Music Server vs. PC vs. Transport vs. ?

Hi H -

obviously you replied to Rbstehno before reading my reply to your questions.

The absolute best file format to use on a Mac with iTunes is Apple Lossless. Apple Lossless contains exactly the same data as a WAV or AIFF file which are both uncompressed. However Apple Lossless was designed to work well with metadata (tags) which WAV and AIFF being older formats were not.

Metadata is the stuff that tells you everything you want to know about the album or song you want to select and play. It enables all of the sorting and list making that makes iTunes such a versatile and powerful integrated solution.

Trust me, you are not the first person who has come on this board fixated on quality reproduction. We all are, and we have all made the switch because we are enjoying better sound then we had before.

BTW no compression of audio files takes place when they are sent via wireless. Audio files are very small, and so they are very easy for computers to deal with. That is one of the big reasons that computers found their way to recording studios long before they ever came to film and television.

The compact file size is why WiFi works and why you can use USB1.1 - small amounts of data, even smaller when compressed.

Think of it this way. The data starts life as a AIFF on your CD. Using iTunes, the data is "ripped" from the CD and stored on a hard drive along with any metadata you may want. When you want to play a song one of two things happens.

If you are using Toslink or a USB DAC, you select the song in iTunes and push Play. The hard drive spins and begins sending data up the USB cable (or Toslink cable) to the DAC. It is the DAC that converts the data back to an analog signal. Incidentally this is the big benefit over sound cards which do the conversion in the electrically noisy computer environment.

If you are using WiFi you may or may not control play from iTunes - this depends if you are using AirExpress (iTunes control) or a Squeezebox on WiFi or Ethernet in which case you will no longer control play from iTunes.

Instead, you will control it at the computer from the SLIM web based browser which looks and works a lot like iTunes, and uses the iTune data library. (SLIM has no capability for ripping but it can read iTunes and iTunes playlists) But having a Squeezebox (SB) gives you a second choice which is to access the hard drive through the SB using the remote.

In short its two way which means you don't have to run back to your computer to change the song. Can be very handy! Also, if you are thinking about doing your whole house an Ethernet network enables you to add a NAS server and eliminate your personal computer from the equation entirely.

Anyhow once again via iTunes, the remote or the web browser, the hard drive spins and sends the data out via WiFi or Ethernet. The data is received and converted at the remote location.

If you want to cable, you have three choices.

If you want to run Toslink and are concerned about mazimum quality you will want/have to use a one of the premium Wireworld SuperNova 5+ glass cable. I ran this from my G5 to my TriVista for a long time with excellent results. The longest length available is 5 meters.

If you want to use Ethernet you will have to go with one (or a mix) of the SLIM products - the Transporter with the Modwright analog mods is supposed to be pretty rocking and will cost about the same as the BelCanto. Note that volume can be controlled through SLIM and iTunes (true digital volume control).

If you want to run USB you can use the Opticis USB fiber optic cable. For about the same money as the long Toslink you can go 100 feet. Note that an Ethernet cable is more compact and requires smaller holes in your house...

What is good about all four of the solutions you are considering is that in each case you are physically decoupling the computer from the DAC. This will help eliminate ground loops and sometimes weird static.

Hope that this is helpful.

Hdomke-

You can use a iTouch as a remote to control iTunes on your
Mac, see:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/node/71

Instead of buying a DAC, you should look at upgrading your amp with a TacT S2150. Less boxes and cables.

Ckorody,
Thanks for your ideas!
It is helping to clear some of the confusion I have about turning my Mac into an Audiophile quality music server. I guess the complicated nature of it is why people would want to use a proprietary system. If I bought a Sooloos or Qsonix music server then I would not have to worry about all the different parts because they come in the box. Otherwise a Sooloos or Qsonix would sound no different than a Mac set up properly, right?

“The absolute best file format to use on a Mac with iTunes is Apple Lossless. “
Thanks. Does anyone disagree with that? I had always assumed I would use AIFF.

“…no compression of audio files takes place when they are sent via wireless. “
That is great news. That means there is no role for Ethernet. No reasons to drill holes in the floor.

“If you are using Toslink or a USB DAC…”
Are those my two best options for getting the digital signal out of my Mac? I had a dealer tell me today that coaxial S/PDIF (which would require an inexpensive converter) is the absolute best.

“If you are using WiFi you may or may not control play from iTunes” I will be using an Airport (Apple’s brand of WiFi configured for 802.11n). Should I consider any other software?

“ if you are thinking about doing your whole house an Ethernet network enables you to add a NAS”
I do have a whole house Ethernet Network (but not to this room yet).
I plan to store the music on my Apple Xserve RAID which is hidden in the basement. It holds 5.6 Terabytes of data.

Hi - glad to be of help.

Don't use AIFF - you need the metadata

As far as getting a digital signal out of the Mac Toslink, DAC, WiFi and Ethernet are all options. And who knows what Steve will have for us next week.

About SPDIF., Everyone is amazed at how a humble hard drive bests a fancy CDP. Why. Well reason number one is that a hard drive is not subject to the same kinds of jitter and other distortions inherent in a complex electro-optical-mechanical system designed in the 70s.

Beyond the transport which is clearly the primary culprit, the secondary culprit and source of jitter is SPDIF. SPDIF implementation is extremely problematic and often poorly done. A premium SPDIF cable is expensive and rarely longer then 2m. BTW Toslink was Toshibas answer to SPDIF and can be equally problematic. The best Toslink cables are less expensive then SPDIF cables and come in longer lengths. Toslink is often looked down upon by audiophiles but 6 moons (among others) ran some tests and it was pretty much a tossup. Remember that fiber decouples the PC and the DAC which a SPDIF cannot do.

If you have a SPDIF you would be better off looking at something like the Hagerman or Blue Circle USB to SPDIF devices.

Start with what comes free with your Mac - FrontRow is a pretty cool remote that might meet your needs. There are a lot of fine alternatives if you need them.

Put the room on the Ethernet now and be done with it. One thing to consider is where you will be doing your ripping. That Mac needs to be connected to the Internet in order to populate the metadata. (Of course you can use Airport for that as well)

Keep us posted and have fun!

Hdomke - there are differences in wireless networks. 802.11a is actually better for streaming data because of its 5ghz freq range rather than 802.11g. your 802.11n router has to communicate with your airport express at 54mb, which is 802.11g speed. When using wireless technology to stream data, you need a very good signal from the source to your destination or you run the risk of lost packets, packet retransmissions, latency issues, delays, etc.. which could degrade the signal or at least cause dropouts. Another way to improve network transmission is to get network devices that support QOS.

you asked about wired or wireless. if you have cat 5e or better cable to your locations in the house, by all means use a wired connection. I have this cable and my whole house uses 1 gb switches so each wired connection is able to communicate with the other macs/file servers at 1gb speed.. File sharing and mac sharing has never been faster. also, i just read that apple is supporting blu ray. if/when they come up with a hi def audio that macs can play, you will need the extra bandwidth.

You mentioned why not purchase a complete system from a vendor. My reply is that they don't have any better sound than what you can build for quite a bit less $$$. If you have read TAS lately, they reviewed a couple of media servers that cost $$$$'s. They still had to hook them up to an external dac to get them to sound their best. look at the latest review of the mcintosh media server for $6000. the reviewer indicated for thousands less, you can create your own server that would sound just as good or better than the mcintosh unit.

there are a couple ways to create a whole house audio distribution system IMO using macs. on the cheap side, use wired or wireless airport express devices in each room that you have an amp/speakers. you will be able to play 1 source to all devices or you can turn a room off. in each of the rooms, you can either connect the airport express straight to your receiver/preamp or you can hook it up to an external dac. to control itunes from each location, you can use leopards screen sharing to control the main itunes from a remote mac or use the itouch or iphone devices to remotely control the mac server.

The more expensive route (better quality, more flexible) is to use intelligent devices in each room to handle the network traffic better and to allow multiple itunes sources so you have different music in each room. I would deploy a used mac mini at each location where you have a audio system that is either hooked up wired or wireless. all these mac mini's would share the common itunes repository off the media server directly, no need to remote control the server. each mac mini would be hooked up to a monitor or tv to produce the screen to control everything. if no screen is available, you can still control the mini from another mac or itouch/iphone.
good luck