Computer music server PC or Apple????

I bought a macbook because it has wifi and a monitor already built in. If I'm not ripping its silent and I can turn off the wifi and the monitor will sleep without interrupting the music.

I use the Mini Toslink to my PS Audio DL III and It sounds better than my Primare CD21 as a transport. I like the sexy form factor of the Mac Mini, but the Macbook made more sense to me. To each his own.

My goal was to have the features of a server and the sound of a sub $5K CD Player. While I have not paraded a bunch of CD players through my system to double check, I think I have that. I do wish I would have sprung the extra 250 for a black macbook though.

the setup in my den consists of: totem speakers, definitive technology supercube sub, sony 9000es dvd/cd/sacd, nikko fm tuner, dk design vs-1, adcom gda-700 dac, audio alchemy dti, mac mini, and airport express. i have both the dvp9000es and the airport express hooked up to the dti to cleanup the jitter, and then a digital cable from the dti to the dac.
i have other rooms in the house with airport express units hooked up to receivers in those rooms. i have my macbook control the mac mini running itunes from the other parts of the house (wireless). i'm purchasing an ipod touch that will also allow me to control the mac mini running itunes from anywhere in the house using remote buddy.
once the mac mini is up and running, you don't need the keyboard or mouse any longer. put the mini in the rac with your equipment and use the toslink cable from the mac mini to an external dac or use the cable from the mini with rca terminations hooked up straight into your preamp/receiver.
i use apple's airport express devices (wireless or wired) to distribute music to the whole house. you can tell itunes which speakers you want to play.
i think if you get a good quality external dac with toslink input, you will be happy. i did hookup my digital transmission interface between the mac or airport express and the external dac and the sound was more fluid, more bass, more clean.
there are other options too. also, you need another disk drive to backup the 500gb disk you have. use the internal mac drive for your operating system, and programs, use the 500gb drive for all your data, documents, itunes stuff, etc... and then get another 500gb drive or larger and backup both of these disks to it each night. use time machine with leopard, it does it automatically once you set it up.
don't use a laptop, they get too hot and the heat will damage the laptop after a while. my macbook get really warm after a couple hours usage.
if all you are going to use the mini for is an audio server, you can get an older one, you don't need the core duo intel processor. if you want to run applications on here besides itunes and if you think you will need to win windows (why go backwards), then go for the newer intel models. i have all intel macs and use either parallels or vmware to run linux,solaris, or windows (i have 1 app that needs windows).
if you think you might want to use this server as a whole house central server to run your file/print/itunes/hvac/security system/etc.., go for the macpro or older power mac, these are made for 24x365 servers.
good luck.

Jwmazur - not even close. The DAC-1 USB is a lot better.

Let me quote from a thread that is running concurrently on the issue of remote control:

4est who seems to be a real Mac fan wrote:

"The (i)Mac will come with a remote for "Front Row" (a mac media management program) and you will be able to play iTunes from your chair. If you need a better remote, there are many bluetooth (built into the mac) devices (palm pilots, cell phones) that can control itunes or for $140 or so, there are wireless usb remotes with screens."

Tvad has found what looks to be a great app in Signal.

Note that earlier Macs do not support Front Row (it is IR based which is not supported) - however you can get an application called Remote Buddy and a IR remote control unit and USB IR receiver by Keyspan that lets you control iTunes and many other applications as well.

BTW I had very good success running a Toslink out of my G5 into a TriVista - just be sure to use a high quality glass cable. But all things being equal, a USB solution - especially one that goes directly to I2S (thus avoiding any possible issue with SPDIF or Toslink) is technically cleaner and more jitter free. A long time ago (12 months) there were only a couple available but there are more coming everyday.

This is NOT my opinion. You need to let the guys at Benchmark know what you think. This is what they told me when I asked them. To be more specific, this is the opinion of Rory Rall at Benchmark. Maybe you should initiate a dialog with him on this matter. However, I do appreciate knowing what your opinion is. Could you be more specific on the differences you heard? I was always under the impression that Toslink was inferior. I also conveyed this opinion to Rory at Benchmark.