Help setting up wifi between DAC and iTunes in ALAC

[Nimrod79]

Hi all, looking for some advice please.

I am about to buy a MacBook Pro (retina display) with a view to using my hifi system wirelessly and controlled through itunes, and with the ability to play ALAC and High Defininition Audio. I have just bought a Buffalo NAS which is causing me no end of nightmares. I am considereing purchasing an Apple Time Capsule to replace the Buffalo and on which to store my entire music collection in ALAC. I then want to play this collection via itunes (on the MacBook) sending the audio wirelessly to my Audiolab MDAC. As the retina display MacBooks are almost completely wireless I am thinking of setting up a network using an Airport Base Station, hard wired to the router through a power over ethernet TP Link. The one bit I can't get my head around is how to connect the DAC to the wireless network - is it possible to use the USB port of the Airport Base Station in the same way a wireless printer can be set up? Does all of this sound possible, and has anyone else been through this adventure?

Thanks as always guys.

 

[gurjitsidhu]

What you need is an Airport Express and that has an optical out through the 3.5mm port plugged into your dac. Airport base also has it too I think.

Alternatively buy a squeeze box. Everyone races about them and their audio quality is meant to be really good!

Keep in mind that Airport Express only transfers 16 bit 48khz so that's cd quality. You won't get high res files to your dac which sucks. I didn't realise this when I bought it so for that reason I would buy a squeezebox if I could go back

 

[Overdose]

I have just bought a Buffalo NAS which is causing me no end of nightmares. I am considereing purchasing an Apple Time Capsule to replace the Buffalo and on which to store my entire music collection in ALAC. I then want to play this collection via itunes (on the MacBook) sending the audio wirelessly to my Audiolab MDAC. As the retina display MacBooks are almost completely wireless I am thinking of setting up a network using an Airport Base Station,

I have a Buffalo NAS and it is good for some things, an iTunes server it isn't.

For wireless connectivity use an Apple Airport Express, you can then add an external USB hard drive if neccessary to use as a Time Machine backup.

The AEX is plenty good enough for the highest sound quality that you could hear, just connect it via the optical output into your DAC. It won't handle higher resolutions than 16bit/48KHz audio, but then there is no audible benefit of using a higher resolution audio file anyway. 16/48 is as good as any normal human being will hear.

One thing to consider is that as some compressed audio is indistinguishable from lossless or uncompressed audio, it might be worth trying a few bitrate compressions to do a back to back comparison. If you keep an archive on your backup drive in ALAC, you can use the second compressed library on your Macbook. I have ALAC on my Mac mini and 192 AAC at VBR on my iPod and Mac for portability.

The audible differences between the two file types are so small (if they even exist) that I could not be bothered to try any harder to hear any.

For info, around 1300 discs is around 550GB in ALAC and 170GB at 256Kbps AAC.

 

[Anonymous]

I have just bought a Buffalo NAS which is causing me no end of nightmares. I am considereing purchasing an Apple Time Capsule to replace the Buffalo and on which to store my entire music collection in ALAC.

what's the nature of your problem with the Buffalo? One of my installations uses one as a NAS and it works fine. However I did have an ordeal setting it up; turned out it needed a firmware upgrade, since which it's been fine.

 

[Nimrod79]

I have just bought a Buffalo NAS which is causing me no end of nightmares. I am considereing purchasing an Apple Time Capsule to replace the Buffalo and on which to store my entire music collection in ALAC. I then want to play this collection via itunes (on the MacBook) sending the audio wirelessly to my Audiolab MDAC. As the retina display MacBooks are almost completely wireless I am thinking of setting up a network using an Airport Base Station,

I have a Buffalo NAS and it is good for some things, an iTunes server it isn't.

For wireless connectivity use an Apple Airport Express, you can then add an external USB hard drive if neccessary to use as a Time Machine backup.

The AEX is plenty good enough for the highest sound quality that you could hear, just connect it via the optical output into your DAC. It won't handle higher resolutions than 16bit/48KHz audio, but then there is no audible benefit of using a higher resolution audio file anyway. 16/48 is as good as any normal human being will hear.

One thing to consider is that as some compressed audio is indistinguishable from lossless or uncompressed audio, it might be worth trying a few bitrate compressions to do a back to back comparison. If you keep an archive on your backup drive in ALAC, you can use the second compressed library on your Macbook. I have ALAC on my Mac mini and 192 AAC at VBR on my iPod and Mac for portability.

The audible differences between the two file types are so small (if they even exist) that I could not be bothered to try any harder to hear any.

For info, around 1300 discs is around 550GB in ALAC and 170GB at 256Kbps AAC.

Thanks Overdose. For my needs I can't see that the NAS is suitable. It takes an age to fire up and is overly difficult to set up and use and I don't think it's really what I need. If I am looking for just storage of my music library, can I store these on an external hard drive and connect this to the AEX and then control the library through the MacBook? And will I not really tell an audible difference between 16/48 and high definition audio?

 

[Nimrod79]

I have just bought a Buffalo NAS which is causing me no end of nightmares. I am considereing purchasing an Apple Time Capsule to replace the Buffalo and on which to store my entire music collection in ALAC.

what's the nature of your problem with the Buffalo? One of my installations uses one as a NAS and it works fine. However I did have an ordeal setting it up; turned out it needed a firmware upgrade, since which it's been fine.

It just takes too long to fire up, and I really don't think it's what I need, and probably too difficult to get to grips with with my technical knowledge (which I thought was pretty good till I began my recent audio adventure).

 

[MajorFubar]

It just takes too long to fire up,

Probably not what the greenies want to hear but I tend to leave my server (Mac Mini) switched on permanently, so that all the other computers can stream from it

 

[Anonymous]

It just takes too long to fire up,

Probably not what the greenies want to hear but I tend to leave my server (Mac Mini) switched on permanently, so that all the other computers can stream from it

One virtue of a NAS is that it can be left on 24/7 without using much power. A well designed NAS should be considerably less power hungry than a PC. For me, one reason for going down this route was precisely that I wouldn't have to fire up my PC/laptop every time I wanted to play music. The NAS is always on and can be called on instantaneously via the Sonos controller software on my expensively branded smartphone.

 

[MajorFubar]

True enough. According to Apple's website my Mac Mini takes around 11W at idle. Not sure if that's 'sleeping' or switched on with the HDD idle. Probably sleeping! I do at least have it set to turn off the HDD when not in use.

 

[Overdose]

Thanks Overdose. For my needs I can't see that the NAS is suitable. It takes an age to fire up and is overly difficult to set up and use and I don't think it's really what I need. If I am looking for just storage of my music library, can I store these on an external hard drive and connect this to the AEX and then control the library through the MacBook? And will I not really tell an audible difference between 16/48 and high definition audio?

For some reason I had it in my head that a hard drive could be connected to the AEX, it can, but only if it is a NAS and over ethernet, not USB. A Synology NAS can be configured as an iTunes server and would work though.

If you already have an Airport Express, then it might be best to connect the NAS to the AEX and use this for archiving lossless music files as a backup and use the Mac as the main media player and storage. A lot depends on how much you want or are able to spend and what the ideal solution needs to do.

If you want to use a NAS as a remote media library, then Synology would be the obvious choice, having the iTunes server. If you don't need a remote library and are using your Mac laptop, then just use the library on the Mac.

As far as high resolution audio goes, the format offers nothing audible over standard CD quality, but some some high resolution recordings have been mastered differently than the original recordings and will sound different because they are actually different (note, not neccessarily better).

If the reason for listening to high resolution files is because of sound quality concerns, then don't worry about it and forget all about high res. If you need the capability because you have an existing high res library, then the AEX will not work unless the files are resampled (which might happen automatically anyway, worth googling that one).

Edit: Moving away from Apple would bring in the option of a Sonos Connect, but then you're into the same sort of money as a Synology NAS and Airport Express and if you are going to use the Mac to control it all, there seems little point.

 

[gurjitsidhu]

There is a considerable audible difference in HD Audio. Even with the basic kit I have I can hear it. It's why I regret getting an Airport Express. Why is it limited to 16/48khz? Stupid airport express! Lol

 

[Nimrod79]

Thanks Overdose. For my needs I can't see that the NAS is suitable. It takes an age to fire up and is overly difficult to set up and use and I don't think it's really what I need. If I am looking for just storage of my music library, can I store these on an external hard drive and connect this to the AEX and then control the library through the MacBook? And will I not really tell an audible difference between 16/48 and high definition audio?

For some reason I had it in my head that a hard drive could be connected to the AEX, it can, but only if it is a NAS and over ethernet, not USB. A Synology NAS can be configured as an iTunes server and would work though.

If you already have an Airport Express, then it might be best to connect the NAS to the AEX and use this for archiving lossless music files as a backup and use the Mac as the main media player and storage. A lot depends on how much you want or are able to spend and what the ideal solution needs to do.

If you want to use a NAS as a remote media library, then Synology would be the obvious choice, having the iTunes server. If you don't need a remote library and are using your Mac laptop, then just use the library on the Mac.

As far as high resolution audio goes, the format offers nothing audible over standard CD quality, but some some high resolution recordings have been mastered differently than the original recordings and will sound different because they are actually different (note, not neccessarily better).

If the reason for listening to high resolution files is because of sound quality concerns, then don't worry about it and forget all about high res. If you need the capability because you have an existing high res library, then the AEX will not work unless the files are resampled (which might happen automatically anyway, worth googling that one).

Edit: Moving away from Apple would bring in the option of a Sonos Connect, but then you're into the same sort of money as a Synology NAS and Airport Express and if you are going to use the Mac to control it all, there seems little point.

Thanks for the advice. Could I plug my existing Buffalo NAS by Ethernet to the AEX and use this (controlled by itunes on the mac) as the dedicated storage for my library in lossless, as the mac won't have sufficient storage?

 

[Overdose]

Possibly you could, but I'm not sure. The thing is, you already have a NAS so don't need another unless the Buffalo does not work as required. I think the problem might be that the link to the external iTunes library on the Buffalo will break every time the NAS or Mac is restarted, something to do with the network addresses. The Synology NAS seems to provide an answer to this.

 

[uniquexme]

May I ask if streaming via AEX, do u guys need to utilize the actual broadband? So if broadband speed is slow, it will be lagging?

 

[Overdose]

May I ask if streaming via AEX, do u guys need to utilize the actual broadband? So if broadband speed is slow, it will be lagging?

The AEX can be configured to use/extend an existing network or set up an additional internal one, in any case, the network traffic will be internal and therefore only limited by the equipment that is in your network, so streaming from and to devices within this network will not be affected by broadband speeds.

 

[busb]

Current Apple devices optical outs don't always work with the M-DAC. I ended up returning 2 ATV3s to my local Apple shop. My ATV2's optical works perfectly. The designer of the M-DAC has made Apple aware of the issue. Many DACs work perfectly as do a few ATV3 & latest AEX but be aware many people are having issues with this combo & some other DACs using the same chipset.

I'm considering using a MAC Mini into my M-DAC via USB & controlling it using my iPad or iPhone. When I inquired today in the same Apple shop about using the MAC Mini in the context of how quiet it would be from about 10ft away from my chair - they said pretty damn quiet but I'd have 2 weeks to return it in - no questions. The basic Mini costs £499 but with 256GB of SSD would cost £910 - ouch! If I wanted to browse the web - HDMI into my plasma with Bluetooth mouse & keyboard. Apple lossless over USB & no WiFi dropouts.