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RJSorensen

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  1. I am a new Roon user as well. I like what I see and hear thus far. Paid for my first year… and started to stream things. I hope to get a better handle on all of it as time goes by. Time just seemed to be right for me. I used an older Mac Pro, 5.1 as my core and that is about the only job that old girl has to do now. I have about 7.2k of albums loaded at present and it works just fine. This is what iTunes should have grown up to be. Lol, perhaps Apple will buy them, like they did with Sound Jam back in the day.
  2. The old saying, "Everything Old is New Again" comes to mind. I buy new CD's and old ones. I believe that is just the way I will finish up my time here. Perhaps I am just getting old, but I like physical media, and I like CD's. I owned enough vinyl to know not to do that, given a choice. I saw a cartoon on audiophiles the other day, and the one fellow commented to the other, that what drew him to the vinyl format, was the expense and inconvenience. Back in the day, they cost what they cost and there was no notion of connivence, well. you could get a record player that held stacks, but that was it. I like my music on hard drives, spinners or ssd, don't really care, just so I can find what I want and skip as I wish. Full sound with connivence is where the world will come back to, some day. Todays kids can't do anything, to rip or such is just too much work, so streaming works for them, for now. But someday someone will 'discover' CD's and they will be hot once again. I guess time will tell.
  3. I use iTunes, with error correction checked and use AIFF for all on my Redbook needs. I have 7k titles and have tried most everything. The Apple system works best for me and my needs. Enjoy the music…
  4. Yes I suppose I should have read through the other threads so as to not double post on the topic. Sorry about that… At any rate I am using the latest builds on all three of my setups, and I like it. The "Metal" graphic addition lets me turn off adaptive quality on my rMacBook and MacPro and use full quality, that is 'still' faster than it was prior. No USB problems at my place, either. My headless Mini just does a wonderful job with the graphics speed up, that was the only thing that needed a quality and speed bump, and it looks as though we have it. I have AppZaper, a nifty little utility program that trashes Apps and associated files, i.e. the hidden files that often come with a program. Anyway I threw away some items, like Chess and Migration Assistant, etc. They went off into where ever delated files go… But when I checked on them, they were still there. It would seem that Apple does not want the user messing in the default setup. Hmmmm, I hope someone works us up a work-around for this. I like to strip my music Mini down to just what it takes to serve music. Of course it is still beware, but a heads up for those with an interest in same. Enjoy the music…
  5. For modern drives you can find and use with most systems, I like the LG Bluray drives with USB3 for external and the LG Bluray SATA ones for in my desktop computer.
  6. Just a quick note to those whom use a Mac Mini for their music server (headless) as I do, to note that the graphics performance of the El Capitan Beta OS is working well for me. I control the headless Mac Mini from a rMacBook Pro laptop which I have also upgraded to El Capitan Beta. As a long time Mac Man, I think different and don't mind bleeding on the edge… As noted above, the graphics speed of scrolling through the 6,038 albums in my current iTunes library, is VERY fast. The new Metal part of the graphics performance upgrade seems to be quite a nice kick in the pants. As to sound quality and other such, I'll let you folks debate that. Most of you should wait until the 'official' release… but since I have upgraded two of my three rigs, and all seems to be working fine, I thought I would take a moment and add to my infrequent post count and share a bit of information that could perhaps be if interest to the Mac folks here. I'll wait for the fall release prior to upgrading my MacPro, I need to get actual work done with it. My mac's are all one generation old now, but are all top of the line models with max ram, the mini is a dual core i7. Your milage may vary, it goes without saying. But there is something worth having in the next Mac OS upgrade, which might be of use for many of us. Enjoy the music…
  7. I use iTunes every day, most of the day. It works fine for Redbook material and ACC files, if you have any. With over 6500 albums in my playing system, it is the best day in and day out player. Not a redheaded stepchild… I have several other players, and use them at times with HDTracks feeds, also AIFF is good for those on a Mac, FLAC is not so much. To each his own, live and let live, as long as you have choices, that is good. Pick that which works best for you.
  8. I was looking around the web and bumped into a Samsung 840 EVO problem, in that data that has been on the drive for a couple of months, reads slower than data that was placed on said drive recently. Seems that older data has less of a charge and thus responds slowly to read. I find this to be troubling, in as I would like to move to all SSD's in my music system, a mac mini. I may have jumped the spinning rust ship too early… time reveals/solves all problems, so perhaps this will be the year to find the 'perfect' music storage drive(s).
  9. I have let Raid run its course at my place. I am moving to a 6Tb single drive as soon as I can. I also have a Mac Mini and have installed a 1Tb SSD inside along with the factory SSD. I have a second SSD, 1 TB that I attach via USB 3. I like the SSD's for the scroll speed response, but can not tell a difference musically. I had hoped otherwise… I will at some point be all SSD, but until then a big single hard drive will work well for me. I feel that Raid/NAS has trended out, most folks will be glad to get back to fewer/bigger drives along with the simple upkeep and backup tasks/chores. What ever works for you is best however…
  10. Hello, I have more than 6,000 CD titles in AIFF format, they fit on just under 4Tb. I have been using two 3Tb drives in Raid 0, so as to make a 6 Tb striped single volume for my Mac Mini. I am looking today, for a new single disc of 6Tb to replace my Raid 0. Raid's don't make very good backups, I don't think, in either 0 or 1. Some folks use 5 and or other, I have used 10 at times. I like simple, if it will meet my needs. I would recommend that you just size a hard drive to your current needs with some space for expansion and overhead. Raid's work best with Raid drives, i.e. Western Digital Red drives, most brands have a Raid version (or two) in their lineup. Single use desktop drives, used in pairs plus, have a timeout problem. Raid drives are made to get around this problem. If you can get you music files on one drive, I would perhaps do just that, as I am. You of course need to have a backup plan, regardless of your choice of Raid or not. For me, the fewer drives, switching power supplies, cables and clutter, the better. My Mini sounds fine to me, but I am looking forward to not spooling half the data from each drive and putting it back together to be played. Just retrieving a single track as needed and playing it, is something I've been waiting for for many years, I've my eye on a Seagate 6Tb to fill my Raid of necessity's shoes. Regardless of what you go with, it all works. Some claim improvements with brands and styles, I also have a couple of 1TB SSD's I use with the Mini. They more or less sound the same as a good spinning platter of rust. It is all a lot of fun, you will enjoy your journey, but only you know what you need. Pen, paper and thoughts, draw out what you need/want and think it through, you will learn more from failure than success… These old bones of mine are more than happy to embrace single large drives. Best to you and your quest.
  11. A lot of nice choices here, I've one to add, Concrete Blonde ~ Live in Brazil. A very nice live set, although a bit off the beaten path…
  12. My mac mini started skipping after iTunes 12.xx came out. I am using a 1T Samsung 840 EVO. It has worked very well prior to the skip/pause in playback issue in the fall of 2014.
  13. Well folks, it would be that at present, I am on a re-rip, and it was thusly interesting to find this poll. My answer is and I suppose always will be 'almost all.' I always have new stuff and as I have gotten better at this over time. It seems that do overs are in order. I am somewhat north of 6,250 titles and I may even hit 10k before my time is up, and the kids throw them all away. I started with Sound Jam, the precursor to iTunes and was feeding those songs to my receiver a long time ago. I use iTunes to rip with and play from, I've not had a player otherwise that can hold up the digital weight of my collection. I like random play for the most part, I listen most of the day, most days, while puttering around and then in the evenings, I will dial up something special for the evening. I like a wide range of things, but not so much Rap, Heavy Metal, or things that are mindless… I suppose progressive rock is my sweet spot. Ripping for pleasure and or fun just needs be a part of an music junkies activities. The power of the search function, in a good sized collection, is it's own reward. To be able to find anything and everything, at the time you wish to find it, is very appealing to me. In the old days I had 3 Sony 200 disc players working for me. Now I play from a Apple Mini and rip with my Apple laptop. With screen share and a sound wired network, I can get most anything I wish, whenever I wish. I had some of those 'Quad' albums in the early 1970's, and DVD's, DVD-A, SACD, and a pile of HD Tracks offerings, and for me, I like the choice of my collection, and what I may add to it, to whatever I am loosing out on with Hi-Res. Much like many of you I have purchased a lot of this in vinyl, 8 track, cassette, CD's, and remastered CD's, DVD's, DVD-A, SACD and some HD Tracks stuff yet again. It is all good by me, and when I tender my cash, slide my card, or hit the buy button, I always feel like I am getting the best of the deal. I hope you folks enjoy your tunes as much or more than I. Have a good one…
  14. Lechu… This is very interesting, thank you for taking the time to do this, and to share your photos with us. I have a new Mac Mini that I would like to "open up" so to speak and use better power supplies and such. This may perhaps be the start of a very important thread. And a much needed one at that.
  15. Andrew, I have a Mac Mini as you and just this morning I installed a second SSD with a OWC second drive kit. I put in a Samsung 1 TB 840 EVO drive. I put my most loved albums on this, and have the rest on a now powered down 6TB RAID 0. I have replaced my two spinning 3.5 HDD's and the power supplies for the SATA drives as well as the LaCie ESATA to thunderbolt converter. There are many ways to get what you are after. Look around and see what works for you. It is only you whom needs to be pleased. I've had a NAS and other types of connections FW/USB/SATA/Thunderbolt and such, and I find that for the moment using just the Mac Mini with essential AIFF files is as good as I have found. Getting rid of all of the power supplies and cables and such is as you noted, part and parcel of the KISS system. So you could have a second disc, perhaps a SSD put in your Mini and have no cables running to the outside and be rid of all other power supplies. SSD's don't draw much power, so I feel that this is a workable method. I'll move my Apple 256 SSD out of the Mini should I need another 1 TB to add to the first. I'll have to see how it goes first, but so far so good and I pretested the theory with a smaller Intel 520 series drive. Backup to be sure, however you choose, there are many methods listed here on CA and in this thread. I use a rMPB to rip with and from there move the new files to the Mini to play from, and to a LaCie 4 TB Thunderbolt drive I keep near my laptop for current rips. Anyway I have thought of a Pegasus with all SSD's via Thunderbolt as well. And it might be that is where I'll end up at some point in time. But for now by just switching from one library to another I can have what I really like, or it all. Just something to consider among the many choices you have. Like I noted, pick what works for you, and if you don't like it, well change.
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