cornishmanc

I always liked Thomas Dolby, his production work with Prefab Sprout was also a treat.

Thanks for the tips - I set the IP address to static but could not get the NAS to mount on the desktop so I had to reset the NAS and set it back to a dynamic IP (which was the same as the static address) I then then found it on the network but with an afp:// etc. rather than http. The data transfer seemed faster after that but I still had to do it over a couple of nights. Anyway, all now seems fine- my music sits on the NAS and we can play it in the home office through my iMac plugged in via powerline ethernet (thick granite walls mean it is out-of-range of wireless) and in the lounge or bedroom courtesy of our laptop and a couple of Airport Expresses and controlled from my wife's iPod Touch. Prior to this I had to set up a playlist on the iMac and stream it via the powerline ethernet to the other rooms which was OK but a real pain if I wanted to pause or skip a track as I had to run back upstairs to the iMac ! By the way, in the bedroom we have the AE plugged into a Klispch iGroove HG. Volume is never high but we are very pleased with the sound quality as we play a selection of mellow, drifting-off-to-sleep tunes. The lounge has the AE feeding an Onkyo CR 515 DAB with AVI Duo speakers. I bought the speakers a couple of years ago as ex-demo from AVI so they were a very good price but to honest they have never had an amp of real power and quality to drive them so I have never really heard their potential.

Well I am sat here with the WD NAS sat on my desk with the ethernet cable plugged directly into my iMac. It does not show up on the desktop so what am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the swift response Chris - I have the NAS plugged into the router so should I just connect iMac and NAS together with an ethernet cable? I also get nervous when discussing IP and DHCP - as a Mac user we tend to be shielded from the messy stuff !

Hi all, as always apologies if this has been covered in detail elsewhere. I have just bought a 1TB WD My Book World II NAS and I want to transfer the 300GB of music ((30K songs) I have on a USB 2 HDD so I can access the music from both main iMac and iBook. I started the transfer across ethernet to the Public folder on the NAS but the Finders said it would take more than 150 hours so I attached the USB drive directly to the NAS and that will take 450 hours! Am I doing something obviously wrong? Both macs are on OS 10.4

I am Mac-based so may be too much messing around for me but looks an interesting development: http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=3550&utm_source=bowerswilkins&utm_medium=email&utm_content=us&utm_campaign=newalbums-portico

I've got 29,653 tracks although about a hundred are probably dupes

Well done for managing to keep forum discussions on-topic, informative AND civil !

After much musing about transferring my iTunes library to a NAS I still have not made a move. I was going to get the LaCie Network Space (unlike some here I never had any problems with two Firewire hard drives form them) but someone mentioned the Lacie does not have a sleep mode. I am based in the UK so any suggestions for a ready-made, Mac compatible NAS that has very low consumption when the computer(s) get switched off at night? Thanks.

Thanks Chris, I thought it would be asking too much to be able to do without some device between an iPod Touch and the NAS. Anyone had a look at the spec for the LaCie NAS and any thoughts? I have had a couple of LaCie Firewire HDDs in the past and I liked the fact they spun down to sleep when the computer switched off.

Hello all. I have rarely posted but always enjoy reading the latest info from Chris. Having had a variety of Macs over the past 12 years I feel I really ought to know the answer already but I figured it is best to ask the real experts here... I am currently piping my music collection into two rooms. Setup: iTunes on the home office iMac, music library on an external Iomega USB2 HDD, fed into the lounge and bedroom via Airport Express (AE) and HomePlug ethernet. When I want music in the lounge I can wirelessly access and control iTunes via my Macbook or more often than not, I simply select a playlist on the iMac, select remote speakers and let the music play with no control. Similarly when we play music at bedtime I don't want to be sat with a laptop so again it is a playlist piped via AE into the digital input of an Onkyo receiver. The Onkyo has a sleep timer so we can have it switch off after 10 - 90 minutes. The iMac switches off but the HDD keeps spinning all night. I was planning on purchasing the new LaCie Network Space 1TB NAS and ideally I wanted to put iTunes on it and control it on an iPod Touch wirelessly. In other words, can I get away with having no computer switched on??? or do I have to buy maybe a headless Mac Mini ? I only ever play the music in one room at a time. http://www.lacie.com/UK/products/product.htm?pid=11090 Thanks for any input. Ian

I find that even with Soundcheck I get large variations in playback volume. I am wondering if I should re-scan all the tracks on my iTunes database? If so, is there a best way or is there some software out there that does a better job? I am on Mac 10.4 and 10.5 Cheers Ian

As much as I love Steely Dan's music it hacks me off that he wants to charge as much for a digital download as a physical CD AND the download doesn't get the 13th track. It's petty and it's annoying. These kind of annoyances put me off dealing directly with a musician's site.