Dummy Guide on What's Needed to hook up Mini Mac

1. The MacBook will play CD's through its slot drive (also how you would rip them). I would say you'll have to put up with a bit of whirring noise in that case (not as quiet as your average CD player but I'd venture to guess not that annoying to most unless you listen to a lot of quiet music). Not sure why you'd choose playing the CD over ripping it and playing the content off of iTunes in that case.

2.Can't answer the question about DCD's, but the digital input on a DAC definitely does not decode a digital video signal. There is a device called MacTV that you should look into for those kinds of purposes, though I don't know specifically if it will do what you're asking. Video content takes up a huge amount of space on a hard drive.

3. It depends on the compression scheme you use. Generally, as a WAV file the average audio CD takes up around 600mb of space (110 cd's on your 80gig drive). In apple lossless a CD will take up about half that amount of space so you can practically double the number of CD's the drive would hold. I would definitely buy a drive that you can expand on if you get new CD's.

Thanx Jax2,

I'm not familiar with the terminology. I ment ripping my cd collection to the computer with apple lossless and then playing them from the computer.

I had a typo also. I ment playing DVDs not DCDs from the computer.

So I probably can get 220 lossless cds on a 80 gig hard drive. Correct?

No whirring noise if playing from iTunes. Yes, you'd rip them via the CD drive on the computer. Yes, you could play DVD's on the MacBook - the software comes with the operating system. Yep around 220+ lossless CD's on your 80gb drive....correct.

Marco

If you are wanting to get the best sound for the least investment using a Mac as your source, see my thread: Digital Playback Comparison which I posted yesterday. There is a significant difference in sound quality from the different methods of using a Mac in the system.

Interesting review, Bruce_1. Thanks for posting your comments. My experiences have been somewhat similar to what you observed, and I agree, a burned CD can frequently sound better than the original. I tried my friends HAG USB converter and didn't much like it - preferred the Waveterminal U24 I was using at the time (no longer available). Airport Express has certainly not been much of a thrill to me either, and has occurred as a major compromise to me (fine for non-critical listening and convenience). I also have marginally preferred coaxial over toslink in most applications, while in others could not hear a difference. I'm sure this depends upon the actual components involved as well as the cables. Thanks for posting that - it's always good to hear what others' experiences are like with this stuff.

Marco