Why Mac Mini Over Slim Systems Products?

I have had the Mac Mini via USB output with either a Wavelength Cosecant or MHDT Paradisea + DAC for a couple of years now. I have had zero trouble and it sounds great, better than any CD player I have owned. I have almost 2 TB of rips at this point and it is so nice to have all that music at my fingertips.

My friend who also started his music server setup at the same time went the PC route and used Slim Server and Squeezebox. He has had nothing but trouble and has never gotten his setup working completely.

The combo of Mac Mini with itunes and the Paradisea + DAC is a no brainer and has to be one of the best bargains in all of audio in my opinion.

I am also using a Mini as a music server with the toslink output to a CAL Alpha DAC with the 24/96 board upgrade. I as of now have no way to try the USB option maybe in the future ? I am looking at getting a better toslink cable maybe the Van Den Hul it is a glass fiber , I now have a plastic toslink cable.I will live with this setup for a time and maybe a jitter device or reclocker or a DAC upgrade sometime down the road.I have about 400 CD'S, 200 + GB on a external hard drive all in AIFF and I like it .I also have a I Touch I use as a remote sometimes work's very well . Marc

If you're interested in playing high resolution files, how do you get files like the Reference Recordings 176.4 kHz/ 24-bit digital masters out of a Mac Mini to your DAC?

i also have used the mini as a music server with great results. i now use an imac. if you want to use the mini, you don't need a monitor. you can actually take over the mini using leopard and remotely do what you want. we have all mac's in the house and i can take control of any of them and execute an application, move files, etc...

most of the info i have read indicates to stay away from usb for music. i use toslink cables going from my mac's or airport express units into jitter reduction devices, then quality coax cables going to an external dac, then quality balanced or unbalanced cables to the preamp.

also using a toslink connection, you have your choice of many different dac's, from $100 to $30k. the benchmark is a decent dac but if you go the usb route, you will be limited to this quality dac. and in reviews that i read about the usb benchmark dac, the reviewers liked the sound from the other connections over the usb. when i auditioned different dacs, i preferred others over the benchmark (personal choice) but some of them cast 2 to 4 times as much. the point is, you have options going with toslink.

also, i would suggest going with some kind of jitter reduction device between the mac and your dac. the jitter device could use toslink or if you can find 1 a usb connection, then use coax or aes cable to the dac.

also, there is a new remote program from the itunes site that lets you control itunes from an ipod touch or iphone, and it is free. i use it on my touch.

It would seem to me that using the USB output from the computer and using a USB DAC that uses Asynchronous USB mode would be the optimal setup. I know there are not yet many DACs on the market that use asynchronous USB communication, but they would seem to lower jitter to a minimum without the need for an additional jitter reduction device.

I'm only familiar with Wavelength and UltraFi USB DACs that uses asynchronous mode, but I'm fairly certain there are a few more. I've heard the Async UltraFi DAC and it was very good using a Mac w/iTunes as the transport.

Enjoy,

TIC