jonT wrote:
Apple TV - not receiving good press on the NGs. It's basically a
strangled video interface.

Sad to hear. It seems pretty limited, particularly in having to link it
into iTunes rather than simply scanning SMB shares... Maybe someone
will reverse engineer it, ala mt-daapd.

I've transferred all my compressed music (80-odd gig) to a Mac Mini.
Issues/compromise/things include:

Sounds like a good start

D/A conversion - I'm not completely convinced by the Mac's ability here,
so I use the Mac digital output to a Cambridge DAC;

Using an external DAC seems quite inevitable, though I have heard good
things about the terratec range of sound cards. Still wouldn't trust
digital to analogue conversion inside a computer!

Incidently, I've heard that the digital output from a mac mini is
somewhat weak - though I don't know how noticable this would be, or
indeed if this is "audiophile speak". The Exposure 2010 CD player has
an option to turn off the LCD display to improve sound quality. Go
figure...


I'm not too sure about all the 'display off' hoohah ;-)

Funny you should say that about the digital out. It's actually quieter
than other digital sources (a PVR that happens to store MP3s etc, and a
USB iMic D/A converter) when used to play the same mp3 file.

Now, I thought a digital signal is just a digital signal if the same
source track is used, and I'd assumed this volume difference was one of
many of my little imaginings. The other variable could be the decoding
software (Mac native AFAIK) I suppose - but I haven't noticed a
qualitative difference between sources once the volume is adjusted, but
then my testing regime is not exactly in the realm of double blind and
suchlike.

So you could well have a point about the 'weak' digital out ...

Credit card at the ready.

Rob