[dlbeck]

Looking for some opinions.  I'm looking to buy the new Mac Mini that comes out next week and hopefully with USB 3.0 ports.  I'm also looking at a 3TB external hard drive.  Should I be looking for a Thunderbolt drive or just USB for the best experience?  Also, is the best choice an optical cable to my Music Fidelity VDAC?  This will be going into an Odyssey Candela preamp.

Also, planning to run Pure Music and ALAC music files.  I'm starting from scratch so would like to get this right.

Any recommendations on a CD/DVD burner to use with the mini?

Thanks!

David

[Atlplasma]

I'm a big time Mac person and have an optimized Mini server, but I have been reading great things about the CAPS 2 music server with Windows 8. You might want to check it out.

[jarcher]

Will be interesting to here what folks suggest as I'm starting up w/ a mid 2010 mac mini as a server.  Based on my experience so far I'd say:

1.  Storage:

For me I'd look to get whatever solid state drive for the mac you need / can afford first, but don't buy the SSD from Apple.  I've seen 500GB SSD drives for as little as $300.  Will be quieter / faster than a regular HD. Some places I've read that you can do 2 HD's w/ Mac Mini's.  So that's something to consider as well.

500gb is a lot of storage for music.  I don't even use 200gb for almost all apple lossless.  If you're looking for 3TB presumably you have a LOT of content, particularly hd video (?).  If this is so, I'd still look at doing SSD internally + an external HD for additional media storage. 

2.  Memory: max it out for max performance - it's cheap - but don't buy from Apple.  Self installing is easy.

3. Audio Out : don't use optical / toslink.  Optical should be good, but I think good quality transmitter / receiver / circuits were never really done, so I've yet to hear a good optical connection.  Use the USB (particularly if you have the VDAC II w/ asynch) and if not that, then get a USB to SPDIF RCA converter - like a HifaceII.  USB is likely to be the best + cheapest option.  You probably don't even need a very high end USB cable.  Belkin or at best a Wireworld Ultraviolet or Starlight at best.

4. DVD Burner : probably doesn't make much of a difference.  The one on my imac died after 7 years & I got a $40 USB Lacie.  Does the job.  If you want to play blu-ray's, you might have to pay up to $200 for a USB one. 

5.  Media player software : here I'd like to know people's opinion.  I use stock itunes w/ apple lossless.  Some people swear media players make a difference.  I'd mostly only choose another if I wanted to do FLAC. Only improvement I've heard was w/ Jriver w/ autolevel defeated & forced to play purely in memory.  That sounded substantially better than w/out those options.

P.s. I wouldn't want to run any media server w/ any flavor of Windows.  Been burned to often w/ windows & don't need it / trust it.  Even something running linux w/ a media server software that runs on linux has to be preferable. 

[dlbeck]

Thanks for the post. Since Atlplasma's post I've been reading about CAPS on Computeraudiophile.com.  It sure seems like a lot of work though and like jwtrace I've been a Mac guy for a long time. Lots of ALAC files.  Has anyone A/B'ed the Mini vs a CAPS?

[JLM]

David,

I'm in a similar market point (just waiting for my 3rd/last CDP to die, "killed" the other two earlier this year).  As my home computer is just an old business Windoze machine, was also considering an iMac to use also as an everyday computer.  So will this be a dedicated music machine? 

Our AC fearless leader wrote a good/basic getting started tutorial for the Mac: 

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=107623.0

What's your budget?  Several vendors offer souped up minis for dedicated machines.

For a dedicated server SSD is less of an issue as software upload speed isn't a factor, but some report better sound.  Either way from all my reading a small SSD should be adequate (60 GB).

For cheap cables/accessories check out monoprice.com.  Note that for long runs (over 25 ft) optical seems to be the preferred option.  At least one dedicated audio retailer I've visited pooh-poohed anything beyond standard optical or airplay, but I've read differently.  Same place also simply used i-tunes saying the others were primarily apples to oranges in comparison.  I'm a speaker guy, so I can believe all they're saying.

If you decide to go USB out, here's a good converter:  http://www.tweekgeek.com/hiface-two/

[dlbeck]

Thanks JLM. My budget is around $1500.  This will be primarily a dedicated machine but was also thinking about creating a video server on it but probably won't do that. 

JohnR sure explains it well but still trying to figure out the advantages of building a CAPS machine.  Lots of good press on the JRiver software especially at RMAF which I just returned from.   I prefer simple though and if the mini is 98% of CAPS, then lets go with the mini. 

Still researching the best route to go. 

[JLM]

Most of the DIY sort of servers don't allow for streaming off the net, which is something I'm really looking forward to after years of only being able to spin CD's in my main rig.