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Damn Apple..a fence sitter's dilemma

Almost ready to make the'move'...Buy the Mac mini, go with a firewire dac (seems to make more sense to my computer illiterate brain), decided on a simplified Raid backup, still worrying over format to rip cd's....And now Apple introduces a new connectivity mode : Thunderbolt. A zillion times faster than USB 2 and Firewire 800, single connectivity with audio, video, data, etc., and a whole lot of other things I don't understand.
Sure, it's only in the MBP's introduced this week, not the Mini; but trickle down is their modus operondi. Sure, I should get off the fence and make a move 'cause there will always be the next great thing coming down the pipe, but I sure hate to spend my pennies and be obsolete in 16 months. Whaddya' think?
farmdoc
farmdoc OP
45 posts
 
Leskem, remainder of system (primary)

Sony SCD-1 modded
Van Alstine Ultra Dac
Hovland hp-100
Bel 1001 Mk. V x2 in mono
Meadowlark Blue Heron II floorstanders
Audience Au 24e IC's; Zu Mission speaker cable

Hesson11....As you saw later MBP is MacBook Pro.

Two further ??'s: Do the users think that changing a Mac Mini HD to SS hard drive is audibly beneficial? What format seems best to rip CD's at this time (Probably using Amarro or Pure Music with Itunes)?

Thanks for link, Almarg
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Look at some other 'wars' which have been waged over tech.
VHS handily beat BETA and now both are in museums. CDs killed 8trk and cassette while eventually being seen to be at the end of THEIR life cycle. I suspect that like Vinyl, CD will always have some fans.

USB? FireWire? Maybe....but maybe the new protocol will NOT replace them. Sounds like the new protocol is aimed directly at HT integration.
Unless you worry about the video stuff, don't worry about it now. Support for the new connector? near ZERO and likely to stay that way for a couple years. I still have trouble finding FireWire stuff. The overwhelming majority of outboard drives are USB.

The real question? Why in the heck would anyone consider RAID? Even Raid 5 is obsolete as are all the rest. You might as well be looking for a SCCI drive! Get a couple outboard drives, do regular backups and keep one off-site. OR try online storage.
lokie's avatar
lokie
528 posts
 
8 gigs of ram and 60 gig SSD is the TOL. Probably overkill but not an overly expensive "tweak" considering the costs of some other stuff around here.
stevez98
11 posts
 
Regarding the format to use when ripping CDs, go with Apple Lossless. Not only will it sound the same as FLAC (because both are lossless), but the resulting songs will integrate easily with iTunes (and an AppleTV, if you decide to purchase one).

If you have existing FLAC files, you can use XLD ( http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23430/x-lossless-decoder ) to quickly convert them to Apple Lossless. I used it to convert 1000 CDs worth of music from FLAC to Apple Lossless, and it was done overnight. Also, if you decide later to switch to FLAC, XLD can convert the songs from Apple Lossless to FLAC just as quickly.
mmike84
309 posts
 
8GB of ram and SSD using Snow Leopard has been the best in our experiments with the mini. We also strip off non essential OS. That helps too but probably makes more difference in the older Macs. We're on our 3rd iteration using the new one with 2.4 processor.

I'd burn to Aiff is using Mac, or Wav if using PC.
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