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Do you feel keeping the speakers cables, ICs , etc off the ground and away from power cords makes a difference? Some people swear by it, others say there is no difference. People use all kinds of science, anti-science, para-science, meta-science and religion to support their claims, anti-claims, para-claims, meta-claims, and beliefs. I have personally given up participating in constructive discussions of these topics. Instead, I simply recommend you try for yourself and see if YOU feel these things make a difference. Psychoacoustics is a very personal thing, so only you yourself can answer your question. Best - MM

You are not alone. Not by a large margin! I have my own experiences with AAC vs. Lossless involving some audiophile friends and accomplished classical musicians. To cut a long story short, differences between the formats may not show up clearly, depending on the music. The more complex the music, the easier it is to discern the two formats. Also, the sound reproduction system must be able to produce differences in the first place. I don't know your earphones, so I can't say anything about them. You could repeat the test at a local audio store with their top of the line system, but it is possible that you still won't hear any big differences. That may mean that YOU are the problem Only when you are trained to detect the differences will you hear them (unless they are blatantly obvious). So, get some friends together who can all detect the differences clearly and reproducibly and have them explain to you what the differences are. Best - MM

Cable risers are snake oil, IMHO. However, you need to try for yourself in your own setting. If you then think they improve your system, go ahead and get some. It doesn't matter if they actually do anything form a scientific point of view, as long as you think you get better sound. That is not meant to be sarcastic, I am just pointing out that "Perception is Reality". Optimizing cable runs is probably more generally accepted, but again, you need to try for yourself in a decent double-blind test. In any case, by getting risers and optimizing cable runs, you probably won't make the sound worse. So, if you are OK with the expenditure and effort, there is not much to loose. Best - MM

The subject says it all. I am referring to something like this: http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/ad44midecf.asp We have occasionally discussed SSDs here, but they are rather expensive. In many cases it is sufficient to have just enough storage capacity to hold the OS and music-related software, so 32-64Gb of storage space should be plenty. Using CF cards would result in a very quiet system, which is what many music lovers would like to have in their listening rooms. Are they fast enough, though? Any experience? Best - MM

Small misunderstanding: I don't have different resolutions or formats of the same piece. I have the same piece performed by different musicians. I compare the performances/interpretations, not bits and bytes Regarding mouse/keyboard, I do use the wireless versions with my laptop. I just hope that MacMini would drive two monitors, because I would prefer it over a laptop. Best - MM

Having said all that ... I'm curious if/how you use the iTunes UI for more than the irregular ripping session, etc? I have a sizable Classical music collection. I often need to find pieces based on name and/or composer and/or performer. I then make small playlists of the multiple versions of many of the pieces I have for comparison listening. So, not only do I need the full UI while ripping, but also for selecting tracks. I have a fairly elaborate scheme for creating smart playlists, but that gets me only so far. Having a second Mac would work of course, but I'd like to get away with just one machine for both audio and video and one screen/keyboard/mouse at my couch. Best - MM PS: I'd like to see your 720 dpi LCD screen

... to the original questions... 1. Why is video not discussed more often? Well, it's "Computer Audiophile", not "Computer Audio/Videophile" Seriously, though, I would personally love to throw video into the mix. I am interested in a unified solution myself. 2. The MacMini has a problem: it can drive only one display at a time. I would hate turning on my plasma flatscreen just for navigating iTunes. I am looking forward to the iPhone/iPod Touch software, but that would get me only so far. I need the the full iTunes interface, so I need a decent screen and text input. A laptop is much more suitable for that than a MacMini, because one can drive a TV, and one has a small screen for everything else. An iMac or a MacPro would of course also be perfectly suitable machines. Best - MM

Apple finally seems to be providing means to control iTunes from their small wifi gadgets: http://www.macrumors.com/2008/06/26/apple-to-offer-itunes-remote-control-app-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch/ I expect these apps to be up to Apple's usual standards. Exciting times. That may well push me over the edge to finally get an iPhone (or at least an iPod Touch). Best - MM

Chris, I totally agree, but some of these NAS devices come with rather nice management tools. It's no big deal to make the necessary configurations in Mac OS X, or Linux for that matter, but I do appreciate software that makes my life easier. I don't know, though if the software that WD has on this device would actually be any good. Best - MM

Indeed, I was talking about the World edition, which sounds like a very cool device. The normal version does support Macs. With the World edition, I could store my music library in one spot and could listen to it wherever I go (i.e., wherever the network connection is sufficiently fast). Best - MM<br />

I could be wrong, but it looks like this device does not work with Macs. There might be a solution, but Mac users may have to wait until 2009. Also, there is a disturbingly long list of file types that this device is not being able to share. See: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1495&p_created=1168641440&p_sid=bLTfVJLi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NSw1JnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PS5hdmk*&p_li=&p_topview=1<br /> <br /> Best - MM

If you are adventurous, you could assemble your own amp from Coldamp modules or Tripath modules (Class T). What I have heard about these amps is that they are pretty neutral in general. I guess it will come down to auditioning such amps in your own setup. Best - MM

You can also replace the HDD of an iMac with an SSD, which should make it pretty quiet as well. Best - MM

Besides what has been said already, there is one big difference between the Mac Mini and the iMac that may or may not be important to you: the iMac allows you to drive another monitor, which could be a TV. Thus, you can use the iMac as a video server as well as a music server. When you want to listen to music only, you won't have to turn on the TV (which you need to do with an Apple TV, for example). Best - MM

proth - There are a few options. If noise is an issue, you should look into fanless cases (the NewerTech miniStack has a fan and is quite loud). These, however, tend to get hot, and heat is the number-one hard drive killer. Alternatively, you could get a dedicated enclosure for your computer equipment. Search for 'silent PCs', and you should find sources with lots of info. Finally, as Chris mentioned, moving the storage out of the listening room might be the best way to go. In order to minimize RFI, you could run an Ethernet cable from your server to your music system. WRT reliability, you could get so-called Enterprise-quality hard drives. The best option for critical applications is to use SCSI drives (Fujitsu makes very good ones), but they are expensive. WRT backup, there are tons of solutions. Chris has offered to supply you with more info, so I'll leave it at that. Just to make sure though, is a backup what you really want, or are you looking for an archive (huge difference)? Best - MM