Hello, I'm slowly preparing for the best possible, bulletproof audio setup on my PPC Mac mini and OS X. I will play all music from my Mac mini (actually from the large external FireWire drive that will be connected to my Mac mini). Everything will be in my room and both Mac mini and external drive are quiet enough for this task.

With recent releases of Max, Cog and Tag -- this task is actually possible.

I will use Max (with new "Comparison ripper" mode) to encode to FLAC files. All this files will be stored on external FireWire drive and I will transcode to other formats from them only when needed. They will be played with Cog and eventual tag changes will be made with Tag.

I will connect my Mac mini to Rotel RA-04 amplifier, speakers will probably be AE AEGIS EVO One or B&W DM303 or something similar to this two.

This is where the fun begins. I will need advice with the following:

• External FireWire drive -- brand, model, etc? It must play nice with Mac mini and connect trough FireWire 400 port. Ah, around 250-400GB. Solved: Glyph 250GB GT 050 FireWire drive
• External sound card -- or something similar (external DAC?), because the built-in one isn't the greatest. To bypass OS X influence to sound if there is any, so it must have ASIO or something?
• Cables -- to connect sound card and Mac mini and/or sound car to amplifier...

So, please, offer me some advice. Also, if you found some better way to do something before the list, please, do tell. Many thanks.

You'll probably get suggestions for LaCie. I advise against this. Their warranty is only for a year, and I had a drive that died in a year-and-a-half. I suggest Glyph. They're used for audio recording, so they're heavy duty and quiet. Glyph provides a 3-year warranty with free overnight replacement in the 1st year; plus the Seagate drive inside has a 5-year warranty, so for 2 years after Glyph's warranty ends, if something happens with the drive, you can take it out and send it in to Seagate. Glyph doesn't sell through their website, but the 250 GB drive is available for $279.97 through Sweetwater.

Wow, that Glyph looks amazing! Unfortunately I'm located in Croatia, so I can't buy it from Sweetwater (US shipping only), but I will try to find some dealer here in Croatia with Glyph products. Thanks for this excellent recommendation!

If I manage to find Glyph dealer here, I will definitely go with 250GB GT 050 FireWire model.

BTW, I also heard bad things about LaCie, so I ruled it out even before this...

It would be cheap really to just buy your own enclosure and harddrive off some place like newegg or other similar computer store.

Now we are giving adviced on how to build souped up DAW's. I never thought I would see the day. That's really a nifty idea actually



You don't really need ASIO, unless you are going to be recording. Some people just prefer it, because they want low latency and it's fast. I say it all of the time, but M-Audio. That's one place to look. They make Firewire products too.

I'm sorry, I didn't get you, are you making fun of me or? My english is not so good. What I did/write wrong? I understand that this is not rocket science what I'm doing here and that people are doing this and much more advanced and better stuff, but I just wrote little more about it, the more information, the better. Also, I mentioned bulletproof -- like do it once, and do it right, and that wasn't so easy on OS X before like it is today with new Max release and it's excellent new Comparison ripper and wide support for encoding formats and options. And BTW, for me and my needs and tastes, this is indeed great setup for my small room from every point, small, quiet, stylish, good sounding, reliable etc...



OK, thanks, any specific model? However, I have only one FireWire 400 port, so I guess I will need USB solution...

no no, I am not making fun of you your English is fine. Max is an excellent ripper with solid support I agree with you there. . I don't really think there is too much Rocket Science going on this forum, anal retentiveness, yes (that's a crude joke about the forum in general).



They make Firewire products for recording, this is not really geared towards what you are looking for in terms of HD. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWire410-main.html

Not sure USB 2.0 is necessary for audio. Others will tell you, but my understanding is that USB 1.1 is just fine.

I use a M-Audio Transit with my Cube and I have to say the drivers are rather unstable. Or it is a USB bus overload, I don't really know. Anyway the Transit will go in a loop and play the same sound over and over, and I am not always able to recover.

Did you check on their website to see if there were any driver updates?

I just need excellent sound quality because I will connect it to a good amplifier and speakers so every bit is important. And I will need USB-based solution, because the one FireWire port I have will be occupied for external disk. Be it M-Audio, Terratec, some brand I didn't heard of, it doesn't matter for as long as it gives me excellent no-bullshit sound quality for reasonable price. I will just play music, no games, no effects, no nothing.

Question of external hard drive is solved, when I saw that Glyph 050 FireWire model, I said to myself, that's it! Instant loving They have some dealer in Australia and I have a friend there, so maybe they will buy it for me and bring it here to me this summer...

Next on the list is sound card.

BTW, is 250GB enough for beginning? What is average size of the FLAC album in normal compression? Various types of music, Rock, Pop, Electronic, some Jazz, newer stuff mostly...

And what about external DAC? Can I use that instead of sound card, or do I need good quality sound card and external DAC if I want to use one?

Bump.

Nobody to recommend good sound card? That is basically the only thing left on my list. Cables are minor issue...

Edit 1: I looked at M-AUDIO Transit and it seems nice. Can someone please recommend some more products like this one? Sometime ago, I remember that I looked at some similar product intended for laptops and all reviews wrote that it's fantastic, but now I can't remember what was it...

Also, Flying Cow DAC spotted my eyes Unfortunately, I don't know much about DACs, so if anyone can explain it to me, but just in short terms, what is it (I know it's digital to analog converter and vice versa ), what are it's uses etc... Also, can I use this instead of sound card, so Mac mini -> Flying Cow DAC -> Rotel amplifier?

But it seems that M-AUDIO OS X drivers are rather buggy: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...040514125451790

Edit 2: What about this one?

Where can I find site that has quality reviews of devices like these?

I have never tested any external sound cards.
But all these are mentioned in a Norwegian Mac magazine, and hence I am pretty sure they are Mac OS X compatible:
* Presonus Firebox and Inspire (FireWire).
* Mindprint Trio (USB).
* Apogee Ensemble (FireWire).
* Motu Ultralite (FireWire) and 828 mkII (USB2/FireWire).

Especially the Moto Ultralite and the Presonus Firefox seems to be reasonable small in size, and have good specifications.

I second that.



-c 5 switch is used by default, which will achieve a compression ratio of about 50%. I guess that depends on how many CD's you have.

Hmm, thanks for another row of recommendations. However, those are all bad-ass studio monsters etc. I don't need to record anything, I'll just play my FLAC collection from Mac mini.

So, as it stands now, it seems that my best bet are M-AUDIO Transit or Audiophile USB. What do you think? BTW, they are kinda not-so-good-looking, I would like something like Flying Cow or Glyph 050 FireWire

You can daisy chain firewire so that is an option for sound even with a firewire hard drive.

Any drawbacks in doing so? Via adapter?

Change of plan.

Lack of money, and given that my room is indeed small, I will not buy amplifier and bookshelf speakers. External Glyph drive will stay though.

Instead, I will buy previously mentioned external HDD, sound card (probably M-AUDIO Transit, reasonable price, and available here in Croatia) and Harman Kardon's SoundSticks II.

Also, I will encode via iTunes to Apple Lossless -- you just can't beat the speed, integration, comfort, and ease of use...

The only thing that bothers me is the sound card. I read about quite a bit of problems with M-AUDIO drivers and OS X... Hmm... So, I will buy sound card the last one (first HDD, then SoundSticks and then sound card) -- until then, maybe I get some new recommendation for sound card.

I have an M-AUDIO 410 Firewire and both a mac and a pc. I have to say that the soundcard runs well on my powerbook g4. However connecting it to my desktop PC is not so easy. Sometimes it takes 10 tries for the computer to detect it. No such problems with the mac. Anyway, once detected it works fine unless you unplug it and plug it somewhere else ten times a day (which is what I do since I use it on two computers). In spite of these slight problems, I think this card is a good choice. My g4 laptop sounds so much better with it.