Help me get off th ground with new set-up...

[sammie]

I just ordered the new Mac Mini and had planned to buy a 3.5" HD that would be placed in an external enclosure on the rack next to the mini. And, I also planned to buy 2nd enclosure for a back up drive. But the more I think about this.....the more my nice audio rack gets cluttered with enclosures and lots of cabling.

 

Right now I am using Macbook with 200 GB HD, which looks very nice on the audio rack, but HD is bursting at the seams, and I want a more permanent solution....hence the mini.

 

So, instead of having enclosures on the rack, can I attach an NAS device to airport extreme base station in basement and wirelessly send tunes (mostly AIFF, WAV, and some high def (24/96 stuff) to new mini? A wired approach would not work. Or, can I expect drop outs? And can I still stream to 3-4 airport expresses around the house? Or will this be too much and overload network?

 

Thank you!

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi sammie - You can attach hard drives to the Airport Express and depending on your network it may work perfect and it may not work very well. If you can use 802.11n at 5 GHz you should be off to a good start. If your network is fsat streaming to Airport Express units should also work.

 

[sammie]

Thanks Chris. I decided to go with HD's and enclosures after all. I purchased 2 WD Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" drives (great price @ Newegg) and 2 enclosures that have FW800 port, among others. One drive will connect directly to the mini...maybe on bottom shelf of rack next to the Audience AR6T.

 

Other drive will be connected to Airport Extreme base station for occasional backups. Hopefully this wireless back up will work ok.

 

Oh, I bought the Apple 24" LED monitor to compliment new mini. It should look great in the living room!

 

Now, when are you gonna let m borrow your Berkeley DAC to compare to my WLA DAC?

 

Cheers from Saint Paul..

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi sammie - Good to hear from a "neighbor!"

 

Make sure your external enclosures have USB ports if you want to connect to the Airport Extreme. Also, we need to get Audio Perfection and HiFi Sound & Electronics here in town to jump on the bandwagon of computer based audio. Maybe one will start to carry the Alpha DAC :~)

 

[sammie]

Thanks for the tip....yes, I thought of that. The HD enclosures I am getting have FWa and b, USB and SATA, so I'm good to go.

 

I heard HiFi has a new store. I haven't been there yet. I was in AP in early December listening to their main system: Ayre, AR, Wilson. They young guy I spoke with really poopoo'ed computer audio in that good CD player's cannot be bested by HD's and seperate DAC's. Ya, right! He has no idea.

 

Have you been to GNSC? They have the Peachtree stuff, but little else.

 

I kind of like that computer audio remains under the radar.