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Dr. Exotica

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  1. Thanks David. Regarding the Airport Extreme, I presume this is needed incase the Mini's built-in wireless is not up to the task wrt signal strength, bandwidth, etc. ...
  2. Hi Rascal. Gainclones are very easy to build (one hour of soldering, as many hours as you want for casework, etc.) - there are also nice little kits available with tiny (e.g., 1.5" x 3") motherboards for the signal and power supplies. Try going to www.chipamp.com for lots of good info. Incidentally, I have bought a set of boards from this site - high quality and very reasonable price.
  3. After spending a month or so ripping my collection and getting a headless Mac Mini to function as a server to a pile of Naim equipment through an external USB DAC, my wife commented that I did not solve the "simple" problem of streaming the collection to the kitchen (where she does 90% of her listening via a $100 under-cabinet CD player/radio). My thoughts are to get the Mini to stream to an AppleTV in the kitchen that I will use to feed a GainClone (that I will scratch-build) and a couple small speakers. My question is whether or not the Mini can effectively steam to an AppleTV (25' away, nearly line of sight) while being controlled by an iPod Touch running iTunes? It seems that there have been a few threads of late where this has been problematic to some. Any thoughts or insights? Thanks.
  4. Asking similar questions on the Naim forum, I got several confirmations that you can use a Mini in conjunction with a Touch running Remote in order to control iTunes. This is good. My question then becomes - how nice is the UI on the Touch in this environment? Do we get the album flipping capability, or even the ability to display album art? Or, is it more like the iTunes textual/spreadsheet style UI? Thanks again for any insight.
  5. Thanks for the useful information Chris. I may not have been clear enough in my requirements - I already have a PC running iTunes loaded with lots of Apple Lossless audio. I am looking to buy another box that can be used as a music server with my hi-fi. Previously, I was considering the Mac Mini in conjunction with a Squeezebox and an external DAC. However, after reading the postings in this forum, I am looking into the Apple TV in conjunction with an iPod Touch and a DAC. I'd rather not have to buy both a Mini and a TV however. The problem with the Apple TV is of course the limited storage. The USB hack looks interesting, however, I do not own a Mini (nor do I know anyone that does, though I could ask around more). On the Apple site, they are pushing the Time Capsule (500GB or 1TB of storage). This is perfect for my current needs. Apple seems to indicate (sigh) that it can work with the TV. What is unclear is whether it can function as an external drive, or merely as a backup appliance. I fear the latter. On a tangential topic, can the Apple TV be used effectively if it is not hooked up to a TV/monitor - can the iPod Touch serve as an effective controller for dedicated audio applications? Perhaps a third alternative would be to use a headless Mac Mini in conjunction with an iPod Touch (running Remote). This would solve the disk space limitation problem of the Apple TV. However, I am unsure whether or not the Touch can be used in this role. Jeez - I really sound obtuse ...
  6. This has been an interesting thread; certainly have learned a lot. Here are my requirements for a music server: 1. It will be directly hooked up to my hi-fi (bunch of classic Naim gear). 2. It is at the other end of the house from the TV 3. The CDs have been ripped to Apple Lossless 4. I will need ~500 GB of storage for the server Prior to finding this site and reading this forum, I was planning on the following: 1. Buying a used Mac Mini on eBay, also getting an external HD 2. Configuring it with SlimServer 3. Buying a Squeezebox Duet 4. Buying a decent external DAC After reading this thread, it seems like the following may work: 1. Buying a MacTV (can it work with an external HD?) 2. Run iTunes 3. Buy an iPod Touch for use as a controller 4. Buy a decent external DAC Is this a sensible solution? The main issues I have questions with are running an external HD with the MTV (couldn't find the answer at apple.com), and whether an iPod touch will work well as a controller. Thanks for any insight.
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