Apple Mini 'puter as a CD jukebox?



I've ripped all of my CD's as WAV files on to two 160gb WD external drives and I'm thinking it would be cool to use a 'puter as a "CD Player". It would be really easy to use iTunes as a master play list, scroll, click, listen. The entire system ought to come in under $1000 all told.

The new Mac Mini would be a logical choice since it has two USB 2.0 ports for my hard drives and it's quite small and inexpensive. A small flat panel monitor would be required, and of course a wireless mouse and keyboard. The thing I'm not sure about is the audio output on the Mac Mini; not much info at all on the Apple site. Could you simply run a Y-cable from the Mac Mini to your preamp, or does it require an external DAC?

So, what would the system end up loooking like? I'm guessing:

- two 160gb hard drives ($110 each)
- Mac Mini ($499)
- BenQ wireless mouse ($25)
- Small wireless keyboard. Suggestions?
- Small flat panel monitor.. less than 15". Suggestions?
- DAC (I'm assuming it's required). Suggestions?

When all is said and done this could be a nice alternative, I'm not sure it'll rival $1000 CD players though. I'm intrigued with the concept of using a computer as a dedicated jukebox and would love some feedback/ideas/opinions. Thanks, Jeff
hack
I too am running a MAC with iTunes as a digital source. I send the signal wirelessly to an Airport Express plugged into an aux jack in my preamp. The sound is pretty decent but far from the quality I get from my $100 Denon CDP. The DAC in Airport Express just isn't audio-grade.

My next step is to run optical out from the airport express into my new CDP, a Resolution Audio Opus which I chose because it offers a second digital in. This way, I will be able to use the DAC inside the Opus for the computer files and I am expecting a significant improvement in sound. I am now in the process of re-burning all my cds using the lossless format instead of the ACC compressed file format. Lossless offers a bit-for-bit exact copy of the music. You "read" the cd once so there is no concern about not getting a good read and the hard drive transmites a perfect signal. Issues with jitter and reclocking remain but, from what I am reading, solutions for those are at hand.

I think that digital files from computers will be the number one digital source within a few years. Those still using CDP and inserting cds will be a in a similar position to the minority who still prefer vinyl discs. Most of us will have the incredible convenience that computer-based song selection provides.

Going lossless, which you will want, requires ALOT of hard drive space. You'll need 1/2 the space of the native file (somewhere around 300 - 400 MB per cd) and the mini won't be able to hold many cds. But, you can get a 250GB external drive for about $250 so the cost of extra space is very reasonable.

Please post your results with your set-up as it progresses.

You need the airport or some kind of DAC in conjunction with either a USB or firewire audio device. The Mac Mini does not have an audio output or a digital coax. I have a very hard time believing that the performance of the airport going directly into a preamp will rival the quality of going USB or firewire into a decent DAC. There are also some oddball, but highly regarded, DACs like the Apogee that have a built-in USB port. My configuration uses a Waveterminal U24 USB device into a stand alone upsampler and DAC. The sound rivals my DV-50s.

If you are running in an Apple-only environment, you may want to see if you can convert your .wav files to Apple's lossless compressed format. I do not believe you compromise quality, since it is lossless, but you would save significant disk space. (You can then use your second disk as a backup of your first disk--see my thread on having four HD crashes in 2 years).
There is a new wireless remote that is pre-programed for iTunes. It is by a compnay called keyspan. I got my on amazon for like $59 (as I recall). It works through Airport Express. Very nice looking small and compact. It will be a better option than the remote control mouse I was planning to use.
Can you just run the sound from the speaker/headphone jack into DAC or on the cheap, straight into pre-amp?
I use bluebeat.com and run it that way into a tape loop on my Rotel, works good for casual music
I run my G4 Cube into an Airport Express and then into a Rotel RSP-1098S AV preamp. Sounds great thrugh an AR VT-100 and then into a Pair of Totem Mani-2s. Try it.