I'm thinking of ditching my current Windows setup for a Mac setup. Advice is welcome....
I've currently got a Vista front-end to my highly modified Link III Dac (24/96) and I've been messing about with Media Monkey with the ASIO driver to my audio card. I feed AIFF to my 24/96 card via ASIO via MediaMonkey, and it's some of the best digital I've heard in my system. That includes using my SACD player as a CD transport into the same DAC using the same CD. In other words, if I play the exact same ripped CD through the computer vs. playing the CD through the transport, both using the same DAC, the computer sound is WAY better than the CD transport. (Same SPDIF connection) The current computer uses a Sony BluRay drive as input.
If I keep the Windows box, I'm going to downgrade from Vista to Windows XP because I refuse to spend the money for Win7 when I've got a license for XP. I'm downgrading because MS sent out a patch a few months ago that broke my ASIO driver. Seems like everytime I get the system where I want it, I run into something that needs to be patched, which then breaks something else.
Anyway, back to our regular programming.....
I rip the CDs using iTunes in AIFF with error correction turned on, and I set the audio card to always feed 24/96 signal to the DAC. The DAC always shows 24/96 signal.
I control the system using the MediaMonkey iPhone app, because I keep the computer in a closet, locked away from the main room. I feed the signal to my DAC via 1/8" phono at the computer card side into an RG6 72ohm cable that terminates into an RCA jack at the DAC. This is the best sound, and there is a difference over using the same run of Toslink, so I'd prefer to stay with a hardwire solution over an optical solution.
So, the requirements are: iPhone remote control, ease of software interface, bit perfect playback to the DAC, and the ability to download and play 24/96 files from various music vendors.
I've got the opportunity right now to pick up some Mac hardware fairly cheap (mac mini or a macbook) and I'd like to know if I can get bit perfect wired 24/96 music to my DAC. If the Mac mini can do 24/96 wired, how old is too old for a mac mini? I assume a single core 1.4mhz mac mini is probably too little horsepower? Would the macbook have a better sound card, or are they pretty much identical?
I'd much prefer an apple/itunes/iphone solution because that's the easiest and most user friendly from a user experience point of view. However, I'm a hardcore audiophile, and I'll stick with the quirky Windows setup in order to get the best sound.