Hey hey Drew - Welcome to Computer Audiophile and thanks for the kind words about the site.

You pretty much have this stuff down. Your first option certainly works like a charm. In addition to synchronizing your library on to the AppleTV you can connect to another library or two and it works the same. The only is the computer must be on to connect to the other non-synchronized libraries.

Your second option does require the computer to be on just as you suspected. I think the term Airport and Airport Express and Airport Extreme can be mistakenly interchanged easily. You can stream your music from the computer to an Airport Express and then Toslink to your DAC. You can connect a hard drive to an Airport Extreme which turns the disk into a NAS drive and connects to your computer.

As you said it goes like this: NAS >> Airport Extreme >> Computer >> Airport Express >> Toslink >> DAC

Let me know if this raises more questions. I think you already get it though :-)

Ok,

I've just had my eyes opened to the possibilities of a mac based hifi system. My current situation is MacMini streaming to Airport Express toslinked to a Dac and into my normal system. Storage is a Lacie 250Gb USB hard drive. I have about 100Gb of ALAC files.

I know I need a backup to this drive, but, for the moment, almost all the content is from my own CDs. So I have Physical back up.

I'm considering a Time Capsule as a backup and as Router. If I understand correctly I can attach the Lacie disk to the USB point and now my Lacie is a NAS ? I just bought an iPod touch, can I access the NAS from the touch, if I do this?

I'm working on integrating my Hifi rig and my TV rig, which are currently in separate rooms but will be physically in the same room in a month or two. With my current stock of ALAC files iTunes could sync with an appleTV, and appleTV would offer a good interface via the Telly, yes ?

I'm still on Tiger, and wondering if it was worth spending the 129€ for Leopard, the only advantage I can readily see is the Time Machine functinality. Anything else ?

regards

Peter

Chris,

One day at a time :-) Only just cottoned to the possibilities of using a mac as a music playback machine. I think that, since iPod touch will control iTunes directly, there's not really a need for me to have a NAS.

The computer and it's ancilleries will always be in a different room to the main system. Once I get the TV in the main system, I don't see me taking a longtime to get an apple TV. This means I won't have to have the computer on to listen to music, a touch will also control this so I don't have to wait till I connect it to the TV.

Will the appleTV output a bit stream at higher than 44.1khz/16 bit resoltion ?

But I think I need more and safer storage. So I'm starting to read up on a Drobo. Looks like the most open ended way forward, it's compatible with Time machine on Leopard.

Thanks

Peter

Hi Peter - If I understand you correctly this is a pretty easy thing to accomplish. The terminology used may cause a little confusion, but we'll get it figured out.

First, you don't need to share an Internet connection to use the Remote application.

I am guessing your Mini is really connected to two networks at the same time. The wired Ethernet connection goes to your cable modem and to the Internet with a public IP address. Your wireless card in the Mini is connected to the Airport Express with a private IP address. This is a little less than ideal, but let's make it work anyway.

You need to connect your iPod Touch via wireless to your Airport Express. So, the Mac Mini and the iPod Touch will be on the same network via wireless. Never mind the wired Ethernet connection for now. Your AE should be a DHCP server and hand out IP addresses. Once the Touch and the Mini are connected to the AE via wireless everything will work fine.

Have you enabled the Remote application to control the library? Connect the Touch to the Mini and be sure to fill out the little code when you click on the Remote icon in iTunes on the left side under Devices.

Let me know if this only confuses the situation. I'll be happy to help.

Great to hear Peter.

All you need now is a cheap wireless router between your Mac Mini and your Internet connection. Then you'll be able to access the Internet from your iPod Touch.