Music Server vs. PC vs. Transport vs. ?

Sammie-

"it seems the Mini or Imac will offer superior sound to the laptops."

Why?

"Both Mini and Imac come with a small IR remote"

The Macbook and Macbook Pro also come with the same remote and Front Row.

Chris-

Yes, you're missing something, you need something to get the digital signal from a Mac into your DAC.

You can use a Toslink cable or a USB or Firewire to SPDIF converter to connect any Mac to your DAC, but the SD Transporter will give you wireless access from any Mac, and it's clock input can be linked to your DAC.

If you have high speed Internet, the SD Transporter will also give you access to Internet radio.

Kana--I haven't tried a mini or Imac. I am using a Macbook for now. But, in every post I've read, folks who have tried both always prefer the desktop to the laptop. I'm not sure why...one guy speculated it was power supply differences. Who knows?
For me the Macbook running on battery -or with PC connected- sounds excellent!
I'd love to get my hand on a mini or an Imac and give it a try...will you lend one to me?

Sammie-

Like you, all I have is a Macbook. I agree it sounds excellent.

I don't see how a mini or an Imac running off an SMPS is going to sound better than a Macbook running on batteries.

Chrisla,
Here's my Rube Goldberg version that I've put together and that my wife uses daily for hours on end. She wanted something simple to use since she works at home, so that's what I've got. I was looking for a relatively low cost way to put this together. Here's what I've done. I have a Dell PC(2.4 Pent 4 with 1 GB mem) with a 320GB internal drive and one 320GB WD Caviar external drive for backup. This holds my 1000+ CD collection. I use ITunes and cut my tracks using Apple Lossless. My network is wireless using a DLink DI-624M router. On the audio end I have a Squeezebox 3 running into a DAC then to my Preamp. The SB3 has a nice remote, which makes it easy for my wife to find any albums or songs by name or genre, etc, and/or playlists. We also can load our IPOD for car, vacation, etc from ITunes on the Dell PC. The SB3 allows internet music and radio as well.

Total cost for a used Dell PC, 2 large disk drives, SB3, & Benchmark DAC 1 ran under $2K. How does it sound? Very, very good indeed. We use it every day pretty much without fail, no pops, clicks or errors(no pun intended). Once in a while the microwave makes the router blip, but that's minor. I have to say I could spend lots more, but who knows what % better it would sound. I'm sure an SB Transporter and/or better DAC would do more. This was just my way of doing things. I got started trying to build my own music server and this is what I now have 2 years later!!! Good luck and enjoy...

Hi Chris,
Since we have similar systems, let me share my experiences. I sold my Esoteric X-01 Limited to switch to a Wavelength Audio crimson DAC. I used i-tunes off of a Mac-mini. Everything pretty much set up itself. The results are mixed, actually very similar to one of the above posters. Great separation and imaging, but very bass shy. Not boomy bass, but bass dynamics, such as drums. I switched out preamps to an MBL 6010 from an ARC REF3, as you know, and the dynamics improved. I then auditioned an AMR CD player with a USB DAC, and while imaging and soundstaging were not as good, the bass reappeared. i then auditioned a purpose -built PC with all the nno-essential software stripped and with only one moving part, a very quiet fan. This uses solid state memory running S/PDIF to a mid-level MSB DAC. This was far superior in my system, and the crimson is now sold. The other bonus to this approach, besides the sound, is that since the bass is back, I am going to check out digital room correction to see if that can help.
just my $.02

David Shapiro