Bottlehead Mac Mini Question

[marantzfan]

Hey Doc,

What program are you using with your Mac Mini based music server?  I'm looking at putting together a Mac Mini based server myself and there appear to be a lot of options...

Anyone else running a similar music server, feel free to share your experiences as well.

Anthony

 

[Doc B]

Presumably you are asking about the music player. We use Amarra, with excellent results. The library is in iTunes to make selection a familiar process for people, and the playback is automatically done ported to Amarra. Amarra can also be used stand alone if you prefer.

 

[soundsgood]

I have also found Amarra to be the best sounding music player, but not the easiest to use. I use an iMac with a Wyred 4 Sound dac-2. Lots of information can be found from the smart fellas at computer audiophile.

 

[marantzfan]

Interesting.  I was considering JRiver and HQPlayer, now Amarra is on the list for further exploration.  This appears to be a deep rabbit hole...

 

[Tubejack]

I received my Neil Young sponsored PONO player this week, and learned that their front end is JRIVER v20.  I had been wondering if they would adopt/royalty a front end, or develop their own. 

So far I am pleased with the player and JRIVER v20, as I use v19 on my in home server ...

 

[Thoburn]

Interesting.  I was considering JRiver and HQPlayer, now Amarra is on the list for further exploration.  This appears to be a deep rabbit hole...

I have JRiver 19 on my mini. I control the mini from my IPad Air using SplashTop (the free version). I connect the mini to my DAC*iTx using AudioQuest Carbon (I highly recommend it). The DAC*iTx connects to my Stereomour then to my Lowther DX-4 Medallions. I am very, very happy with it.

 

[John EH]

I was initially not a JRiver fan at all but it has come to grow on me a bit.  Bit Perfect is pretty good as well, only $10 but I have to admit it perplexes me from time to time.  Amarra has been nothing but trouble for me.  Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

 

[Doc B]

The folks at Amarra are very supportive. If you haven't already, try contacting them for help with the issue you are having.

 

[khingila]

i ordered the bottlehead dac based on my confidence that it will be a superior product. i intend to start out by inserting it between the digital out on my cd player and the foreplay 3. i know pretty much zip about computer based playback; i've only used itunes, and that only to manage audio content on my iphone. where would a fella look for basic info about implementing, say, a mac mini server based source? 

 

[John EH]

Running a mac min sever is a breeze.  It'll do about anything.

I have a big FLAC library on mine I play with JRiver or Clementine.  Much of that library is also ripped to Apple Loseless and played through iTunes and Airplay throughout the house.  You can also run logitechmediaserver on Mac.  Squeezelite works but doesn't play mp3 streams on Mac.  You can play the Spotify app, you can play Pandora through Muse wrapper.  You can stream via any website.

It has optical out, and 4 USB ports for hard drives, USB DAC's whatever.

I play with Linux music servers a lot but my Mac Mini quite simply does it all.  You can run it headless and control it via another Mac on Screen Sharing or via a VNC client from an iPad.  The platform is simple enough the wife and kids can use it too.  One of the gotchas of all these fancy servers seems that only the audiophool can play music from it.

Mac Mini does everything and sounds pretty good too.  I give a barely imperceptible nod to Linux with Music Player Daemon (MPD) for sound though.

 

[Doc B]

The Amarra site at least used to have a nice write up on how to optimize various Macs for use as a music server. I imagine it is still on there.