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Looking to move onto a new netbook/laptop source, possibly a macbook: advice needed

post #1 of 7
2/22/11 at 8:20am
Thread Starter 

Hey all,

 

For the past 2 years or so I've been happily using my Asus Eee PC 1000HE as my music source and I was very happy with using it along with foobar... but recently it's shown signs of breaking down and I'm currently looking to upgrade to a new netbook/ultraportable laptop (I prefer to keep my laptops small as I value portability more than other things)

 

My current two finalists are the 11.6" Macbook Air or the new HP Pavilion DM1 or other similar Windows ultraportables. My main worry about moving on to the macbook though is for listening to music. For the past 4 years I've been strictly sticking with Foobar and have become very comfortable with it, and while I'm willing to experiment with the Apple alternatives (since far as I recall, there is no Foobar option for Mac) I'd like to know the steps before I jump into it.

 

Here are my needs:

 

- Recommendation for a music player. I really like my player to be minimal like foobar (I never put any skins on to it and was fine with that) while still being user friendly and sounding as good as Foobar does. Obviously I want bitperfect output but seemingly this is not an issue with Apple computers which are bitperfect by default, correct? Which would you recommend? Itunes? Cog? VLC?

 

- FLAC files. From searching, I know there are two ways you can go about it; convert my current FLAC files into ALAC or use an alternative player like VLC and such. Which is a better way to go about it in your opinion? My library is about 70% FLAC so conversion would take quite some time... but it can be done if necessary.

 

- M2Tech Hiface compatibility. I'd like to continue using this USB to SPDIF converter and I do know they have drivers for Macs, but I just wanted to know if the Mac Driver is problem free and as good as the windows 7 driver. Does everything run smoothly with the Macs? If there are problems with it then what are they?

 

If any of these are going to be a major issue with the Macbook then I'll look into other Windows 7 ultraportables instead.

 

 

Thanks in advance!

 

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post #2 of 7
2/22/11 at 8:36am

I am not a Mac-ite but I do own a Mac Mini.

 

I have owned HP laptops in the past as well....look for hardware issues with HP.

 

Go the simple route, get the Mac, less configuring etc to worry about than Windows.

 

Software for Mac, get Fidelia....it sounds great, some say even better than PureMusic which was recently crowned King of Mac audio.  Its cheap and has a low cost iTouch app for controlling it.

 

Free music software, try the usual Mac-suspects like VLC, Play, Decibel [formally Ayrewave by Sbooth the makers of Play] etc.

 

http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/fidelia/

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post #3 of 7
2/22/11 at 9:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dynobot View Post

I am not a Mac-ite but I do own a Mac Mini.

 

I have owned HP laptops in the past as well....look for hardware issues with HP.

 

Go the simple route, get the Mac, less configuring etc to worry about than Windows.

 

Software for Mac, get Fidelia....it sounds great, some say even better than PureMusic which was recently crowned King of Mac audio.  Its cheap and has a low cost iTouch app for controlling it.

 

Free music software, try the usual Mac-suspects like VLC, Play, Decibel [formally Ayrewave by Sbooth the makers of Play] etc.

 

http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/fidelia/



Thanks for the suggestions! I definitely do not mind paying for a decent music player as long as it plays well. What would be the pros and cons of both Fidelia and Puremusic? Do both have a trial version that I can try out?

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post #4 of 7
2/22/11 at 9:36am

Yes both have trial versions, I encourage you to try both out side by side.

 

PM costs more but you can use the normal iTouch free Itunes app to control PM since it is connected to iTunes

 

You might want to go to each web site and carefully look at the offerings of each...both have extensive lists.

 

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post #5 of 7
2/23/11 at 1:40am

Stay with FLAC. A couple of years up the road you still want to play music but maybe on a different platform than the one you now invest in. I tossed iTunes very early when I realized this. Then I started ripping to variable wma. You're right, I hadn't learned a thing so I ended up doing it to plain 256 and 320 mp3. I'm currently ripping my 1000+ CD collection for the fourth time. Now I decided to use WAV as HDD cost is low enough to do it.

 

On the side note:

Logitech has a startup screen when one boot up they're network players that says "Free your music". I'm telling you. There is no way back for me with computers as source. Software updates and drivers that never seams to be developed at the same time had me going for 5-6 years before a friend demoed his Duet for me. A lightly tweaked Touch with latest Sqeeze server has now freed me :) . The rest of the family enjoy a couple of Duet's and use they're smart phones to control them. And they can even download tracks they like to they're phones while playing music over they're stereo. And when they like to play music on they're computer they use SqeezePlay. SqeezePlay can even be remote controlled from same app on the smart phone they use to control the Duet's.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by K_19 View Post

- FLAC files. From searching, I know there are two ways you can go about it; convert my current FLAC files into ALAC or use an alternative player like VLC and such. Which is a better way to go about it in your opinion? My library is about 70% FLAC so conversion would take quite some time... but it can be done if necessary.

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post #6 of 7
2/23/11 at 10:25am
Thread Starter 

so I got myself a Macbook Air 11.6inch yesterday! Excellent device I have to say... although it's not a powerful machine the difference that the SSD has shown in speed is spectacular, and I'm loving the instant on feature. Really how every netbook/ultraportable should be like.

 

I've tried Fidelia thus far and I'm liking it. Will try PureMusic later on and see how that is like as well. Just a question for mac users; is there anything I have to turn off in system sound settings in order to ensure a good, uninterrupted music experience? Kind of like how for foobar you should turn off a few things? For example, I'd prefer if a flash music from the web browser is not played back while I'm listening to my main rig... I'm a total newbie to mac so not really sure on what to do or where to go in the system panel to do it.

 

Thanks in advance again.

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post #7 of 7
2/27/11 at 4:19am

I've been using my Macbook Air as my primary music source for a good while too and i absolutely adore my Pure Music Player that uses iTunes just for music management and everything else (i.e. playback and the works) is done using the Pure music engine.

 

I immediately noticed a difference using Pure and iTunes and paid full price for the app after just 10 minutes of audition. I'm using the Memory Play feature and Hog mode in order to assure the highest quality playback and haven't had to do much more configuration other that having to set the sample rate from the default of 44.1kHz to 96kHz while using the HRT Streamer Pro.

 

Congrats on ya new purchase of the Macbook Air! It is an awesome machine no?

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