Mac mini for music playback

I recently decided to set up my Mac in this way, to deliver hi-res throughout the signal chain--from my music library, to the player, to the DAC, to my preamp, amp, and loudspeakers or preamp to headphones.

Here is how I did it. Building Your Hi-Res Music Library The process starts with ripping or downloading music files directly to either your Mac's internal hard drive or an external drive, or designating a cloud site for your file storage more on this in a minute.

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I store my music library on a 3TB Seagate external drive. Many people prefer to use an external drive because loading up your main hard drive with music files can potentially slow your computer's overall performance, especially when you get to the end of your drive's storage limits.

This was important when storage was expensive, but now storage is plentiful and cheap. Hi-res music files are available for download from a number of websites, including: If you're looking for suggestions on high-quality audio recordings, check out the reviews on our sister site, AudiophileReview.

Build a Music Server Using the Mac Mini

Here are a few great-sounding albums all available as hi-res downloads that I'd put on my list of desert island discs:. Abraxas Mozart: Sticky Fingers Bob Marley: Legend you are on a desert island, after all Steely Dan: Aja Jethro Tull: My current total storage need is approximately 2. I had to leave some of my more esoteric albums off the iCloud drive to fit under the 2TB size limit.

All your Excel spreadsheets, Word docs, and PowerPoint presentations are automatically stored there and are available for collaboration between users. Amazon's Drive allows you to upload up to songs for free.

I currently use Apple's iCloud because I've been deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem from the first-generation iPod, but Amazon's value proposition is compelling. I am strongly considering making the switch. If anyone out there has made the switch, I'd love to hear about your experience in the Comments section.

Turning a Mac Into a Music Server

Playback Software Once you have begun to build your hi-res audio library, how do you play the files in a way that maintains their high bit and sample rate? The VLC player can be downloaded here. Why not just use iTunes? The iTunes Store only sells music in the compressed AAC format, and the iTunes player doesn't support the most widely sold lossless format: Some hi-res file formats like AIFF may be played by iTunes but will not be at their native hi-res rates.

Connections There are three ways to get hi-res audio out of your Mac: I suppose you could also count Bluetooth as the fourth way, but I'm not convinced that, even with A2DP negotiating between the transmitter and receiver the best CODEC available, you aren't losing audible quality in the wireless transmission. Any of the above three connections ensures output of your audio files at the full resolution.

Loudspeakers

Options one and two are still in the digital domain, so you will need to convert the signal to analog before sending it along its path that ultimately leads to your analog ears. Avoid using the system for email or printing or other tasks while listening. An office computer will 'work' for the purpose of playing music, but is it the optimal setup? Your audio setup is a highly refined system and your computer should be up to the task.

Learn what it takes to make your computer the best it can be. As for choice of computers, Intel based machines are required for Amarra products.

Turning a Mac Into a Music Server | The Absolute Sound

For the computer, in order of preference we can recommend the following:. Sonic Studio has prepared a special application to make optimizing your Mac for music playback easy. The Mac OSX Optimization Setup application will disable un-necessary processes that affect your music computer's performance. Computers with a Solid State Hard Drive installed can sound significantly smoother than their spinning hard-disk counterparts. Here is a link to the fastest SSD drives. Storage Search SSD Purchase Now.