Article: Air Display and Music Server Enhancement Ideas (Update)

[Paul R]

Not exactly - wireless communications, WiFi or Bluetooth, is really separate from internet access. You can certainly have one without the other. <br />

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Both your iPad and the Mac have wireless communications already built in, and you easily configure them in an "ah hoc" network, not connected to the internet. They can then talk to each other. <br />

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And your iPad can control your Mac Mini very easily, at speed. <br />

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It does mean you have to enable WiFi wireless, but then, Bluetooth is also wireless, just much slower and of much more limited range. <br />

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There are a couple tradeoffs, but they are minor. Of course, if the intention is to avoid wireless altogether, then you need to find something other than an IPad. And it would be a whole lot easier to just put a wireless access point or router into the mix, as well as perhaps being a little more secure. That applies whether or not you connect the wireless network to the Internet. <br />

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-Paul<br />

[darthlaker]

Many thanks Paul....

[johniboy]

I also tried splashtop the other day. Wonderful app but has its limitations (for me). Splashtop buys speed by using your CPU extensively. They are probably using some power intensive algorithm to code and decode the display information. If you read the system requirements, it asks for 1.6 Mhz and more. <br />

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This is a bit contradictory to an audiophile server setting which asks for low energy CPUs and as little CPU usage as possible. An atom or (in my case) a celeron CPU is quickly overwhelmed. But with an i3 or i5 this should all not be an issue. Next music server...

[wgscott]

The CPU use goes down as soon as you turn off the iPad display. Also, because of this, it is very easy to test whether the ~35% CPU consumption (what I see on my Mac Mini when it is running) has a sonic impact. For me, it doesn't, but I still turn off the remote display when listening.<br />

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Maybe CPU consumption is worse on other platforms?

[davidhyman]

i'm as big a fan of your blog as you are to MOG. cheers to our good taste! currently running an audiomecca DAC with anagram dac chip. just bought a v-link from musical fidelity to play my friend david chesky's files.<br />

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my current system is here (note - it's VERY vinyl centric. let's me escape work for a bit and calms down my ADD. can't change tracks before tracks are over!) http://bit.ly/miaSiP<br />

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needless to say, strange to watch all these big players launch locker services. why someone wants to stream back to themselves what they already have local is beyond me. my local files are all LOSSLESS.<br />

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[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi David - Great to hear you're a fan of the site and lossless music. <br />

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I'm guessing you're comment was meant for the Cloud / MOG article :~)<br />

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Amazon-Cloud-Drive-and-Google-Music-Beta-are-DOA

[PeterSt]

<cite>Disable all networking when you have music stored on a NAS...?</cite><br />

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YES. Isn't it magic ?<br />

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At least that is how I work myself, as are most of my users ...<br />

[PeterSt]

As with the magic from my previous post, the original subject of this thread was magically changed from something rather unique, to something which has been there for years and years and years : clone the desktop to another.<br />

I don't say it's useless, but I will say it is not a good thing for audio at all (SQ). If you don't hear it ? good.<br />

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What Chris proposes (or Airplay on that matter), is providing a separate monitor output which is something totally different from the "cloning" most of the posts in this thread are about. Technically it will be different, up to the maximum of "a vidcard taking care of almost all of the processing needed". Sadly this is the theoretical maximum only, because practive dictates that no vidcard plays a role here. Still the workout will be very different (ok, theoretically).<br />

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What not too many people in here can do, I can. So, I bought the app and may try to create a separate monitor output towards the iPad (etc.) to let control (in my case) XXHighEnd. Maybe not of much use to most of you (hey, Mac users ! :-), but still for me it would be a kind of new / fresh thing to see what can be achieved with this. Well, nothing much different from Chris' ideas, but someone must just make it first.<br />

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On a sidenote, I can't measure anything wrong with WiFi in general, as long as the PS3 stays out of the air which hangs right above my audio PC. This is about picking up through air. This is totally different from having a WiFi transceiver in the audio PC, which is THE WORST. Never do that !<br />

(I know, the majority of Mac users do for several reasons).<br />

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Only one thing is worse than WiFi in the audio PC, and this is Bluetooth. Bluetooth is quiet when nothing is transmitted, but as soon as something is (pressing a key or something) it goes right through the loudspeakers.<br />

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All 'n all, I use WiFi in the room allright, but through a wired router.<br />

For the reasons above, the separate monitor output from Airplay should go over IP first.<br />

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And YES. That will need a network connection. Haha.<br />

Hmm.<br />

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Peter

[Paul R]

Even though I know I must be playing the straight man and walking right into a flying cream pie in the face...<br />

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If you disable all networking, how the heck are you accessing a NAS - a NETWORK Attached Storage unit? <br />

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Methinks there is something rotten in the state of Denmark... <br />

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-Paul<br />

[Paul R]

You do follow one of the "best practices", which is to turn off WiFi in the Mac, and use a wired connection to a separate wireless access point. Usually a meter or two away from the audio equipment. <br />

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Nothing new there - Ethernet networking is better implemented than Wireless in most units - Mac, Linux, Windows, and most other systems I am familiar with. <br />

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So yes, it is better to do: <br />

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MAC ---> Physical Ethernet Cable --> Airport Express --> ))))))))) iPad<br />

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than to do: <br />

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Mac --> ))))))) iPad<br />

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[ ))))) = wireless WiFi connection. ]<br />

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However, be aware that the cheap switches they sell in BestBuy, WalMart and so forth often manage to transmit a ton of noise over the ethernet connection. Not quite as bad as what you get over HDMI connected to a television, but still not good. <br />

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-Paul<br />

[davidhyman]

no idea how this happened!

[winst]

I had a listening session to this company http://www.sonneteer.co.uk/index.htm wireless audio at CES almost 8 years ago, and thought the sound through, at the time power line and wireless, were beyond many of the very high-end Cd players.<br />

They do now have some very new and unique devices<br />

Winst

[PeterSt]

<cite>If you disable all networking, how the heck are you accessing a NAS - a NETWORK Attached Storage unit?</cite><br />

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Prepare the tracks in the playlist (caches, proxies) - shutdown the network - start playback - when done bring up the network.<br />

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This is all transparent to the user who just presses Play.<br />

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Not wishful thinking, but just working like that in XXHE.<br />

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Peter<br />

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PS: Denmark indeed must be careful, being connected to the northern of Germany where things indeed are "rotten". http://healthinformationworld.com/tag/ehec-germany/<br />

No software against that ...<br />

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[Paul R]

Assuming a small playlist, I suppose that means you are copying them to RAM storage or to a local HDD. <br />

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Shutting down the network is an interesting idea, but - ah - why bother? If you have already copied the files to local storage, the network won't be used anyway. Also, that defeats a great deal of the potential benefit from a NAS unit.

[nicholas]

I prefer ScreenSharingMenulet. It is free and can be found here.<br />

http://www.klieme.com/ScreenSharingMenulet.html

[bliss53]

Try Remoter VNC. It was a big step up from splashtop for me. I am using an ipad to control a Mac Mini, DAC/ADC, and Pure Vinyl.