[Bemopti123]

I have got a question to all the apple gurus in here.  I am thinking about making an open music server and have the following available. 

1- MacBook pro unibody 2009 that has my entire music library of approx 110 gb of lossless and mp3 tracks.

2-macmini g4 1.44ghz with 1gb ram.

2 USB dacs available to either computers.

I have tried library music sharing streaming tunes from the MacBook pro to the mini bt have experienced the following:

routine buffeting issues on the macmini end

also inability to get to play playlists as only the entire library is visible on the macmini end.

What I want to achieve are the following:

1 access to playlists as available on main computer.
2 get rid of buffeting issues.
3 a foolproof backup system for the main computer not only for music files but also photos, documents and music.... My macmini os 10.9 was corrupted and I was forced to load leopard on it, while it runs it is too unresponsive in comparison to 10.3.9

any help and suggestion here would be appreciated.

Other factors:
router is on the living room, it is a g model.
Audioroom is on the second floor...macmini is in the audioroom, laptop computer is done everywhere.   Airport on mini is a g model.

[srb]

Other factors:
router is on the living room, it is a g model.
Audioroom is on the second floor...macmini is in the audioroom, laptop computer is done everywhere.   Airport on mini is a g model.

WiFi reception is affected by walls, floors, ceilings as well as materials inside them (metal studs, piping, ductwork, etc.)
 
A wireless N network has a somewhat better range than a wireless G network.  One option might be to consider adding another router between the source and destinations configured as a wireless bridge range extender.
 
You could add an Airport Express plugged directly into a strategically located outlet and configure it as a wireless bridge.  Your existing router may or may not be compatible with AE in bridge mode, but if your main router is an Apple Airport Express or Airport Extreme, you are good to go.
 
Steve

[skunark]

You might try to get more RAM for the G4 mac mini or consider upgrading it to an Intel model.  Also try to use a wired connection over wireless if possible.

If you only use it to serve audio to your stereo then, might actually consider an airport express(~$99) or appleTV(~$220) which your laptop can stream to or if you went with the AppleTV sync and stream music to it.   The airport express solution will require you to use either your laptop to select the songs or an ipod touch/iphone with an app to control it.  The appleTV will require a TV/Monitor with an HDMI or DVI input.

For a mindless backup, there's always Time Machine and just need a dedicated external drive or perhaps if you have an airport extreme router you can connect it to that.   To recover from a failure you just insert the install disc and it will prompt you if you want to restore from a time-machine backup.

[skunark]

One more thing you can consider and if disk space is adequate is to set up iTunes so it copies songs from another library, typically just requires you to have your iTunes account entered into both.   Just search for "iTunes home sharing" on Apple's website for details.

[roscoeiii]

Note that it seems that the Airport express using the N-standard seem to have much higher jitter than the original G-standard. The G measured great for Stereophile, but the N has so much jitter that it does not play well with some DACs. ESS Sabre chips seem especially sensitive to this. A number of Eastern Electric DAC owners have discussed this in the Eastern Electric DAC thread.