[bobbmd]

advice please
i cant decide between just 1tb hdd(2.6ghz i7,8gb ram) vs 128gb ssd/1tb hdd fusion drive vs 256gb ssd new 2012+macmini
i will have a ripping service do my 700+cd's in aiff or applelossless onto archival dvds which i will load onto macmini(about 70 dvd's=350gb)
will use amarra for the 'player'
will use gungnir dac by schiit but will first be using my schiit modi(will the gungnir make the music even better than the 'liitle schiit'modi does already for just listening to MOG)
thanks bobbmd
if i just go with the 1tb hd my 'cfo' will LET ME get the sennheiser hd598's

 

[netdog]

If it's just a dedicated audio source, you won't really need anything fancy in the Mini.

 

[jaddie]

Get the 1tb HDD, you'll need the capacity over the performance and higher cost.  Also get a 2tb or so external drive for Time Machine backups.  
 
For large media libraries I suggest media on an external drive with manual backup, or backup with another utility to another drive.  

 

[netdog]

Yes to all that jaddie said.

 

[bobbmd]

to netdog&jaddie
thankyou will go with just the 1tb 2.6ghz and 8gb ram
will do backup but the archival dvds will also be backup
do you both agree with amarra
and the gungnir? and aiff as format
the ripping service i am using is called 'pickled productions' in/near chicago
what did you mean by 'performance'?
thanks again bobbmd

 

[jaddie]

Can't think of a single reason to go with AIFF.  ALC (Apple Lossless) would be my choice, with high rate AAC for portable players.  ALC is bit-perfect lossless, and smaller size files than AIFF.

 

[netdog]

I have everything in ALAC.  Honestly, optical discs make for a lousy backup.  I keep two external drives here and one off-site.  Much safer as this is your entire CD collection that we're talking about.  At least for me, to lost that would be an absolute disaster. And yes, I don't house my library on the internal drive but I know there's a lot of controversy about hanging the library off the USB when my dedicated DAC is also hanging off a USB port.  That said, I don't think moving the extra data across the USB bus causes the bus to miss a beat.  As far as I can tell, my results are fab.
 
By the way, you might want to get BitPerfect if you're using a USB DAC that supports resolutions higher than 44.1/16.  Obviously it won't matter regarding your CD rips, but you may start downloading higher res files or ripping higher res discs.

 

[bobbmd]

thanks for all your advice