Eric5676

That definitely could be worded better. It actually looks better in person than you might think. 6moons audio reviews: Wyred4Sound DAC2 The 6 Moons review has plenty of pics of both interior and exterior even just on the first page.

Hadn't paid close attention to those. Compelling.

^^ I chuckled. Zino definitely has a mixed track record. I wouldn't get it myself.

Nice! And now I have to ask this: I've looked around a bit and shy of DIY options, this Mac Mini seems like a fairly unique product in the market. The only other thing I've seen like it off the top of my head was the Dell Zino, which gets a lot of mixed feedback. Am I seeing that right?

Sounds good. I'll probably get laughed at for this but here goes: Does Apple ever do any promos, sales, coupons, things of that nature? Maybe I see something around Black Friday that turns my head? Etc. ?

I have a friendly acquaintance of mine on another board who has run through a lot more high end gear then I'll ever see in my lifetime and someone who has shown me that they know what they're talking about tell me things like this: and and And so forth. It's a steal at $1500 is the message.

Right. I wasn't sure if I could cheat some way around it. Again, that's bonus since I already have a good BD player. If I do it this is what I'd be doing it for myself. An Ipod touch I take it? All Apple?

I typically am pretty leery of external drives myself although I would have figured something nice from WD or Seagate would be fairly reliable. And now the bonus: If I really wanted to get frisky, what if I wanted to add Blu-Ray capability to this bad boy and put it over the top?

This is exactly what I would get it for if I do it. I'd appreciate any tips you have for me. Do you use an Itouch or Squeezebox or anything like that for interface? I see that it uses DDR3. That's pretty good! External: Desktop for Mac Overview Something like these?

What do you think my limit is in terms of the kind of hard drives I could put in there? Don't go past 5400 RPMs for example? Size? I'll have to check to see what kind of motherboard it has and what kind of RAM you can get away with putting in it. Details like that. If I'm sending audio out via digital or USB, then you don't need a "soundcard", is that right?

If you want to do upgrades, what can you do and not do? I know it won't take much to void Apple's warranty but let's say I decide that I need more hard drive space? Go external?

Ah.

Let me ask you all a question and I hope this isn't taken the wrong way: I know Apple has a great reputation and one of their biggest draws is to get away from the "glitchy" MS Windows and all the rest of it. I think Boot Camp and Parallels are brilliant to have but I'm wondering: Unless you're a PC gamer like I am...what would you really need to ever fire up Windows for anyways?

Any Mac Mini owners here? If so, give me the skinny. Good, bad, ugly, pros, cons, etc.

Nah. They're all equally awesome. I just figured I'd use the asynchronous USB since it's there.

Damn. I was in this spot back in late 2003. Condolences, thoughts, and prayers to Todd and his family.

The Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2. You'll see where I posted a bit in the thread for it in the Home Components forum. http://www.head-case.org/forums/home-source-components/7493-wyred-4-sound-ess-sabre-dac-6.html#post390118 Starting from there on through. http://www.wyred4sound.com/webapps/site/74030/117839/shopping/shopping-view.html?pid=457975&b_id=&find_groupid=18157 It's awesome. Interesting. Mine DOES require a custom driver for either Windows or Mac so I suspect this particular concept wouldn't work for me. I still am mostly disc based and always will be. I have a LOT of discs. I'm just looking for potentially something that makes the computer side more convenient and such. Trying to get better educated if nothing else since I think I'm done spending money for a while.

All I would really need is something with Windows OS or MAC OS so my DAC's USB drivers work. I need it to be energy efficient and quiet where if I left it on 24/7 (I wouldn't) it just wouldn't matter. Something that I can use with convenience and not have my somewhat noisy, powerhogging gaming PC on all the time to run it. Wireless is even a bonus since everything is in one room. Basically I want it to be as convenient as using a player. Obviously this is all bonus: My music runs and sounds great off my gaming PC. It's just kind of wasteful energy wise and not the quietest setup in the world. I certainly can live with it. So I'm just seeing what my potential options are.

I'm honestly pretty lost with all this NAS stuff and such.

Basically yes. In my case I already have the DAC so this vortexbox concept is one option. If I want to control the vortexbox, like any other NAS, and I want to keep my power hogging, noisy gaming PC turned off, then that means I have to consider buying an Ipod Touch, or a Squeezebox Touch, or some such to control it and access the music, if I understand it all right. I have to think this through. The Mac Mini is another option. That's the stock config at $699. Meh, it's ok not great. That 5400rpm 320 gig hard drive isn't going to cut it.

The CD thing is a bonus. More likely I suspect I'm talking about either going the Mac Mini route or the NAS route at some point. Those links you put up...I didn't know about those. Pretty neat. In fact, I'd have to say I'm sorely tempted. Wouldn't mind more background information on the company (s). The 2TB would be perfect for me. If I get something like that, I don't have install an OS or anything, if I read that right? Plug it via ethernet to router, USB from it to DAC, fire it up and go?

I'd like to know more about these myself. I wouldn't halfway mind something where, loading the CDs would be handy and convenient (my lazy side loves this) but if you connect via ethernet cable...do you also have a setup where you can use the music on your PC without having to have the PC turned on? My PC is a gaming machine that makes a little bit of noise and is an energy hog. In a perfect world, I'd like to have use the music on it without necessarily having to keep the PC on. Are these products a viable option or do I need to look at something else? EDIT: Apparently at least the 4 does: http://www.olive.us/contact/support/faqs.html Which formats does it support? So this is all for the 4. The 4 is really expensive IMO. I wonder if all of this also applies to the 2 and the 3 or if there are "comparable" types of products I could look at that would basically do all of this.

W4S DAC-2 (DAC2) - DAC's - DAC 2 Digital, High Definition Amplifiers, Stereo Pre Amp Audio Equip No way I could be more thrilled.

Standard Oppo 83. Connected via Toslink to the W4S. I was one of those first batch preorder guys back when it first came out. Still running like a champ. Great player! Great value! My Onkyo DVSP1000 is my main music transport connected via SPIDIF and analogs to the GS-X. I use the analogs for SACD and everything else is via SPIDIF through the W4S. Sensational. The PC is connected via USB for the dedicated music out of foobar and also via coax for my gaming. I'm letting this thing kind of run and burn in while I use it and it's just an awesome unit. Got into the service menu, which is easy to do, and fine tuned a couple of settings very easily. I already love this thing. Which is sad and unfortunate but I'm pretty sure no one intended that here.

Oh I am. I daresay: My 800s will rarely be leaving my head today. I'll have to be careful. The good news here is: Yes, you have to be careful and swim through a lot of haze and mediocrity and FOTM, but there is a lot of really good gear out there at very fair prices. Someone mentioned Krell earlier. Awesome brand, but guess what? If this were a Krell DAC with the same exact hardware and everything it would be 3 grand or more. Same goes with any number of other "big marquee huge name" brands. And as everyone here certainly knows: When you can sell direct you really can save the customer a lot of money. I certainly understand people being spooked after Singlepower but I'd balance that out with: You have to live and move on. If you do your homework, do your research, and certainly word of mouth is big in the long run...9/10 times at least you're going to land well. The Singlepower thing was ugly but thankfully...*knocks on wood*...a fairly complicated and rare implosion and mess. As best I can tell, Wyred has done everything "right" from the ground up. We have other awesome brands out there like Neko and some others that have done everything right and make great quality products at fair prices.