Yes, it is a bit involved but this is what I had to do in order to get my MSB up to that of the best digital I have heard. I did not thatmy units neesds to be on vibration control preferably wood blocks (3) with some type of dampening atop the unit. I am going to cut and past an email I generated for several people on my configuration. I hope it helps.
Ok, so for the MSB to sound its best (at least in my situation) I have found that the following components sing EXCEPTIONALLY well together (and I mean to the point that I have all but abandoned my idea of buying a TT). If you are using a different dac mileage may vary but you will be able to get sound unheard of out of the system :)
1. Mac Mini with at least 3GB of memory
2. ChannlD PureMusic or PureVinyl, I am using PureMusic.
3. M2Tech HiFace (BNC connector)
4. Really superb digital cable, I use the FIM Gold (now owned by CRL)
5. I prefer copper interconnect
6. (optional) iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad for remote control of system
Ok, so once you have all your software installed you need to configure PureMusic (henceforth known as PM) as follows. Set the Audio Midi clock to 176.4 Khz under the M2Tech properties (you will see this once you install the M2Tech HiFace USB to SPDIF converter). Now in the PM software make sure you have selected Memory Play (the software will completely buffer the music file to memory before playing, it is also worth noting that the HiFace driver also buffer files as it is an Asynchronous USB device thus you have 2 memory buffers before you even count the memory buffer in the MSB DAC).
Under Preferences in the PM software select "Audio Advanced Setup" check "Allow Selecting Device from Application" and check "Use Strict Device Validation". Choose output device "M2Tech HiFace" and check "Enable Exclusive Access ("Hog" Mode)". Select Max Rate "192khz". Click Ok, now under the "Music Server Setting" menu in Preferences select the up-sampling method to be "NOS Type Classic".
For best sound do NOT use "Hybrid Memory Mode".
What is Hog Mode? This is really cool, what it does is locks the output of the Mac Mini for iTunes to the Hiface device only. This keeps my computer sounds from coming through my dac, i.e. the ONLY signal which will come out the HiFace is the music being played from iTunes when is launched. In Audio Midi the default output MUST be something other than the HiFace when in Hog Mode, use the "System Default". Now you can hook a standard analog pair of outputs to the headphone jack and feed it to your preamp, if you watch a movie or listen to Pandora etc the sound will come out of the headphone jack or you can use a second dac which for instance does not have a buffer (which will make characters lips be out of sync with the voices during a movie) to watch movies with.
I have my Bidat hooked up to the Tos-Link output of the Mac Mini and when I want to listen to music on the Bidat, I simply shut down PM and the default output sends the iTunes music to my Mac, remember when PM is running iTunes is NOT playing the file, it simply becomes the jukebox for selecting the music.
I can explain Hog mode further if needed but it does sound better that way.
This should be all you need to get going let me know if you have questions.
