^^^Probably a better and simpler way to go to keep everything within OSX. Which ever way you go I still suggest using an external drive as ripping can be hard on the drive mechanism. When I decided to rip my collection I ended up trashing an internal drive on my laptop. Not fun to replace so I then went to an external drive, if it fails, it is easier to replace.

Edited December 26, 200916 yr by morphsci

Thanks - I plan on looking some Mac laptops tomorrow to get started.

also check out XLD for ripping cds on a mac it takes longer but does a thorough job of error checking. It would be a PITA for someone digitizing their cd collection for the first time but it does ensure an accurate rip.

I know this is heresy but I run AIFF and when I A/B'ed between that and ALAC I swear it made a difference. I know that a modern computer should be able to uncompress an ALAC file on the fly and feed it to a firewire port without using really any processor power. In my very unscientific listening it made a difference and with hard drive space being cheap it seemed like a no brainer.

My suggestion for using dbpoweramp is definitely for someone at the beginning doing their ripping. Accurate-Rip definitely speeds up bit-perfect ripping and dbpoweramp uses multiple cores so that also speeds things up.

When you noticed a difference between AIFF and ALAC was that using only itunes or itunes with Amarra?

itunes prior to amarra, after I converted them all I have not checked again, I probably should though.

Interesting, I wonder if it is the ALAC decoder in iTunes. Using ALAC in windows I seem to notice a difference between J. River MediaCenter vs. iTunes. I think I need to do a little test ...

I am also open to it being a brain trick since the evaluation was sighted

Yep, hence the careful use of the weasel-word "seems" by me

Jp, i just went from wav to flac because in a blind test there was no difference. I did this with a friend who was a professional musician and has a great ear. That's one audiophile myth I conquered.

OK, so I just bought a Mac with a terabyte drive and ordered a Amarra mini (assuming I can upgrade later). Hopefully I am all set for the arrival of the Ayre.........

OK, so I just bought a Mac with a terabyte drive and ordered a Amarra mini (assuming I can upgrade later). Hopefully I am all set for the arrival of the Ayre.........

You, sir, simply don't mess around.

You, sir, simply don't mess around.

Well, there isn't any reason to jerk off, I may as well do it right once. I have been looking for an excuse to get a Mac for a long time. The computer seems very cool so far. I won't have the Ayre for another two months due to slow mail, but at least I can start archiving now.

Ok, I may have to go the route of a mac mini since the original deal for a "family" MBP only applies to the hours between 1-6 AM.

The new mac mini will be a dedicated itunes player and will reside in the music listening room, and occasional HC forum participant, nothing else. Apple offers the mac mini with the following options-

1) Cheaper option, 2.26GHz 2GB memory, and 160 GB HD or

2) Moar money, 2.53GHz 4GB memory and 320 GB HD.

I would think option two is the minimum because I will need lots of memory (minimal latency issues)and storage both for now and the future when I pick up the Amarra.

Should I also upgrade the storage to 500GB or more? And memory over 4GB?

At what point is "moar" overkill?

At what point is "moar" overkill?

Nevar!

I would say you do want 4GB of memory, but don't really need to sweat the internal storage as you can always just keep your music library on an big-ass external drive.

You can start with the most economical mini and upgrade individual components separately without choosing to upgrade via their cookie cutter options.

I chose the bottom rung mini and maxed the ram, iirc. Its been the only computer I've used at home for the past several months and its handled everything fine.

Ok, thanks for the info. Cheap with max ram and big azz external firewire HD it is.

You need to use a USB HD as your Mini will only have one Firewire which is reserved for the ULN-8.

Does the ULN-8 not chain firewire?

Edit: just looked, and it does. No worries there. Plug the harddrive into the ULN-8, or vice versa.

Does the ULN-8 not chain firewire?

The ULN-8 bangs every other interface in every other available orifice. It is said.

I had bad results with that with the duet

I've had bad results on certain gear, but on every really pro piece of equipment I've had (no disrespect to the Duet) it has worked smoothly in at least one direction. Sometimes the HD needs to be before the interface, sometimes after.

But what is the point loading down a single firewire port when you have open USB ports? Speed should not be an issue if you are using it only to store audio.

It's not really "loading it down". I doubt an external drive and an interface both running full tilt would max out firewire's transmission capabilities.

Yeah, unless you're transferring files a lot it shouldn't affect FW. I've found that I can usually get 30-50 MB/s transfer rates on FW400, and an audio stream would take less than 1MB/s (150kB/s IIRC). So, you might get chopping if you are copying files while listening to music, in theory (I have no FW audio devices to test with).

Just seems kind of pointless to have to diddle around with the order you chain them in when you have other open ports.