Neat Apple solution advice...

[Opusover21]

I have an Imac which is great not only for itunes/music. I don’t really want to trial wires all over the house and also don’t want to limit myself in the future to 16/44.1 using the Airport Express.

 

My ideal solution would be to use my iMac remotely across the room but fully control the signal “wired” into the DAC without causing domestic upheaval.

Is the only way to do this to buy another mac such as the Mac mini and “screen share” this to it can be wired via Firewire/Optical out direct to the DAC? This way I can use my iMac happily as a standalone unit but tap into the iMAC and control playback at full resolution into the DAC.

 

Is there no device similar to the airport extreme that will allow me to connect in close proximity the signal to the DAC without the loss of quality? I know the extreme has a USB connection but for external drive/printers only.

 

Any ideas how to achieve this?

 

 

[darrenwm]

Opus,

 

That would be a neat idea. My Mac Mini is plugged directly into the DAC, and I "screenshare" with it from my Windows laptop if I ever need to manage it.

 

Most of the time I just use iTouch to control the music. You don't really need a keyboard and mouse once it's up and running.

 

Mine's actually plugged into a TV too, so I can use Apple remote to control Front Row. I have hundreds of films and tens of thousands of photos on my Mini.

 

It's amazing.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Opus - One of my setups here is somewhat close to what you want to do. I connect a MacBook Pro directly to a DAC and access my music on a NAS drive in a room far out of sight from critical eyes. Thus I only have the power cable to the Mac and the interconnect from the Mac to the DAC. To control the MacBook Pro I use an iPod Touch or my MacBook Air to screen share. Screen sharing is the best control option by far. iPod Touch is nice, but doesn't allow you to close iTunes, change Audio Midi to a new sample rate and relaunch iTunes.

 

Your Wireless options with the Airport Express, and Logitech Duet limit your resolution more than it appears you want. The Logitech Transporter can handle 24/96, but in my opinion it's not up to par. Many readers love the unit however and your millage may vary.

 

[mpmct]

Echo both Darren's and Chris's thoughts.

After deliberating for awhile, as you are Opus,

I finally just bought a Mac Mini, hard-wired it to DAC, and control it

as necessary from either my iMac or MacBook Air with

Apple's built-in screen sharing. In the end, even though

it was another ~$700, was the best solution all-around.

 

[Opusover21]

Thanks guys..so theres nothing else on offer? I think i will have to suffer with long cables for a while I think the wireless hard-drives and then the imac for normal use but ideally an additional maybe second hand mac mini to use direct to the DAC is the way forward. I'm waiting on a Weiss DAC2 to try out and then rack up the weiss/mac mini..sure will look funny on the top shelf of my finite elemente pagode signature rack!