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Question about Mac Mini, Touch and storage


Asbjorn

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Hi :-)

 

I have been a "computer audio anonymous" for a while, and must admit that it was actually my girlfriend who convinced me to take the plunge. We are moving into a new house and has started playing the ”whats going where” game. She wondered if it was possible to not have all those cds in the living room. After I told her about the possibility of a computer based system, her only reply was… BUY IT! :-)

 

So I have been spending a lot of time reading up to be able to make the right choice for me. This site has provided me with a lot of answers (thanks!). I have narrowed my new system down to:

 

- Mac mini and Itunes (for convenience, size and ease of use)

- Benchmark DAC 1

- Apple Touch as remote

- 2 x 1 TB external drive for storage and backup (backed will be stored in a closet)

- Maybe an airport express or two for wireless music in the kitchen/bathroom

 

Hope you can enlighten me on the following:

 

1) MAC: As the MACs CoreAudio/AudioMidi cant automatically change the sample rate according to the source, I am probably going to go for the ”set and forget” solution of 96Hz (as described in Benchmarks Wiki). My question is whether this MAC limitation is”software” or hardware based? Could a future change in the OS change this? If hardware, could a new version of a MAC mini (if it comes) solve this?

 

2) Touch: As I understand, under the remote application you can choose whether to stay always connected to Itunes or not. If you choose not to (to conserve battery life), what is the impact on performance? Lets say that I have finished listening to a song and want to change to another artist. How long does it take to connect to Itunes again? And what is the difference in battery life of the 2 options?

 

3) External drive: I will not build my own and are looking for silent (fanless) and reliable drive (looks count as well). Anyone have experience with”LaCie Hard drive – Design by Neil Poulton”? http://www.lacie.com/no/products/product.htm?pid=11016

Looks nice and supposed to be fanless. Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks :-) Love the site!

 

Yours,

Asbjørn

 

Music Sytem: Energy Veritas 1.8 speakers, Kora Eclipse tube preamp, Sunfire amp (biamping) ++

 

 

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Hi Asbjørn - Great questions!

 

1) This is a software limitation only. Give this one a little time (hint hint).

 

2) Mine takes about 7-8 seconds to reconnect to my library. I use the always connected mode the performance is perfect but the batteries wear down way faster. I don't have a time range though. One solution is to get a little iPod dock or just get the sync cable and the wall adapter so you can plug the Touch in when you want to without connecting it to your computer.

 

3) I'm not a fan of LaCie drives because I think they use the cheapest internal components & hard drives. Certainly have good looks, but the drives are subpar in my opinion.

 

Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems AudiophileStyleStickerWhite2.0.png AudiophileStyleStickerWhite7.1.4.png

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