jmstpierre

Thanks a lot for the info, advice and links provided.mi really do appreciate it. I am glad to read that windows does work well on a Mac and apart from little hiccups for the mouse, m not overly worried about it as I will be using the iPad to control jrivers via jremote. I may go down this route until the beta version of jrivers is fully implemented and tested and working 100%. once again, thanks for your advice. Regards John

Hi all, It s only recently that I was made aware about booting up a Mac under windows 7 ( yes I know m a little slow to catch up... As such i was wondering if many have done it and it s there s any caveats by doing so. For me it almost seem immoral to do such thing but who knows, it may work very well. I was purely using the Mac mini as a media/music server, no gaming, no work. but to be honest really do not like iTunes, so over the last few months I re ripped all my cd on my laptop with jrivers in flac. I just love jrivers so much, especially the new version. I can access all my music and home video/pictures thru it and the iPad remote is great. However, I have limited storage on the laptop, so wouldn t mind using the mini again and load jrivers under bootcamp and win 7. I know jrivers is working on a Mac version. So just in case jrivers does not turn out to be as effective on a Mac, would using win 7 on the Mac be a solution. Also, if running windows on a Mac does that mean you can transfer files from PC to Mac without any hiccups.? M sorry if this has been asked before, but used the search function and not much came up and same for google, so hopefully someone will be kind enough to enlighten me. Regards John

Hi Eloise, Thanks for the reply. I was indeed starting to think of all in one as not being modification friendly. You just confirm my suspicions. I did not want to ask a sales person, as they d probably tell me anything for a quick sale. Regards

Hi all, Just wondering if the all in one computers are upgradeable such as swapping original HDD with a mix of SSD drive and HDD, i5 to i7 or be able to be modified in any shape or form at all. Or are they like laptops and not worth the hassle and expense. Seems to me, that s a great influx of all in one computers at the moment, I would almost tend to say that now retailers are stocking a lot more notebook and all in one computers than separate components. Regards Jean

Thanks a lot for the reply guys. I did not even know they were about to release jrivers for Mac. That would be awesome. Best of both world. Hopefully it will be released soon and work without any problems. Also I hope CA will review it too. In the meantime, I may try pure music but still bit scared not to get the most out of it, as I presume there s a bit of tweaking to do for max enjoyment. While I m at it, I have the i7 Mac mini 1 Tb and wondering if I'd better upgrade to a 256Gb SSD or get external thunder port storage. Regards

Hi all, I was wondering if there s Something similar to an apple Mac mini but PC based. I love the Mac mini idea and have one, where all my music is stored in ALAC with iTunes, but one the same token I also have a laptop with all the same music ripped in flac via jrivers. I must admit that I love jrivers and as such interested in getting rid of the Mac mini.however, like I said I like the idea behibd it, small and convenient. It s pretty much all I need for my needs, as only used for music, and photos and other minor applications. So if anybody can recommend a likewise device but PC based, it would be great. If nothing is comparable, I will keep the Mac mini and continue to use it with iTunes,I guess I will try pure music to see if it makes any difference at all. At the moment the Mac mini is connected via HDMI to my processor and wondering if this is the right connection for music playback.would I be better off using a USB to spiff converter then to the processor, or it would make no difference at all. Other option is to get something like a and m51 and still use the hdmi ports. Regards John

Thanks mate for replying.indeed I did do a search,but goshh did I go side track and confused, hence me trying the easy way. I will do a bit more research in this forum over the week end. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. Regards

Hi all, Hope you all had a merry christmas and best of luck for the new year. I am wanting to build a PC based media server where i will have all my music downloaded from HD tracks and ripped cd s in flac format and using JRIVERS as a player, all controlled via the JREMOTE. I will also be running itunes purely for the downloads of kids movies which will be saved onto hard driveand accessed via apple tv . As such i will obviously need a fairly big storage capacity, but not sure what type of hard drive is better suited to my needs, SSD or the other.Same goes for ram. I am a bit of a novice when it comes to specs on a computer. I always bought a computer from the shelf and never really needed to know anything more, but i want to maximise my music enjoyment and thus have what is better suited for that purpose. I am also wanting ,and i think they are called an all in one PC , a bit like the macs. it would also need to have HDMI out and a cd/dvd drive. I will most likely use the USB for jrivers unless you reckon that using the HDMI out into my processor (which i will probably buy the new marantz av 8801, which has a 32 bit dac). Hope all this makes sense and is achievable.All i need is abit of advice on how or what to get. sincerely yours john

Hi all, Before i asked this question i search the forum history for such a topic but could not find anything so m now here asking for your advice. I am wondering if there would be a noticable difference between listening to music thru the apple tv to the dac via optical(both apple tv and laptop are connected to the router) and direct from laptop to dac also via optical. Some will say trust your ears and see for yourself, however, my laptop does not have an optical out, so i d have to buy a dedicated cable(usb to optical) to test and m not really keen to do so. any advice is greatly welcome sincerely yours john

Hi Richard and all the rest of you that answered.Lots of useful advice. Last night i was doing a bit of googling about it all and how to best connect the macmini to my W4S dac2 and noticed that W4S wll be releasing a music server with 3Tb storage and built in ripper and controllable via ipad.That will solve all my problems and will mot be using the mac mini as a media server but move it to study. As such i will be able to use the I2S input on the dac and output from the server.I ve been looking for something like that for ages.finally...can t wait for it to come out. I am one of those guys that likes having everything the same brand, so having the dac,server and amps from W4S is a great bonus to me.. Thanks again to all. sincerely john

Hi all I have a macmini with channel d pure music and was just wondering what s the best output to use from the mac mini to the dac(usb, headphone with optical adapter or i2s). thanks again john

Hi all Just wondering if there is any point installing channel d pure music onto a mac mini if i am to stream my music. Does a streamer use the itune library to rearrange genres.... or it simply reads what s in the itune folder? thanks in advance

Hi bottlerocket, thanks a lot for your advice.I am glad you went thru what m about to go thru and you may be right i may have to get have both, it s just that m trying to simplify the whole hifi set up but still enjoy quality sound.I will try using itunes thru the mini and download/rent movies hd and see how hard it is to do so.I must admit that the apple tv interface is pretty user firendly. You mentioned that you purchased the mini mostly for audio duties.As such i would be interested in which output you prefered(ie usb, optical...) thanks again john

Hi eloise, thanks for your reply.I did indeed thought so, but was not 100% sure. I guess i will to have the mac mini straight into dac.However, i have a few more questions, if you don t mind.. 1)does amara or pure music work better on a given output such as optical,coax or usb?Does it even matter what output is used, and what are the better dacs that tend to work well with mac minis and amarra/pure channel(or once again, does that not even come into consideration).Please excuse my ignorance and if my questions seem stupid, but m a bit of a mac novice. 2)can i still download hd movies thru the itunes store via mac mini, or are hd movies specific to apple tv? sincerely yours john

I all, I am building a hifi system from scratch and will go down the computer, dac road. I have read everywhere the merit of channel d pure music or amara with itunes, but was wondering if any of those software will be beneficial when using the apple tv.Will i see an improvement in sound quality when streaming with the apple tv with any of those two software or do they only work for mac/computer only straight into dacs?? any info will be greatly appreciated. the reason for using appkle tv is convenience of course, but if i can t improve the quality over the streaming, i may have to go for a mac, but can i remotely controlled my itune library via an ipad, justy like i can control the apple tv in order to see whats playing or queued. regards john