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Keep it simple, folks.
Made the move....ordered mid 2.6 Mac Mini with SSd and 16 of Ram (soldered..ugh!)
Read the Mac Mini set up info on Ayre, Monach, Sonic, etc. websites.
Will send via USB to Spdif converter (Berkeley Alpha? Ciunias? or ?) then to my DAC.
Question is: hard drive for storage and backup.
With Firewire now receding from the consumer front, is it still recommended not to use another USB port for the HD when the output to the Spdif converter-->DAC is USB? Would that overtax the USB Bus (whatever that is)?
Is investment in Thunderbolt drives worthwhile?
NAS are obviously redundant but are 1. pricey 2. I would still need another second HD for backup 3. setup is probably beyond my limited (or absent) tech skills.
Thunderbolt-->FW converter cables are another answer but FW HD's are not common and may not be well supported in the future.
Follow Ups:
The general advice here is spot on but very computer that I have in the house is different with respect to USB. For $15 you can buy a usb volt/amp checker and see what's going on with your particular computer.
My Dell Latitude has no problem providing 5.1v to my dac all while playing files from a usb HDD. My Lenovo all-in-one on the other hand can't deliver consistent voltage with just the dac. And the front ports on an old Dell Studio desktop are crap while the ports on the back work fine.
Yes, Bill Way, my AVA Ultra Dac does not have USB input and I plan to use a Spdif converter rather than invest in a new DAC at this time.
Looks like, from the good advice so far, that rather than
crowding a USB bus on the Mac Mini, it will be better to go with another connectivity and practically, that leaves Thunderbolt (TB). I will plan to invest (sigh...) in two 2 or 3 Tbyte Thunderbolt HD's, and daisy chain them. Raid arrays are more expensive and much more challenging to set up, due to my lack of nerd skills.
Question: the 2014 Mini has two Thunderbolt ports. Does anyone know if it is better to connect each one seperately to a TB HD or obtain a TB dock (Belkin or others) and connect them through the dock. Not many TB HD's have TB two ports so daisy chain one HD to the other may not be feasible.
I don't plan on using the TB ports on the Mini for anything other than the HD music library and backup.
As far as brands, LaCie d2 HD's may be the most reasonable....anyone have any positive/negative comments regarding this brand? (especially reliability/ease of setup).
As it looks like that's the maximum amount of RAM that the highest end i7 processor in the new MAC mini will support.
Link below:
I have had excellent results using a Firewire Raid 1 pair of drives. the one I have has reemovable drives, so I have 3 drives, one on the shelf, just in case. This is the safest way to guard your data.
It is advisable to avoid the USB bus for HD if you are using USB for streaming.
It is best to keep the external HD from which you play your music away from the USB bus used by your USB DAC. The easiest way to do that is to use a Firewire or Thunderbolt HD. if you are worried about availability of Firewire down the road, you can get a HD that can use Firewire or USB or maybe you can find HDs that can do Thunderbolt or USB. This is the simple answer.
The complicated part is if you really want to use a USB HD. Then you should make sure you use a USB port that is on a different USB bus than your DAC. The USB bus controls the exchange of data between the USB ports and the rest of the computer. The problem is that multiple USB ports can use the same bus and some of those ports are internal, such as for the Bluetooth controller in your computer. The way to check this is to click on the Apple menu at the upper left of your screen and then select "About this Mac". When that window comes up, click on the "More Info..." button. When the next screen comes up, click on the "System Report" button. In the window that comes up you will see the word "Hardware" at the top left (you may have to scroll to see it). Click the twisty to the left of "Hardware", if necessary, to show the hardware categories. One of those categories will be "USB". Click this and it will show you your USB busses and the devices using them. Try plugging your DAC into different USB ports until you get it onto a high speed USB bus that has no other devices on it. You may have to move other devices (including your external USB HD) to other USB ports to achieve this. If you have to, you might decide to put the DAC on a bus shared with the Bluetooth controller and then go to the System Preferences to turn off Bluetooth, so that it will not create activity on the bus.
This process of getting your DAC on its own, non-shared USB bus should be done whether or not you use an USB external HD. It is just easier to do without an USB HD.
It really does not matter where/how you connect the HD you use to back up your music, as long as you ONLY connect it while you are actually backing up, which you only need to do when you acquire new music.
Cheers,
Bill
I would go with USB; FW is pretty much at the end of its life. (The developer of the first FW interface, Metric Halo, is moving their entire line over to USB.) The capacity/speed of USB is vastly superior to FW; Metric Halo claims to support 48 channels in & 48 channels out at 96kHz, versus firewire's 18-in/18-out. On the other hand, there are some great FW deals now, and that added capacity is only worth something if you actually use it.
It doesn't matter which USB port you use, as they all go to the same processor, and are all on the same bus, regardless of which "hole" you use.
Just curious: do you have a DAC with SPDIF but not USB, or is there some other reason for adding another layer of conversion to your chain?
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
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