[tunes]

http://www.psaudio.com/ps_how/how-to-build-a-music-server/

I recently came across Paul McGowen's excellent tutorial above on putting together an affordable audiophile grade music server with the Mac mini server. I just purchased all of the needed elements and the Mac mini with 16 gb of ram that will be delivered next week.

However, after reading some of the comments I then had second thoughts.

1. Is the noise from power supply and fan really an issue?? If it is noticeable then why not get a refurbished MacBook Air, external hard drive and run on battery as suggested and still control it with the iPad???

2. Does the unit need to be powered up continuously to avoid having to always add the keyboard and monitor to reset pairing with the ipad?

3. Is it possible to rip my old CDs to FLAC files using the external DVD drive connected to the Mac mini without the keyboard and monitor? In other words, once the iPad is paired with the Mac mini can I use iTunes and see the CDs being ripped to the hard drive of the Mac mini or will I need to spend hours with a keyboard and mouse/monitor to achieve this?

4. Solid state drives are very expensive but according to one post, improve sound quality greatly. What's the point of bit perfect and high res files if the mechanical hard drive is noisy? I thought it was just about bits and a good DAC.

5. If money not an issue, is there a better option using portable players like Astell & Kern AK240/380 or Questyle QP1R portable players that use SD cards for storage. Then it's plug and play with built in audiophile DAC.

6. Appreciate your experience with this as I was very excited to sit back and have my music controlled by the iPad remotely as a great solution since I hated always having my lap top as the non-dedicated source.

 

[paaj]

1. Depends who you ask I guess. a powersupply company would definitely say so. (though I must have missed it in the article). HDD and Fans may be annoying (to me they are) depending on your environment and distance. Powersupply issues? Better to stay away from this voodoo if you want to stay sane
 
2. Not needed. Any VNC (remote desktopcontrol) app can connect through WiFi, and most music software has a remote App. Just make sure to autostart the music software and you are ready to go and restart as you like.
 
3. It's possible to setup ripping software for it. I used XLD, where you insert a CD, it automatically starts, gets metadata, rips it and throws it out again. For iTunes you want to rip to ALAC. Same lossless quality as FLAC but specific for Apple and useable for other software too. Edits are possible through VNC on the iPad, or in other playback software (like Roon).
 
4. Bitperfect is the audiostream from file to DAC. HDD or SSD won't matter here. A HDD is a spinning device that you may be able to hear (the physical sound that is), and it takes more power which again might be possible depending on who you ask.
 
5. I went with RoonServer on a HDD Mac in a different room, streaming to a fanless Linux PC (simple Celeron chip, 8GB ram on a miniITX board) running just RoonBridge and RoonControl on the iPad. No hardware sounds (fans or HDD) in the livingroom. Software is quite expensive but really nice to use.

 

[krl25sc]

  1. Depends who you ask I guess. a powersupply company would definitely say so. (though I must have missed it in the article). HDD and Fans may be annoying (to me they are) depending on your environment and distance. Powersupply issues? Better to stay away from this voodoo if you want to stay sane

 
Yes, I agree, I have never felt this noise is an issue with my Mac Mini set up...

 

[tunes]

Anyone have a Aurender N100H as an alternative to the Mac mini set up. The newer Mac mini's are slower and run i5 instead of i7. By the time you add in all the extra ram for 16 my and a 1 TB SS drive and buy a faster older Mac mini on ebay or have Mojo do the power supply upgrade, it may make more sense to buy something designed from the button up as a digital music server. Would love to hear everyone's opinion on this.

 

[paaj]

The N100H is at least 6 times more expensive than a MacMini ?! I've used it in a demo and I don't like it's app... Not compared it to something else, but the system sounded great.
I'd look into a Roon setup. For less than €1000 you can build a Server and Bridge and have the lifetime subscription. Sounds great plus then you'll have saved about 10 years worth of HiFi Tidal to listen to anything you want
 
Speed is not an issue for audio btw. You could just get an older Mini and build the HDD in yourself. An earlier version that still supports the latest macOS, probably from 2010 onwards. 
It's not that hard. No need for 16GB, 8 will be more than enough for audio playback. iTunes + Remote works great as well.

 

[tunes]

After reading reviews of the Aurender N100H one box solution I may go with it since after all is said and done with upgrading a Mac mini not sure the price vs performance is justified. The Aurender divides the OS activities from the SS drive with the music files and then cashes each song in memory to lower any noise from the drive. It also comes stick with a linear power supply. It makes more sense to me and can't imagine that any Mac mini would sound better. Furthermore, I am curious how some of the USB pre DAC cable gizmos affect the sound e.g. the PS AUDIO Lanrover, UpTone's USB Regen or AudioQuest's JitterBug as examples. Have you heard of these? See below:

Also did you see that comment about the MacIntosh MHA 100 with built in DAC? I thought this amp would be my endgame paired with the HEK. Have you ever heard the microZOTL 2.0 with the HEK??

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/09/aurender-n100h-music-serverstreamer-review/

https://youtu.be/nQjJke5uM2g

http://www.stereophile.com/content/uptone-audio-usb-regen#xFztudeXlp1m6QtE.9

 

[paaj]

Do as you please, but it's weird seeing a topic starting with 'inexpensive' ending with a €3000+ streamer instead of a €500 something MacMini or even cheaper (not less quality but more DIY) fanless Linux/MPD thing. <€1000 vs >€3000...
Anyway, software is what it's all about, it's what you will actually see/use everyday. Try to experience some options (many free trials) and see what works best for you. Don't worry about the USB output too much, any decent asynchronous DAC will be immune. IMHO ofcourse