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Music Server now bane of my existence

After years of waiting and rendering the landscape of servers as too complex, confusing and basically useless for my purposes, I've delved into the world of a Mojo Audio music server. The Biggest Dog they sell. Now, I've determined I'm technically in over my head and run out of invectives.

I need a "Music Server for Dummies" lexicon and flow chart. Yes, I will contact them this week also.

To my surprise, there is no drive with the new Mini Mac. So I need that. And how will I burn discs for friends? And do I just use the USB out from the server to my USB DAC for optimal playback? Which USB? Or should it be a USB conversion to coaxial? I researched and purchased a 3TB Western Digital hard drive for dedicated backup. Will that suffice for this?

I purchased the Apple wireless keyboard and outboard trac-pad to navigate.

I'm at a crossroads as to continue with predictable brain damage assembling all of the parts or return this and wait again for this industry to collectively simplify the process. I've gone with the MAC so I can easily interface with my iPod pieces. Thank you to all for insight into this gnarly subject.
celtic66
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
I use MacMini with external 1TB Firewire drive transmitting music over Wi-Fi across the room. Music is stored in ALAC and played by Itunes. Computer noise, computer speed, amount of memory, playback program etc don't make any difference in this setup. It required setting up initially but I use it for a long time without any problems. As for the cost - this MacMini is my main computer, so the only cost is Benchmark DAC1 and Airport Express - total about $1k, but since I use Benchmark as a preamp (that would cost >$1k anyway), I consider it free.

Traditional system is simpler, I agree, but computer playback offers more. Not only that I can change CD quickly but it is also much easier to find it. I can sort by artist, composer etc and also create playlists. In addition my computer plays files ripped without errors while CDP interpolates, especially on the less than perfect CDs. CDs or LPs can and will get scratches, but computer files will stay intact forever.
jult52
155 posts
 
"but computer files will stay intact forever."

You mean they will stay intact forever if you systematically back them up and store the files and hope no freakish glitch affects groups of files or a whole hard drive... Sorry, but this is the sort of overpromising that computer audio needs to avoid. File maintenance remains an issue and requires time and know-how.
tboooe's avatar
tboooe
1,009 posts
 
06-10-13: Jult52
You mean they will stay intact forever if you systematically back them up and store the files and hope no freakish glitch affects groups of files or a whole hard drive... Sorry, but this is the sort of overpromising that computer audio needs to avoid. File maintenance remains an issue and requires time and know-how.
Jult52 (Threads | Answers | This Thread)

Good point. About 7 years ago my NAS in full RAID 5 configuration died. Luckily the hard drives did not get fried so I was able to recover everything. Now I have to NAS's. One is running RAID 5, then I have another one that mirrors everything from the first with a weekly backup. Now I am thinking about off site/cloud storage. I have way too many songs, pictures, and videos to not take this precaution.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Jult52, Not big problem if it is done right. Raid is not the best way of doing it because in case of controller failure all files can be toast. I keep one backup at home and one at work. It isn't constant backing up as you suggested, because there is no sense to back it up if nothing was added. I back up only after about 20 CDs added to avoid major labor afterwards. Files in backup are perfectly safe since unpowered hard drives tend not to fail. I thing you missed the point. The point was that files will stay intact - always the same quality while CD or LP will start deteriorate getting more and more wear reducing playback quality. You talk about file maintenance? Last time I touched anything was about 6 month ago. On the other hand I can make case for loss of your CDs or LPs - Fire, Theft, Tornado etc. Would it be great to have backup anyway?
jult52
155 posts
 
Kijanki - You've essentially acknowledged my objection is valid. Look at all the qualifiers you have in your description (and you're clearly quite knowledgeable about the process). I didn't say that computer data backup was impossible - I said it required effort. In other words, it's a pain-in-the-***. And risky.

I agree that CD & LP are imperfect storage mechanisms. So are hard drives. All of them are suboptimal.
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