Music Server now bane of my existence

I try not to use the same interface (eg USB, Firewire, etc) for the connection to the DAC as well as the HDD storage.

For the new Mini, I've had good results with a Thunderbolt GoFlex adaptor with the Seagate GoFlex drive. You do need a TB cable separately.

For the connection to the DAC, use the best one you can. Some older DACs don't have a good USB implementation so an external USB-SPDIF (Berkeley, Bel Canto, Wavelength all make very good ones) would improve the SQ.

If you have a new DAC like the Playback which supports up to 24/384 and DSD over USB, that would be my preferred choice so I'd skip an external USB-SPDIF/coax box.

What this means is USB for audio connection and either Firewire or Thunderbolt for music storage. I expect Mojo would configure the Mac to run on SSD so that is optimized for performance but does mean the HDD will be a bit small for a large library. I currently have over 1.47TB of music in a 3TB drive.

Apple sells an external SuperDrive which is USB powered and does DVD+/-R/RW as well. But you can also get Toshiba/Samsung PC based USB DVD drives that does the same thing for probably less money. I just prefer a USB powered one to minimize the wire count.

That said, I do use a good external DVD drive (a Sony one from a while back) that also has its own power supply when I do ripping. Call me paranoid, I guess. I know others who swear by ripping only with Plextor drives.

Hope this helps.

Doggie, I'm assuming you meant well, but seriously, what the heck does any of that mean? ;)

Celtic66's comments resonated with me -- I was just thinking this evening, as I tracked down a glitch in my music server setup, that the whole music server "thing" is still way too glitch-laden, complicated, unstable, and involves way too much fiddling around. I use a Mac Mini with an outboard CD drive and a USB connection to an outboard DAC, and I have to troubleshoot SOMETHING about once every two days. I have tried all the major music server software packages for the Mac, including both those that integrate with iTunes and those that don't. I have used hard-wired Ethermet connections, the aforesaid USB, coax, toslink and wi-fi. I have downloaded music In a variety of formats and resolutions. And still the damn thing isn't truly stable and reliable. Sooner or later someone, somewhere, is going to come up with an elegant and reliable solution, but it hasn't happened yet. Or at least I haven't encountered it. And heaven knows I've been looking.

I've found Audirvana to be the most stable of the lot. I also try not to update itunes until I am sure the developer of (Audirvana or Puremusic or Amarra) has fixed any possible issues/tested the new build of itunes.

Timrhu, my post does require some understanding of the interfaces and acronyms used in DAC technology.

TB - thunderbolt
DSD - codec used for SACD aka Direct Stream Digital which uses single bit sampled at very high frequencies (MHz instead of kHz)
GoFlex is a range of hard disks from Seagate that allow you to change the interface to the computer from USB to Firewire (FW), Thunderbolt or even eSATA

USB-SPDIF boxes are external boxes that provide a way for your computer to talk to a DAC, particularly a legacy one that has no way of talking to your computer otherwise. It provides usually a SPDIF (coax/optical/BNC) to the DAC.

If you need any more help beyond that, perhaps computer audio shouldn't be something in your radar :)