Rick

Thx Chris - I use boot camp, dbPowerAmp (Windows 7 32 bits) will not write to the Mac Extended Journalled formatted external drive directly connected to the same MacBook Pro. Maybe the reason is that it's the same computer and not shared over the network like in your case? What would you advise? Buy the Mac Drive software program? Make an NTFS-partition? (I currently use FAT32, but it's too slow and too risky IMO). Sorry to bother you with these questions, but I think your ripping strategy is great and I really want to implement it in my set-up! <br /> <br /> Rick

Chris,<br /> <br /> How do you enable dbPowerAmp on your Windows machine to write on your Mac drive? Have you formatted your Mac-drive FAT32, did you make a NTFS-partition on it, do you use special software?<br /> <br /> Thanks in advance for your reply.<br /> <br /> Rick

Thanks Chris for your quick reply. Nothing beats a wired connection, very clear answer. <br /> <br /> This resolves another issue too: slow response and (annoying) time outs of my Airport Express, used for streaming music with AirTunes. I think I will use my old MacBook Pro as a dedicated music server, attach an external hard drive via usb, connect to my amp with a Devilsound DAC and use the wireless network only to make backups on the Time Capsule (and for iPhone based remote control). For me, sharing of libraries is more of a nice-to-have anyway. Like this I won't have to buy an expensive dac with optical in (I don't own a dac yet) and still improve sound quality compared to the currently used analog out of my Airport Express.<br /> <br /> Rick<br />

Hi Chris,<br /> <br /> I recently discovered your excellent website and I am very enthusiastic about it! <br /> <br /> As a beginner in the area of computer based audio I'm in the process of finding out how to configure my system (location of iTunes library, location of music files, connection from music storage to music server and connection from music server to audio system).<br /> <br /> From your articles and system diagram I learned you keep the music files and the iTunes library in one central location (the NAS I presume) and use the same library with all computers. Which is exactly what I'd like to do.<br /> <br /> My question is, how do you connect your NAS to your music server: over the wireless network or wired? If wired, how (eg. ethernet, USB)? <br /> <br /> When I use the wireless network (Time Capsule, 5 GHz) my iTunes (75k songs, 500 GB) and in fact the whole computer (iMac 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB memory) becomes very slow. Speed improves slightly when I move the library (not the music files) to the hard drive of the computer, but then I loose the opportunity to share. When I do not use the NAS, but connect a hard drive directly to the computer, speed is excellent, but again no sharing. Would you recommend to wire the NAS to the computer (which is not easy for me because they're not close to each other) or is there another solution?<br /> <br /> I can imagine others might struggle with this issue as well, but I haven't found many posts on this subject yet.<br /> <br /> Thx in advance for your reply!<br /> <br /> Rick<br />