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kingston12

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  1. Thanks for the replies. The DAC is a Denon DA-300USB (not bus powered) connected by USB to the Mac Mini and by RCAs to my Marantz SR7007 AVR. I am not having trouble with noise that I can notice myself, but the DAC obviously is as it is not turning itself off. If I manually put the Mac to sleep, the DAC turns itself off after 30 minutes, but if I set the Mac to turn itself off after a period of inactivity, the DAC stays on. I have tried different USB cables and using different USB ports on the back of the Mac. It is quite time consuming to test as I have to wait for 30 minutes for the DAC to turn off each time before trying something else. The other things that I need to try are removing the other items that I have connected to the Mac Mini - wireless USB keyboard, USB HDD for music library and TV by HDMI. I am hoping it does not relate to any of these as I really need them all. I did like the idea of running the Mac Mini headless, but I find that there are too many problems to do that (mainly iTunes or Audirvana crashes).
  2. I have recently changed my DAC and have noticed that it is not going into standby automatically as it is supposed to when connected to my Mac Mini. It must be receiving some signal from it but I am not sure why. When I manually put the Mini into sleep mode, it seems to resolve the problem, but if it goes to sleep itself after 15 minutes the noise remains. Any ideas or tips?
  3. I have got my Mac Mini connected by USB to my DAC and HDMI to my receiver. The USB DAC is connected as preferred output device, so whenever it is switched on, the Mac outputs to that. Whenever I switches off, the output defaults back to the built in speaker rather than the HDMI output. Is there any way to make HDMI the 'second preferred output'?
  4. Thanks. That is exactly what it turned out to be. It is currently working fine with the keyboard dongle on the end of a 1.5m USB extension cable and the HDD next to the Mac. I am still not sure why the keyboard is fine with the dongle right next to the larger, powered HDD but not with the Passport (powered by the hub or not). That article refers to 'early adopters' of USB3.0, so perhaps it is the fact that the Passport is an older drive?
  5. It is a Logitech K400 with the small USB plug in device.
  6. This is getting weirder now. Just plugged the Passport into the powered hub, and it still won't co-exist with the keyboard. The keyboard goes dead a minute or so after the HDD is connected and won't work again until it is turned off.
  7. I found it strange as well, but I can't be sure if it definitely is power or not. Others have said I should get a message up when the power is too low. I didn't get a message and the HDD shows up fine on the desktop and is offered as a potential Time Machine disk. Of course, I can't tell if it actually works without the keyboard, but I have no reason to expect it wouldn't. On the other hand, it is telling that the keyboard works fine with both external HDDs when they have their own power. I have not got a wired keyboard anymore, but I might try to plug the Passport directly into the Mac and the keyboard into the hub to see if that works. I guess if it does, that proves there is no problem with the power from the Mac USB and it is a conflict with the keyboard.
  8. Thanks for the replies. I bought a mains-powered Lacie external HDD and that sorted out the power problem, but is far too noisy so will go back. I have now gone back to the Passport drive connected via a powered hub and that seems to work fine. I will probably stick with that in the interim whilst I investigate Firewire, Thunderbolt and NAS alternatives.
  9. I have just bought a refurb Mac Mini, but only wanted to buy the basic one given that they are supposed to be replaced soon. My library is over 1Tb and growing and is stored on an iMac and I have tried the following: 1. Using Home Sharing from the iMac. This works, but is a bit flaky and I cannot see how to use the files with Audirvana+. 2. Using a bus powered external HDD. This sucked so much power from the Mini that my wireless keyboard stopped working! I am not so concerned about that in itself as I will run the Mini headless after the initial set up, but if it is taking that much USB power, what will it do to the signal to my USB DAC? 3. Plugged the same external HDD into my Airport Extreme Router. This worked, but was very slow with long periods of 'beach ball' when trying to select a track (Mini is connected by ethernet to switch which is connected by ethernet to Airport Extreme) So the two options I appear to have left are: 1. Using a larger, mains powered HDD. This should work, but I am a bit worried about the noise and what it will do to the DAC signal. 2. Getting a proper NAS, but this is expensive and I don't quite understand why this would avoid the speed issues that I saw with the Airport Extreme. 3. Getting a Thunderbolt external to which the only downside appears to be the cost. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
  10. Thanks for the replies. I am not averse to buying a NAS if it makes things easier. I guess if I do that, both Macs retain equal access to the library allowing me to use other software more easily?
  11. I am about to put together a new system to listen to my digital files via my HiFi and headphones. All music is currently stored on an iMac in a study and I use a Meridian Explorer to listen through headphones in there. What I'd like to do is listen in my living room and I propose to do this by buying a Mac Mini that will be connected to another desktop DAC and then output to my HiFi and separate headphone amp. What I'd like to do is keep the music files on the original iMac and use Home Sharing to stream them to the Mini. Will this work and if so will it stop me using some of the iTunes alternatives like Audirvana+?
  12. I just received my new Meridian Explorer and plugged it straight into my Mac per the instructions. It sounds great, but I think I have set something up wrong. Whatever file I play on the Mac, all three lights are on the Explorer indicating that the files are 176.4 or 192khz. The thing is that they are not, they are mostly 44.1 or 96khz. This has obviously happened because I have set the output to 192khz and the Mac is upsampling all outputs to that. Does anyone know how I get the files sent to the Explorer at native rates?
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