Just bought new Mac Mini

[yogles]

New purchase, basic i5 but have put in 16Gb of ram. What next, have a variety of different music, flac and apple lossless, from 16bit 44kHz to 24bit 192kHz, have a DAC coming, was thinking of boot-camping it and using my copy of windows 7 and I have a win version of J River. What are the thoughts from experienced HTPC users?

[wgscott]

Start off with the most simple set-up, get an idea for how it sounds, and only then tweak (if at all). I recently set up my mini to dual boot into windows 8.1. It works fine. I have it on a second internal SSD. If it is just for jriver, it might be easier just to get the mac version.

[One and a half]

Jriver for Mac is the unripened fruit, it tastes too sour.

 

Jriver for Win is ready for picking, it's full featured.

 

The OP's questioned config for MacMini is what I currently have and works quite well. The Bootcamp gives you the choice of the player you like to play music. So far Jriver works for me, but Audirvana struggles with my DAC or the other way round, still under experimentation.

[Paul R]

All the best players have test periods - JRiver has 30 days I think, so try both the Mac and Windows versions if you can. Audirvana+, Pure Music, Amarra, and others all have test periods as well.

 

-Paul

[streetsounds]

I would skip J River and boot camp. Windows will not change the bitrates for you. You would have to manual change in Windows the setting depending on file you would play.

 

Since you got the Mac run iTunes and get Amarra. Amarra will switch for you automatically the bit rates and send the file pure to your DAC for best possible playback.

 

If interested I can provide you with a coupon code to get the app @ Sonic Studio Amarra High Resolution Music Players and Professional Audio Mastering Systems for $99. Regular price is $189

[Paul R]

JRMC under Windows adjusts the sample rate and bit depth as desired, same as on MacOS with JRMC, Amarra, Pure Music, BitPerfect, Fidelia, etc.

-Paul

 

I would skip J River and boot camp. Windows will not change the bitrates for you. You would have to manual change in Windows the setting depending on file you would play.

 

Since you got the Mac run iTunes and get Amarra. Amarra will switch for you automatically the bit rates and send the file pure to your DAC for best possible playback.

 

If interested I can provide you with a coupon code to get the app @ Sonic Studio Amarra High Resolution Music Players and Professional Audio Mastering Systems for $99. Regular price is $189

[streetsounds]

JRMC under Windows adjusts the sample rate and bit depth as desired, same as on MacOS with JRMC, Amarra, Pure Music, BitPerfect, Fidelia, etc.

-Paul

 

True. But as i understand Amarra under MacOS does it for you automatically. So no need to check each track on bit rate and adjust it. I don't think JRMC does that. Also I noticed that if you catalog your library with JRMC it creates xml files and jpg files which can use up GB of space on your drive.

[Paul R]

No, JRMC automatically adjusts the sample rate and bit depth, same as Amarra. The xml files and jpg files are the same as iTunes/Amarra, and do not take up a significant amount of space.

 

If your album art is embedded, then, just like iTunes, it does not create separate files for the Album art.

 

-Paul

 

True. But as i understand Amarra under MacOS does it for you automatically. So no need to check each track on bit rate and adjust it. I don't think JRMC does that. Also I noticed that if you catalog your library with JRMC it creates xml files and jpg files which can use up GB of space on your drive.