How to Solve Duplicate File Problem on iTunes

Are the extra albums exactly alike or does some of the cuts appear under one title and the rest under another?

I ask because iTunes thinks multiple artists on the same album should have another cover folder. There is a way to resolve this in preferences.

I'm now four weeks into working on my Mac Mini music server and still don't have it working "perfect."

Sound is another whole issue, I refuse to put it in my system until it's like I want.

Neil,

What I'm attempting to do is synchronize WAV, FLAC and Apple Lossless music files into iTunes.

iTunes does not support FLAC so I have four programs that can accommodate all the music files but each work differently and not equally user friendly.

FLAC files don't play or display album art in iTunes normally and each of the other programs are different in appearance, design and quality and (so far) only one plays nice with iTunes and supports all formats up to 384.

That's before we even begin discussing the sound quality.

For ease of use I want absolute control with no monitor, so I have several programs I've experimented with to "see" my Mini with the monitor off. The best is "Remote" which is Apple software, it's slick as can be and is absolutely free to download and use.

The best remote desktop that controls everything (not just iTunes) is Log Me in Ignition which is quite a bit more complicated to download, install and use but it's capable of even running Photoshop if need.

The short answer is, right now it's looking like a runoff between Amarra Pro and Channel D Pure Music.

The user manuals on both of these is enough to make me run to my turntable :^). I do like the fact that 1000 + CDs and high res downloads fit in a couple of 2 TB hard drives I scored at Amazon for $88.00 each.

Last, it winds up being important to do some tweaks to the Mac Mini to make it perform it's best. Solid state drive, good USB cable, best Intel chip and maximum RAM. That should be no surprise to anyone who uses a computer, those facts help everything from Mail and Word to Photoshop.

06-14-11: Ncarv
Albert, have you compared Audirvana to Pure Music or Amarra?
Maybe you could update us on a new thread when you figure this all out. I'm anxious to get on with it, but the tinkering is daunting.

I have Pure Music and Amarra, I'm told that Amarra is better but it's harder to implement with an iPad or iPhone with Apple Remote app.

I'm hoping for simple elegance with decent sound when everything is complete and I'm trying hard to get a combination of convenience and high performance. So far I have no idea how this will do, not until the DAC is running and all this is in my system.