Glenn

Yes, you can - that's exactly what I have setup at home. You do need to go into preferences/advanced for each machine and uncheck "Copy Files to Media Folder.." and then just go File/Add to Library and point it to the NAS folder that has the music. The downside is every time you add a new album to the NAS, you must go to each machine and add it to it's library. However this does work, I have been running this literally for years. In the setup in the living room, my wife has her playlists, in my office I have mine. Hope this helps

I am currently sharing the files, but not a single library. I have a Mini Server in the basement (with attached Hardware RAID 5 box). All the iTunes are there (and backed up locally and offsite). The Mini in my listening room has it's own library and my wife's MacBook has it's own library, but both point to the iTunes Folder on the shared drive. We can both play different songs at the same time over the GB network, and create our own playlists etc. But the library (which is just a simple database) is maintained separately on each machine.

Synology can do what you're after. Synology NAS to DAC (USB connection) - there is an iPad/iPhone app to control which song is being played. No computer required.

Hardware will fail, so you need to protect yourself with the 3-2-1 Backup rule. 3 copies of the data, on 2 types of media, with 1 copy offsite. How I accomplish this at home is a Mini Server with a hardware RAID 5 IcyBox attached with all of my music (and photos and home movies etc) on it (Copy 1). Additionally I have a 2nd copy (daily rsync backups) to a Hardware RAID1 box (Copy 2). Finally I use CrashPlan to backup to a friend on another continent (Copy 3 / Offsite). Crashplan is free if you backup to a friend - Discounting the storage you need to make available to your friend so he can back up to you. In your situation, you may want to use Crashplan to backup locally to external USB, and to a friend (still free) - So local disk is Copy 1, USB is Copy 2 and Friend is Copy3/Offsite. All that said, many of the poor reviews I have read, if they are lengthy enough, tend to have a nugget in them that leads me to believe something unnatural was being attempted by the reviewer - I especially see this with software RAID - when they try to mix and match drive sizes etc. Stick with hardware RAID as someone else mentioned. As always YMMV

Thanks - I looked at AyreWave, but I have been using iTunes so long (and have ripped by entire 800+ CD collection) that I can't bring myself to change. Given that 800 of my 840 Album collection is Apple Lossless rips at 16/44.1 would I not be better to set Audio Midi to 16/44.1, which would mean I would be bit-perfect for most of the collection, and be downsampling the rest (Assuming I forgot to reset Audio Midi). Is downsampling before the DAC preferable to up-sampling the CD rips? Does that make sense? Thanks again, Glenn

Hi, I have a newbie question regarding iTunes / Audio Midi Settings and a Cambridge Audio DacMagic. I am just getting into this and have an iMac connected via Toslink to a CA DacMagic. Following instructions I googled, I have set the Audio Midi Setup to 24/96. This is working, however further reading leads me to believe this is not bit-perfect when I am playing 16/44.1 CD rips. My question is: Am I correct that this is not bit-perfect? Is is possible to play each individual album at the rate it was ripped, or do I need to manually change audio midi setup each time? Other Info: I am using iTunes 10.1 CDs are ripped Apple Lossless 24/48 Source from B&W Society of Sound (FLAC then converted to Apple Lossless with Sample Rate set to "Same as source" with XLD) 24/96 Source from HD Tracks (FLAC then converted to Apple Lossless with Sample Rate set to "Same as source" with XLD) Cambridge Audio DacMagic Cambridge Audio Azur 650A Integrated Amplifier B&W 685 Mid-2010 iMac Thanks for any thoughts / advice, Glenn