1. Home
  2. pc-audio
  3. 1243817965

Help create my Mac Music Server

• I've just installed a PCI card from M-Audio (Audiophile 2496) that inputs and outputs 24/96 analog data & coax S/PDIF input/output . I have it in my Dual 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 Deskside (dedicated to this application), running OS-10.5.7. As yet I haven't used it. I intend to insert 2 internal 1 GB drives in a RAID configuration - it will hold up to 4 internal drives (ATA/EIDE). My intention is to build up a HiDef digital library. I intend to transfer my thousands of records by sampling them at 24/96 from a very good vinyl playback system. I intend to sample the output from my $30,000 Audio Note DAC 5, rather than rip them from the CD - I'm hoping this will produce better sound thru the 24/96 DAC than I would get thru a cheaper CD-DAC when I sell my DAC 5. For CD quality (that I would get from ripping my CD's) - I plan on to output the data thru the S/PDIF output on the Audiophile 2496.
I don't know what music library management system to use. iTunes won't hold the 24/96 audio. I also plan to purchase all future music from HD Tracks (HDtracks.com) in 24/96 format (FLAC because of it's error correction capabilities for downloads & lossless compression on my HD). I don't know what s/w will convert the FLAC to 24/96 on the fly as I play the music. If I can't find such an on the fly converter, I may have to store them on my HD in the full 24/96 format, which will take up substantially more space.
I don't know for sure yet, but I think my 24/96 M-Audio card will also playback 24 bit/88 kHz as well as 44 & 48 kHz and iPod music. I may be able to come in on the S/PDIF input and go out the 24/96 and have it upsampled as part of the Audiophile 24/96. It may upsample from CD quality on my HD - all unknown as of today.
Any thoughts on any of the above would be appreciated.
Music library/playback server s/w - FLAC convertor - Audiophile 2496 capabilities - ... - all for a Mac - PC is not an option
stan_head
sidssp
1,077 posts
 
Some random thoughts about playing 24/96 FLAC.

ITunes doesn't play FLAC but it has the best user interface by far. It can be remotely controlled by an iPhone/iPod Touch, that makes it ideal for a headless (no monitor, no keyboard or mouse) media server.

You can convert 24/96 FLAC into any iTunes supported formats (AIFF, WAV, Apple Lossless) using a program called Max. It is very easy to use and it is free.

If you want to play FLAC natively, you can use a free software called Songbird. Songbird is very similar to iTunes but not as polished. It also has a remote control iPhone app but its capability is rather limited when compare with Remote for iTunes. The strength of Songbird is its openness. You can download add-ons to customize it and extend it anyway you like. It also supports last.fm and SHOUTcast.

Songbird is supposed to be interoperable with iTunes, meaning that it can import iTunes library and monitor its changes. If a change is made to the iTunes library, Songbird can pick up the change and update its own library. However, I have not been able to get this feature to work.

There is another free program called Play, written by the same developer who wrote Max. Play's user interface is rather primitive and it doesn't have a remote app for iPhone. But it is by far the best sounding player to play 24/96 FLAC. If sound quality is more important than usability to you, make sure you give it a try.

I use iTunes most of the time but when I want to impress my friends, I use Play.
sufentanil's avatar
sufentanil
776 posts
 
I agree completely with Sidssp's assessment of the G4/RAID plan, as well as his suggestion to use external HD's.

Michael
almarg's avatar
almarg
8,673 posts
 
I would add to Sid's excellent post the thought that even if you were to install a hardware RAID card, which might help a bit in some of the areas he mentioned, it would introduce another substantial potential downside. If in the future the RAID card were to fail, and if an identical or similar replacement were no longer available, your music and everything else on the drives would be irretrievable.

Regards,
-- Al
wireless200
415 posts
 
I have raid on my main computer which is where I either convert or download flac files. Raid it built into the motherboard. It's a Dell box but I wouldn't buy Dell again. They have cut so many corners that everything is cheap (low quality). I would build one.

I built a music server for my Slim Device. I debated long and hard about making it Raid. Since it's running all the time I wanted to save as much power as possible and built this except I used a KPC48 with dual-core. I used a 1 TB WD green drive. The whole thing is supposed to only pull about 40 watts at maximum load. There's a free program called syncback that lets you configure backups however you'd like. It works very well. So in essense I'm mirroring my raid drive on the server in the closet. I decided it was unlikely for all three drives to fail. I'm finding this works very well. I have three computers that are networked with the server. All computers except one are using XP and the other is using Vista. I'm pretty happy with this setup and don't have to worry whether it backed up or not. I access the servier with remote desktop from any of my office computers. Once you set it up it doesn't even ask for your password if you set it up that way.

I know you asked for mac but this is another way of doing it in case anyone is interested.
dmailer's avatar
dmailer
235 posts
 
I am using a Mac Mini with 4gb of RAM using a Firewire 800 cable to an Icy Dock 2 bay RAID enclosure with hardware RAID. It is set up for RAID 1 for mirrored operation. I realize that there are some risks of both drives failing or slow rebuild time but I felt it would be easier to deal with than having to back up on an ongoing basis. The computer sees it as one drive and you never have to deal with it once it is set up. I went with two 1TB WD green enterprise level drives. Not the fastest but plenty fast enough for music with less vibration and very quiet.
More to discover