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Moving from CD Player to MAC Book Pro Music Server

Based on my research, I will be selling my Ayre CX-7e CD player (Magnum Dynalab MD-102T FM Tuner already sold) and getting a computer based music server. I ordered the MAC Book Pro computer, 2.66GHz processor, 4GB RAM and a 128 GB solid state drive (SSD). The cost for an additional 4GB of RAM is $800+ so I decided to wait for the cost go down. All my music will be stored on an external hard drive using the AIFF format. It will sound better if it is on a different controller than the DAC so I will use a FireWire hard drive. The Seagate portable 2.5” external drive will be much quieter and will run off the power provided by the bus. The Seagate model info is below. I ordered the Ayre USB DAC and it will run balanced into my Ayre AX-7e integrated amp. I would like to thank the many people (on this site and other sites) including Music Lovers Audio and Steve Silberman (Ayre) that helped me with the computer configuration. Ayre also recommends the Furman AC-215 as a power filter for the MAC to prevent it from interfering with the sound quality. I ordered the MAC on Thursday (9/3/2009) from an independent Apple reseller (delivery in about 7+ days). Music Lovers Audio will install my Ethernet line from my living room to my router in my home office on September 16th. Based on estimated delivery times, it will take 6+ weeks for everything to be completed. The web site for the external drive is:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?name=ST905003FJA205-RK-fa-gopro-mac-500gb-hd&vgnextoid=13530c1001c11210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD&locale=en-US
hgeifman
hgeifman OP
2,191 posts
 
I picked up my Ayre USB DAC last Saturday and hooked it up. Wow! I was very impressed with the way it sounds. It is better sounding then my Ayre CX-7e CD player. The highs are better and so is the bass. The music seems to be clearer and more engaging. The unit still has to burn in and so do my new Synergistic Research TESLA Quad speaker cables. Music Lovers Audio (Berkeley, CA) said everything will sound better after some time.

I have about 25 CD’s loaded into my MAC Book Pro computer and many more to go. It takes between 3 to 5 minutes per CD using the AIFF format. This is a very boring time consuming process.

My MAC Book Pro is connected to the Furman AC-215 power conditioner. The MAC has 4 GB RAM and the 120GB solid state drive. I am using the Seaport Free Agent Go Pro 500GB external hard drive to store my music files. The Furman is required so the MAC does not interfere with the audio components. See http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=AC-215_PRO

I followed Ayre’s MAC Book setup instructions and they worked. The Audio MIDI setup was a little different from their instructions but we finally figured it out. The QB-9 is connected (balanced cables) to my Ayre AX-7e Integrated amp connected to my Sonus Faber Auditor M Speakers.
kmelancon
15 posts
 
Sounds like a nice setup. I've been seriously thinking of making the switch to a music server as well. Thanks for sharing your setup. Please keep us posted with a few more suggestions and comparisons as your system settles in.
rbstehno
1,434 posts
 
don't rely on a raid type of system to be fool proof. you still need to have a separate disk outside of your local/nas setup to be fault tolerant. i have been in the computer industry for over 30 years from mainframes down to pc's. even the companies using the largest and the most expensive raid storage systems back up their data to other disk systems or to tape. if you rip your cd's to the nas/raid system, keep your original cd's as your backup if anything happens. disks do fail and the raid setup allows for a disk drive to fail without corrupting your data (if you use raid 1, 5, 6). with a computer systems, you usually have 1 interface (controller) to the storage system and they sometimes fail sending bad data to the disk subsystem. to help alleviate this, you need 2 controllers to the disks or backup your data to another device outside of your computer.
hgeifman OP
2,191 posts
 
As I described above, I am using the Seaport Free Agent Go Pro 500GB external hard drive to store my music files. I also purchased a 2nd Seaport drive for backup purposes. I have about 65 GB of music stored and completed by first backup. Seaport drive #1 is using the Firewire connnection and Seaport drive #2 is using the USB connection. The backup took 23 minutes. The system sounds great.
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