[sbrtoy]

I have an Intel Mac Mini that I have used for the past year and a half as a music server.  I have it connected to an external drive and sends music to my DAC via USB.  Up until recently everything was perfect, but in the past month it has periodically stuttered during playback, much like a skipping CD.  I know it is not the rips as they play fine other times, and I have checked all the connections.  I never run any programs other than iTunes and Front Row while listening, and I usually don't even have the wifi on either.  I run ALC and WAV tracks, and both seem suceptible.

Any ideas if this is an issue with my Mac, the HD, or even the DAC?  Any similar experiences?

[avta]

sbrtoy:
When I've run into that I've found that the music files weren't suited for my player (  Squeezebox2 ) You might try playing the same files with a different player/program and see if you still have the problem. Could you tell us more about your system?

[sbrtoy]

I have never had the issue in the past using the same DAC (PS DAC Link III), I should state I use Front Row as the controller for playback, and I am still running Tiger on this machine.  Not sure if maybe there is an issue with the transfer from my external drive?  Maybe the external is getting too hot?

[yooper]

I too have a Mini but have not experienced your issue.  How much ram do you have installed?  I do know that iTunes 7 like a little extra ram and it seems the older a computer gets, the performance begins to suffer a bit.

I would try running a few tunes through "Play" (uses minimal ram) from http://sbooth.org/Play/ and see if you have the same results.

Good luck.

Mark

[low.pfile]

.....
Any ideas if this is an issue with my Mac, the HD, or even the DAC?  Any similar experiences?

no similar experiences since I do not have a Mini. I did have issues with Itune 7.5 just cutting off songs (documented over at Apple support) but that was fixed with iTunes 7.6

I suggest that you try listening to the Mini without the DAC to see if the DAC is the issue. You can just plug in a pair of headphones/buds and listen to a song that gave you problems.

Good luck, ed

[Crimson]

Good advice here. I'd start with eliminating the DAC, followed by the player. If both prove fine, transfer a chunk of your library from the external to the internal and see what happens.

BTW, which version of iTunes are you running?

[John151]

Are there any other devices connected via USB?  If so, disconnect them and see if that solves the problem. 

[WGH]

As Crimson said, removing the external hd from the equation is a good start. It probably should be the first thing to try. All hard drives eventually fail, it is just a question of when. If the music plays fine using the Mac Mini internal drive then I would make a fresh backup of the external hd ASAP, and then find out what is causing the problem. You have a backup of all the music you ripped, right?

iTunes could be corrupted, a fresh install of the latest version might fix it, or try another music player to see if iTunes is the problem.
e.g.: Audion

[pardales]

I finally decided to attack a stuttering problem I was having with my iTunes based music server. My Powerbook sits atop my stereo rack and gets used for email and internet browsing as well as music playback. The browser window is almost always open. In no reliable pattern I would get a "click" through my system from time to time (whether using internet radio or stored files). Well, I finally figured out that if I closed the web browser the clicks went away. This was a huge relief as I was having nightmares about corrupted files. No such, it was the open browser.