play 24/96 files from my various drives. I also use the freeware version of Amadeus to create my own 24/96 files from albums or from live recordings of my own making. Not having ever heard any of the music server programs that have a price tag connected to them, I'm in no position to comment on their quality, though I would hope for the money they would be an improvement over freeware/shareware programs like Songbird, Amadeus and Audacity.

The one thing about Macbooks and Minis is you can't fit sound cards in them so you're left with external solutions. I'm a big fan of using professional DAC/ADC boxes as they are not only less expensive than the audiophile DACs, they allow you to digitize your analog sources. I use Focusrite converters myself, one is firewire based, the other is USB and both provide 24/96 resolution plus a couple of excellent microphone preamps for $250 or so. 24/192 conversion can be had at the $500 - $600 from either Focusrite or Apogee. Both of those price points are significantly below the high-end DACs everyone in the audiophile press goes gaga over and I'm not sure there's enough difference to make the extra outlay worthwhile. A lot of excellent-sounding music is recorded on converter boxes like mine these days.

If appearance as well as sound means anything to your setup, I'd suggest purchasing one that has at least two line inputs on the back panel along with the various outputs so you're not running cables from the front and back of the converter like my USB Focusrite. If either the Focusrite or Apogee solutions interest you, check out vintageking.com to see their various products. There are a lot of of other online pro music operations out there, but I just like the ease of getting around VK's site better as they don't overwhelm you with huge inventories. They market to the full on professional engineer/musician so their inventory is more focused. But Sweetwater, Full Compass, Guitar Center, any of those places will have a full selection of digital products of this type.

Edit: one thing I haven't fiddled with yet is bluetooth or wi-fi transmission of the files. These converters require either Firewire, USB, or in the case of the newest versions, Thunderbolt cables, to connect the computer to the converter. I think it's a more stable method of transmitting the 0s and 1s, even now.

 

[MarkWComer]

Bob Boyer:

We installed a gigabit ethernet switch and ran CAT6 cabling through the house with wall plates- didn't go the Wi-Fi route.

His two televisions (I'm thinking they're Samsungs) both have non-picky DLNA, in other words, the computer itself doesn't have DLNA server software but directories/sub-directories/files and the televisions pick up the file system via SMB without problem.

Televisions audio out to a dolby 5.1 amp, so he's playing video and audio through his TVs.

This probably sounds clunky to you, and you won't tell my nephew a better way to do this no matter how hard you try. He doesn't encode any recordings, so doesn't use external boxes for anything other than libraries on external HD. Most of his stuff comes from TPB...

The surprise is that this dinky little Mac Mini has proved to be so reliable- and the marvel of his whole setup! It's just a truncated laptop with external drives!

 

[Bob Boyer]

Ya, my firewire Macbook is stable as a rock after seven years. Of course, it's off if not in use - not put to sleep, off. Saves wear and tear on the hard drive. The new one, which has flash memory, seems to be a solid machine, but the newer operating system is not as stable - some crashes while using Firefox and occasionally Microsoft products and such. Haven't had any problem with Songbird or Amadeus, however.

 

[MarkWComer]

Ya, my firewire Macbook is stable as a rock after seven years.

Still running my MacBook Pro- the original 1.8GHz, first series with Intel chips. No reason to replace it yet.

Still have a Mac G5, but in a box now with no HD. Still works.

Prime machine now is a 2009 iMac. Love it.

I have a PC with Win7. Windows is too damn clumsy.