[Hybrys]

Quote:

I have always bought (made) PC's. This Macbook will be my first ever Mac (and laptop for that matter) so there is certainly no Apple fanboy bias going on.
Why would I get a Macbook and run Windows? Simply put, to get software that I prefer over iTunes. Using iTunes on Windows was a horrible experience and I am totally reluctant to use iTunes ever since.
As I said, I would prefer not to use Windows at all, the only reason I would would be to play music through JRMC and perhaps use EAC to rip music. Before I get Parallels and the whole sha-bang I will certainly look for a good music program that works on Mac that isn't iTunes. Until then I've got the Parallels plan.
Also why am I paying so much for a Mac when I could simply buy a PC? Simply put I'm curious.
I have had positive experiences with friends Mac's as well as in primary school and feel it's time to give one a go. They are beautiful, well made, offer a new OS (to me) and I can afford to get it. Why not is my question?
I know what I'm paying for, and that I could get a PC a lot cheaper with the same/better specs but it's not the whole package.

There are two points that blow all of yours out of the water.
 
ONE.  You can run MacOSX on many other laptops.  Look into Hackintosh.
 
TWO.  The problem I have with Mac computers is that you DON'T get what you pay for.  You get to pay $1000 more (top model vs a better ASUS) for the nice case.  That's it.  It IS the whole package.  They even make you pay for support.  ASUS comes with 2 years.  One year accidental.  If you drop your Macbook in the next year, is Apple going to replace it?  Nope.
 
Why not drop that grand on new phones/DAC/Amp setup?  That's a lot of money you're throwing away for a nice case.

 

[burnspbesq]

A few observations.
 
I agree that iTunes for Windows is le suck.  Assuming that because iTunes for Windows is le suck iTunes for Mac OS X must also be le suck is silly - and as it turns out, quite wrong. iTunes for Mac is bit-perfect at every resolution it supports, up to 192/24.  It is a tremendously user-friendly device for indexing and manipulating large music libraries (I have 1.2Tb of music on my server).
 
Amarra is worth the price.  Amarra Mini is a huge bargain.  Automatic, on the fly sample-rate conversion is worth the price all by itself, but it really does make a non-subtle improvement in SQ.
 
Why futz around with FLAC files?  Convert them to AIFF using Max.  You'll be happier.
 
Finally ... Mac-haters are not to be trusted until they prove themselves to be trustworthy.  The vast majority of them know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

 

[pmc64]

Have you tried wasapi on itunes? Does it sound any better? It only works in 32 bit windows. There's some bug in quicktime preventing in being enabled.

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by burnspbesq /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Amarra is worth the price.  Amarra Mini is a huge bargain.  Automatic, on the fly sample-rate conversion is worth the price all by itself, but it really does make a non-subtle improvement in SQ.

Finally ... Mac-haters are not to be trusted until they prove themselves to be trustworthy.  The vast majority of them know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

I've heard quite negative things about Amarra, including it not even working with Apple Lossless.  But, I guess that if you're willing to pay $1000 extra for the Macbook, you have thousands of dollars to throw away at a time.
 
So I have to love the products you love to be trustworthy?  Wow, that's not pretentious at all.
 
If you want to talk about value, the 17" 2010 Macbooks have NO PLACE AT ALL in the conversation.  Once again, I'll restate.  Yes, you pay for quality and design.  And I'd love to pay $200 more for an inferior machine with a better design/standard of quality.  BUT, $1000 more?  For a computer with half the HDD capacity, no bluray drive, dual core i7 (vs a quad), and half the RAM?  It's just inconceivable.  Give me one good reason a Mac is better value than a superior ASUS, and I'll buy one today.  The ASUS even has a two year warranty, and a one year accidental warranty.  Free of charge.  Got that with a Mac?
 
The Macbook Pro i7s even have problems staying ON.  Still wanna tell me they're better value?
 
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2420192&tstart=0

 

[diegomx]

 
I have no other preamp that nad t163. But other things like dvd connected by optical cables to nad no problems. It also connects to other NAD T163 ThinkPad notebook with no problems.

 

[Damnegy]

Quote:

I've heard quite negative things about Amarra, including it not even working with Apple Lossless.  But, I guess that if you're willing to pay $1000 extra for the Macbook, you have thousands of dollars to throw away at a time.
 
So I have to love the products you love to be trustworthy?  Wow, that's not pretentious at all.
 
If you want to talk about value, the 17" 2010 Macbooks have NO PLACE AT ALL in the conversation.  Once again, I'll restate.  Yes, you pay for quality and design.  And I'd love to pay $200 more for an inferior machine with a better design/standard of quality.  BUT, $1000 more?  For a computer with half the HDD capacity, no bluray drive, dual core i7 (vs a quad), and half the RAM?  It's just inconceivable.  Give me one good reason a Mac is better value than a superior ASUS, and I'll buy one today.  The ASUS even has a two year warranty, and a one year accidental warranty.  Free of charge.  Got that with a Mac?
 
The Macbook Pro i7s even have problems staying ON.  Still wanna tell me they're better value?
 
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2420192&tstart=0

It's degenerating... I may chime in a bit by telling you that any flaw can be handled at the Apple store (they change the case if it is "broken", even on iPhones, they change the keyboard if it is required, etc. all for free, just have to take an appointment, at least in France). Moreover, Macbooks proved to be very durable (software and hardware talking : no virus, thus no need for an antivirus/antispyware, it the OS WAS the best before 7, and some prefers the features SL offers ; then hardware talking, everything is very compact but still powerful enough). The hard drive excuse is quite meaningless, regarding the fact that external (and very potable) HD are available, etc. Mac do not have Bluray yet because it would be too big to fit in... But when advances will be done, there will be of course (they are not so dumb...).
And finally, Apple proved their "advanced" way of thinking by being the first to implement that great trackpad, enabling 3 and four fingers moves, that now everyone copies (and other features copied too...), ergonomy being their first worry IMO...
Finally, almost anything available on Windows is available on Mac (everything if you consider wirtual machines, etc.)
But then again, it is out of topic... So please let's go back to the subject

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

It's degenerating... I may chime in a bit by telling you that any flaw can be handled at the Apple store (they change the case if it is "broken", even on iPhones, they change the keyboard if it is required, etc. all for free, just have to take an appointment, at least in France). Moreover, Macbooks proved to be very durable (software and hardware talking : no virus, thus no need for an antivirus/antispyware, it the OS WAS the best before 7, and some prefers the features SL offers ; then hardware talking, everything is very compact but still powerful enough). The hard drive excuse is quite meaningless, regarding the fact that external (and very potable) HD are available, etc. Mac do not have Bluray yet because it would be too big to fit in... But when advances will be done, there will be of course (they are not so dumb...).
And finally, Apple proved their "advanced" way of thinking by being the first to implement that great trackpad, enabling 3 and four fingers moves, that now everyone copies (and other features copied too...), ergonomy being their first worry IMO...
Finally, almost anything available on Windows is available on Mac (everything if you consider wirtual machines, etc.)
But then again, it is out of topic... So please let's go back to the subject

They'll handle it... for a fee.  Hell, it looks like, from their webpage, they won't even talk to you about your Mac after the warranty is done for under $50, nevermind obscene repair costs on factory flaws.  (Logic board replacements.  Funny, I've had other laptops for 5+ years that didn't need that...)
 
The HDD 'excuse' isn't meaningless.  The ASUS has two drive bays, so someone could run an optimal setup of SSD+HDD and be truly portable.  They won't release a new version with bluray until NEXT years refresh.  There you go, paying a ton more, for not even cutting edge.
 
Let me be very clear with this one.  You can run Mac OSX on a Windows machine.  So any OSX arguments are out the window. (No viruses?  Remember this, OSX is the hacker's target of choice.  Viruses just go to the larger market share.)
 
And their 'advanced' way of thinking has them stealing as much as others steal from them.  It's the tech industry, do you really think Apple is the only one innovating?  Also, multi-touch trackpad?  Bleh.  I wouldn't use one if the computer had the feature.

 

[Kobra]

Same old Mac vs PC debate, very boring and meaningless. Die hard PC users will never understand why some people look at computers as tools and look for intangible values beond metrics of hardware. "The sum is greater than the parts" is another way of describing Apples vision of providing a great user experience free of incompatibility issues and viruses. You need to experience it first hand to understand it. Without the experience (a test in the local Apple Store doesn't count) it will be like comparing a Porsche to a Volkswagen... you say "same, same but different..." I say "*meh*

 ...it's very different. Give it a go, you might actually prefer it..."
 
To answer the OP's question: I use iTunes. The Windows variation doesn't hold a candle to its Mac cousin as its a "quick-and-dirty" conversion just made to sync i-devices. Apple has no interest in supporting the Windows platform...
 
I will await, in amusement, Hybrys post in which he raves about how his Asus will smoke my Mac 

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Same old Mac vs PC debate, very boring and meaningless. Die hard PC users will never understand why some people look at computers as tools and look for intangible values beond metrics of hardware. "The sum is greater than the parts" is another way of describing Apples vision of providing a great user experience free of incompatibility issues and viruses. You need to experience it first hand to understand it. Without the experience (a test in the local Apple Store doesn't count) it will be like comparing a Porsche to a Volkswagen... you say "same, same but different..." I say "*meh*

 ...it's very different. Give it a go, you might actually prefer it..."

I do prefer Macs.  I have to use the ones my school owns for Digi Media.  (Which is ridiculous in and of itself.)  I just can't justify the extra $1000 for a worse machine.  It makes no sense.  If you can explain it to me in some tangible way, except for the 'the value of a Mac is better', which makes no sense, I'd go out and buy one today.  Hell, I'll buy YOU one too.
 
Any OS arguments are invalid, as I run OSX on my Windows machines, aswell as Win7.
 
Any virus arguments are invalid, as OSX has been proven to have many many more security holes than Windows.  See my previous post for info.  It's all about the market share.
 
Any hardware arguments are invalid, as the superior ASUS is better in every way, except build quality.  It also doesn't suffer the current crash bug with the new MBP i7 systems. (Did they NOT test the hardware switching mechanics or something?  lolQ&Agogogo)
 
Build quality arguments ARE valid, BUT, lose points for the locked in battery, and is worth no-where near the $1000 asked.
 
Any support arguments are invalid, because as seen, the MBP i7 series are doing poorly right now.  Beyond this, you only get 1yr support with the purchase, and no accidental warranty.  $400 gets you two more years, but if you don't want to do that, it's $50 per case, AND you pay for all repairs, including most by their own fault.  (IE: Logic board replacements.)  To note, the ASUS has a one year accidental, and two year limited warranty.

 

[Kobra]

Damn, you made your post before I had resubmitted my edited post 

 I was right in my assumption though 

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Damn, you made your post before I had resubmitted my edited post 

 I was right in my assumption though 

Ha!  Nicely done. = D

 

[Kobra]

 

Quote:

Build quality arguments ARE valid, BUT, lose points for the locked in battery, and is worth no-where near the $1000 asked.

​

Apples reason for not providing a "replaceable" battery is that it would compromise the unibody structure. Though, you can replace the battery if you know how to use a screwdriver. It's no biggie. I've upgraded the HDD in my MacBook Pro.
 
Again a analogy to cars; the engine in your car is replaceable, but not user replaceable. The engine will most likely fail before the rest of your car. When it breaks you take it to a mechanic. Some have the knowledge and time on their hands to fix their cars by them selves, most people don't. Does that prevent you from buying a car? No, it doesn't. Why so? Because the car has no value or little meaning by itself. It's a tool, or rather a transport. It is what you use it for that gives the car its value and meaning.
 
A computer has little value in itself, it's a tool to access this forum, to listen to music on, to run applications that you create "stuff" with. It has little or no value on its own.

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

 
Apples reason for not providing a "replaceable" battery is that it would compromise the unibody structure. Though, you can replace the battery if you know how to use a screwdriver. It's no biggie. I've upgraded the HDD in my MacBook Pro.
 
Again a analogy to cars; the engine in your car is replaceable, but not user replaceable. The engine will most likely fail before the rest of your car. When it breaks you take it to a mechanic. Some have the knowledge and time on their hands to fix their cars by them selves, most people don't. Does that prevent you from buying a car? No, it doesn't. Why so? Because the car has no value or little meaning by itself. It's a tool, or rather a transport. It is what you use it for that gives the car its value and meaning.
 
A computer has little value in itself, it's a tool to access this forum, to listen to music on, to run applications that you create "stuff" with. It has little or no value on its own.

Can't you void your warranty by replacing your battery?  I know I can do it on any other laptop with the flick of a switch.  Replacing the RAM or HDD on my little netbook is so much easier too.  You know, user-friendly
 
Apple's reasons are usually flawed.  I'm still gunning for a Mac Representative to answer why their products cost so much more than PCs.  If I recall, they make a huge profit on pretty much every device they make, just because they don't allow competition.

 

[Draca]

I currently own a Macbook Pro 17" specced out (June 09 model) and in retrospect, would NEVER have bought it. I have trouble getting the fans to spin up to a reasonable speed to keep it from overheating (huge problem since 2008 with the MBPs that Apple hasn't yet fixed and is documented all over the web...). I use Fan Control which works okay but the fact that Apple charges so much for essentially faulty products is ridiculous. Random kernel panics, screen glare, noisy hard drive, high frequency hum from the screen - all normal in my experience even after multiple 'repairs'.
 
So much for build quality.
 
To put it in perspective, I spent 4600 AUD for what is now essentially an overheating paperweight. Fortunately I have the AppleCare extended warranty so I might try and get my unit exchanged completely but to be honest I don't really want the seemingly worse, newer i7s which freeze every three days.
 
If I had the choice I would have bought a desktop at half the price and built it myself. You save a lot and get a lot more value. Or I would have gone for a high-end Sony or Asus.
 
Very disappointed really, the only redeeming element is the mac-specific Apogee Duet.
 
I use Play for music reproduction on OS X. I find iTunes too bloated.

 

[krmathis]

Talk about thread derailing! :veryevil:
Why do every single Mac related thread turn into a nasty Mac vs. PC or Mac OS X vs. MS Windows fight? I just wonder.