guitardave

I am sure I can do better than my Sonos Connect for streaming into a Pavane. I listen to Pandora Premium, Tidal Hifi, Deezer, and will be trying Qobuz if it ever actually arrives... I know my Sonos Connect is pretty dated, but it does sound good streaming into my Pavane. I am looking to replace it with something with something that streams hires, assuming I will need it for Qobuz. I would rather have a plug and play item, controlled by an iOS app. I did see the Arcam rplay, which offers all my currently used streaming services. Any others I should consider for a streamer alone to use with an outboard dac?

I have a Dac8 I use with both Shindo (Masseto and Montille) and Naim (Supernait). It sounds great with both. They are all very transparent pieces with plenty of Prat, and musical. I previously had a Dac7 which was also very good, but the Dac8 is a bit better, particularly the USB input.

It is generally considered that SPDIF or BNC inputs are superior to USB inputs on DAC's, I believe, due to the limited bandwidth normally available via the USB input, even though the computer USB can output hi-rez. Operating asynchronously seems to change that equation, although I assume any USB operating async would likely also be capable of hi-rez inputs. All that said, are USB's the only inputs capable of asynchronous operation? Can there be SPDIF async? Why only USB? I recently got a Hiface, which operates asynchronously. Does this, in effect, make my SPDIF or BNC async? Still trying to get a handle on much of this. I am VERY happy with the Hi-face from a Mac Mini, into a Dac7. Sounds at least as good as my transport into the Dac7. Thanks for the help, folks!

I am also in Michigan, and I received a Hiface today, and am using it into a Mac Mini! I am not having any problems at all, and it sounds great! I downloaded the M2 program for Snow Leopard, can't remember which number that was... I am using Pure Music, and the hiface seems to show the superiority if it over I-tunes better than my previous set-up. What part of Michigan are you in?

I have my Mac Mini now, and have a 1 Terrabite external hard drive. How do I set the Mac Mini to store my music only on the external drive and not fill its own hard drive? Thanks. Dave

Oops. I did mean a Macbook Pro, not a Powerbook.

I will be wading into the Mac zone for the first time here, and curious if a Mac Mini is a better server than the Powerbook Pro. Obviously the Powerbook has other advantages of portability, built in screen, but are there other reasons to choose a Mini over a Powerbook? I would be using an outboard hard drive either way. Also, I have noticed that Macs need to be corrected manually for native resolution when changing songs, is this correct? And PC's do this automatically? Hopefully I am wrong about this, as I would likely be changing to different quality ranges of downloaded material. Is there a setting for macs to find this automatically? As a background, I already have been using a PC, and ITunes and HDtracks through USB into a V-dac, either directly or through a bel canto 24/96 link, for a headphone based system. I am looking to develop a regular music server for my main 2 channel rig, and the Mac products are highly regarded... Any thoughts?