Martin Cohn

It says it right there in my third paragraph. I use an Arcam DAC -- to be specific and Arcam rdac.

With my old mac mini and snow leopard, I heard a real improvement with Pure Music. With my new Mac Mini running Lion, I prefer the sound without Pure Music. I see the combination of my new MM and Lion as a real improvement. MOre delicacy, better bass fundamentals. The only downside is that it can be noisier when I am using other programs on the computer. I run my mac into an Arcam DAC into a Nait 3 Preamp with Proac Tablette speakers.

Hi I just upgraded an old Mac Mini (1st generation Intel)with Snow Leopard to a new Mac Mini with Lion. I wasn't expecting much of a difference in sound but I was quite surprised by what I heard. Here are a few things I noticed: The first was that the new Mac Mini was noisier than the old one, especially when other programs were running. Perhaps this is caused by the internal power supply. The second was that Itunes had much clearer sound with the new Mini. Even more surprising, Pure music which helped a lot with Itunes in Snow Leopard, had a different effect with Itunes and Lion. I noticed an immediate loss of lower fundamentals (bass notes) with Pure Music on. It was hard to compare though, because when I would quite Pure Music, Itunes would work at all. Had to quit and restart to get it to work and by that time it was hard to do clear comparisons. I would be curious to hear other peoples input on this issue. Best regards,

I just ordered a new Mac Mini and I thought I would use my 4 1/2 year old Mac Mini (1.83 ghz Intel core 2 duo) as a music server for the sound system in my country home. I am currently using a Squeezebox Touch directly connected to an external hard drive and the thing is buggy as hell and driving me nuts. Anyway, there seems to be a consensus on this group that I should remove all non-essential software and since I won't be using it for computing, that would seem mean removing almost everything but OSX, Itunes, and Pure Music. What I was wondering was if I should swap out the hard drive for an SSD drive. Since I don't need much space, I could get an inexpensive 30 or 40 Gig one from OWC. I know it isn't easy taking the case off the mini, but I've done it before without major psychic scars. Also, the SSD drive might contribute to the longevity of the computer. What do you all think? Also is there anything else I can do that's relatively simple to improve the sound. Martin Cohn

I just ordered a new Mac Mini and I thought I would use my 4 1/2 year old Mac Mini (1.83 ghz Intel core 2 duo) as a music server for the sound system in my country home. I am currently using a Squeezebox Touch directly connected to an external hard drive and the thing is buggy as hell and driving me nuts. Anyway, there seems to be a consensus on this group that I should remove all non-essential software and since I won't be using it for computing, that would seem mean removing everything but OSX, Itunes, and Pure Music. What I was wondering was if I should swap out the hard drive for an SSD drive. Since I don't need much space, I could get an inexpensive 30 or 40 Gig one from OWC. I know it isn't easy taking the case off the mini, but I've done it before without major psychic scars. Also, the SSD drive might contribute to the longevity of the computer. What do you all think? Also is there anything else I can do that's relatively simple to improve the sound. Martin Cohn

Sorry, I should have specified OS X

Someone recently suggested in one of these forums that the latest iteration of the Mac Mini (2.4ghz) was clearly superior sound-wise to previous models. Has anyone else found this to be true? I was planning on making my current Mac Mini (1st generation Intel dual core) my dedicated music server and buying a new mini to use as my computer. But if there really is a big difference, perhaps I'll switch. Your comments please.

I've recently ripped almost my entire library -- about 1250 cds -- into Apple Lossless. Now I'm interested in some servers that don't seem to support this format. Is there any simple way to convert these files to FLAC? Please help. Ripping CDs makes me feel like a short order cook in a diner and I don't really want to do it again if I don't have to. Best regards and thanks for your help.

I am about to make the big switch from a CD based music system to a digital computer based system. I will use my current Mac Mini as a music server. The first thing I need to do is to buy some large capacity external hard drives. I plan on using one 2TB drive for music storage and a second 2TB hard drive as a back up. Here's the hard part. I can get some Western Digital 2TB hard drives, their most basic model for about $100 each. Or, I can go to OWC and get some of their drives for about $200 each. I don't mind spending the extra $200, but I'd like to know that I'm getting something important, for example extra usable speed and reliability, for my money. Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated. Martin Cohn