Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic OT: Mac Mini

I'm sure she will, but I don't think you can get an additional discount on refurb stuff.

Don't knock refurb, by the way. I bought a 28" iMac with 4GB RAM and a 1TB drive, and it turned out whoever sent it back had put in 8GB RAM and a 2TB drive and forgotten to take them out before returning it...

I did have an issue with the video card but as there's an authorized repair shop round the corner from me it was no real hardship.

I have been running maczfs on my Mac Pro for several good years. But a new small silicon valley company has ported the newer version of zfs to the Mac - check out http://tenscomplement.com/, it hasn't shipped yet. MacZFS is very good but I plan to buy it and upgrade my partition when it is released. A new mac with the upgraded I/O would be wonderful with the new ZFS.

All great stuff.

Next question... Is the Mac Mini digital output 24/96 and is there a Squeezebox client that will deliver that to a pair of D33s?

I was seriously considering the MS600 but I keep coming back to the Mac Mini, you get both audio and video, never mind a full fletch PC. Add Pure Music and you should be pretty much set. It may not be even close to the MS600 but so what, it's only about $699!

Does the following spec sheet for the 2010 Mac Mini answer your question (bottom of page)?

http://goo.gl/pH8x3

When you get you Mac Mini, go to Utilities > Audio Midi Set Up > Audio Output > then configure output at 24/96 and whether you want stereo or 5.1/6.1/7.1 output.

Then download Squeezebox Server for your Mac Mini - http://goo.gl/FnA1k

To enhance your audio further - download Fidelia http://goo.gl/dZBNL - and/or Pure Music - http://goo.gl/5oxe

For retrieving artwork and ID tags in iTunes I use CoverScout and SongGenie from www.equinux.com

Hi Joel
Something you may already be aware of, but just to be sure........

The Audio Midi Setup dictates the Output format for both the Optical and HDMI Outputs........and most importantly, it does this for ALL OSX Programs which use the Digital Outputs

So, if you set the Digital Output to 24/96, then ALL Programs which Output Audio will be resampled to 24/96............this includes for example iTunes, Songbird and many other OSX Media Players.......so, if you select a 16/44 Track to play, it will be output as 24/96 at the Digital Output..........not ideal

Given that most of your Music is likely 16/44, it would be best to set the Audio Midi to 16/44........this will ensure that most of your content is not unnecessarily resampled

Two Programs which get around this limitation are Pure Music and Amarra.........these both work in conjunction with iTunes and will reset the Audio Midi ON THE FLY based on the Track you've selected.....therefore, if you select a 16/44 Track, then it will reset the AUdio Midi to 16/44......likewise with a 24/88 or 24/96 Track etc.

Unless it has been designed to do so, the Squeezebox Server will not provide the same functionality on the Mac's Digital Output........it will allow the Audio Midi to resample to whatever its setting has been set to

The easy way around this is to simply set the Audio Midi to 16/44, which would likely cover 95% of your content output thru SB Server

Or else delve deeper into the SB Forums in relation to this particular question

Thanks, I do vaguely recall the discussion. I think the simplest solution will be to run a feed from my Transporter (in the Cinema room) to my office and plug that into input 2 on the 33s.

New Mac Minis are out and much cheaper entry-level price point (�529 vs. �618). Anyone think the lack of a DVD ROM drive is an issue?

It rather depends what you are doing, I guess. In the world of Mac it is easy to use the DVD ROM drive of another machine on the network, so if you have more than one Mac in the house it's really not a big deal.

No DVD ROM Drive is a complete non issue as far as I'm concerned

As long as you have a DVD Drive somewhere in the house, the Drive can be shared across the network

Most Apps are now by Download anyway and the new Mac Mini comes with a USB Recovery drive AFAIK

Lion will work a lot better with 4Gb than the standard supply of 2Gb.......so the extra �80 with Apple or less with Crucial et al, will be money well spent IMHO.......8Gb might be even worthwhile depending on how you're going to tax the PC and how many Apps you'll have open etc

Thanks. Nice to see prices coming down.

I should know this, but don't: Is a 2.3GHz dual core i5 better than a 2.4Ghz Core Duo? The Apple website talks about "Boost 2.0" (upping the clock rate) and hyper-threading (the use of which is very app specific).

I'm pretty sure the speed increase is real, even if the clock speed is lower. But I don't know how big the difference between the two you mention. (Mine are a 2.4gHz Core 2 Duo, and a 3.6gHz i5 and the difference is enormous, but that doesn't help.)

As for threading, I read that since Snow Leopard the OS has organised a lot of it so even apps which don't use it themselves can benefit. But that might be marketting bs, I don't know.