Experience with Mach2 Music Server?

Tvad,
The external hard drive making noise would be an issue for me. Dead quiet back ground is very important with music. Can the external hard drive have a long firewire cable so the external drive could go in another room? This would be very inconvienent for many. Firwire is high speed, so would it degrade the music?

I am also interested in how it sounds with critical listening. At RMAF, one room sounded very good and another sounded OK. Also, is the program installed using an equilizer in the program to tweek the sound or is it flat out of the Mac Mini? Being a purist (using no tone controls), I have found several with computer based music systems are using tone controls. Some call this room correction, but is it not just tone controls?

The Mach2Music Server is marketed as plug and play. What issues are there with networking?

Thank you for the information.

Can the external hard drive have a long firewire cable so the external drive could go in another room?

I don't know. I suspect if one's component rack is farther than six feet and not in direct line of an ear (mine is just behind my left ear and about three feet away) the noise won't be an issue.

is the program installed using an equilizer in the program to tweek the sound or is it flat out of the Mac Mini?

iTunes has some tone controls, but they're user configured. As configured by Mach2 (and straight out of the box on any Mac), the tone controls are set flat.

The Mach2Music Server is marketed as plug and play. What issues are there with networking?

Thank you for the information.
Elsneb (Threads | Answers | This Thread)

I am using mine without a hardwired monitor or keyboard. I control the Mini using my MacBook Pro via either Screen Sharing or VNC. I also can control the Mini with an iPod Touch via VNC. Configuring the Mini to recognize my home wireless network was not plug and play. It took some time to figure out. Each time the MacBook Pro goes to sleep, I have to open a new window, enter the name of the Mini and a password to get the MacBok Pro to share the Mini's screen. Now that I know what's required, it's not difficult, but it's also more steps required than would be the case if the Mini were used with its own monitor and keyboard.

Now, everything is working as it should, but IMO it is not plug and play. For example, playing a CD from beginning to end without stopping after the first track requires clicking several buttons in iTunes before playing the music. It's possible I haven't found the secret yet. Those who work every day with computers, hardware and software may consider the Mach2 plug and play, but as someone who just wants to pick an album, press play and listen, I don't find it so. It's certainly not as simple or as fast as inserting a CD into a CD player and pressing Play.

Regardless, I'm getting the hang of it, and I'm ripping lots of CDs that will be put into storage, thus saving some shelf space. I'm keeping the CD player, though, and I'm keeping most of my CDs handy.

IMO. YMMV.

I'd just like to point out that the headless network configuration that Tvad describes would, of course, be necessary with any machine run headless. Using a machine without IO devices requires that it first be setup to connect to a network which isn't really something that can be done 100% by anyone but the owner.

(I use a Mac Mini server which I also setup headless, a few years ago. I hope to get a Mach2 server at some point in the future.)

(And from 10' away I have never, ever heard the thing except when it's ripping a CD - in which case no music is playing anyway.)

Paul makes good points. The issues I had with the Mach2 were not unique to the Mach2 server but are common to all Mac computers running headless on a wireless network.

(And from 10' away I have never, ever heard the thing except when it's ripping a CD - in which case no music is playing anyway.)
Paulfolbrecht (System | Reviews | Threads | Answers | This Thread)

Are you referring to the Mini? If so, I agree.

In my case, it's the external hard drive on which the music files are stored that causes the noise.

I have a different brand external drive connected to my MacBook Pro that makes sound equal to the external drive supplied by Mach2.

As I wrote very early in this thread, I'm sensitive to extraneous, ambient noise...perhaps more so than others.

Tvad - there's no reason you should be having to re-enter passwords every time the Mini goes to sleep, that's simply a matter of changing your network settings. Also no reason for playback to stop after the first song - a matter of iTunes settings. Darrell could likely take you through the process to fix those issues. I have a headless Mini with no keyboard or mouse that i control wirelessly with my MacBook Pro, and have neither of those issues.

If you prefer to enable the sleep function on the Mini, I find it's easiest to wake it up by pressing the start button on the back of the unit. If this is impractical with your configuration, consider that most folks simply leave theirs on all the time. I myself tend to turn it on and off once a day. Hope this helps - no reason you should be experiencing the hassles you describe - this setup is VERY plug and play!