Music Server now bane of my existence

I don't disagree that setting up a music server optimally does take some tweaking and it helps if you are already familiar with how they work.

Mach2Music has a blog with sections on optimizing the OS for music playback.

FWIW, getting a Mini to play music isn't difficult. But you can tweak the system to get more out.

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.

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 :)

Actually, setting up the Mac to play music isn't difficult and once it's setup, when I was paying a lot less money for power, I used to leave my gear on all the time so any time I had a moment, I just used the app to select my music and began playing from my entire library. I spent less time selecting songs and listening vs with my analog system which required a ritual of cleaning :)

The difference is with tweaking. If you want the best performance squeezed out from the computer, Mojo Audio is one way to get about it. You can also do simple stuff like making sure the music storage hard disk is on a different bus/interface from the audio (to the DAC). Again, the setup is only done once and you can benefit from it for a long time.

If you want someone to do the optimization for you, have a look at the Aurender.

Here I am typing this running screen sharing on a 2011 MacBook Air remote
controlling a 2009 MacBook Pro (quite ancient) over wifi (on the MBA) and
wired (to the MBP) and it still works remarkably well.

It is a bit slow if you are running a full HD and communicating over wifi for
both but that would be due to the slowness of wifi rather than the OS

I use MochaVNC on the iPad but I suspect the speed on that has to do with the inadequacy of the iPad's hardware. The MBP/MBAs do a decent job even over wifi talking to the Mini which is connected over wired

FWIW, I don't use VNC on the Mini to play music but only the occasional setup/upgrade/system housekeeping. I use Remote to play.

For those who want an idiot proof computer audio system try an Aurender.

15 minutes!??

How big is your library? My 1.5TB takes me a fair bit of time and that's using Thunderbolt!!

I back up to a RAID 5 NAS and 2 Thunderbolt drives :)