new to mac- help with DAC & itunes

[knacker]

I have just been bought a Imac by my lovely wife- granted it is second hand but hey ho!

I have all my current apple lossless files stored on a PC hdd. If I transfer them to an external HD will itunes under the mac recognise them or will I have to re rip?

Also, I have a DACMagic currently connected by USB- can I still connect this way with the mac? If not, what do I need to connect the mac to the DAC Magic?

Thanks in advance

 

[professorhat]

knacker:I have all my current apple lossless files stored on a PC hdd. If I transfer them to an external HD will itunes under the mac recognise them or will I have to re rip?

Definitely no need to rerip. Firstly, ensure any external hard drive is formatted as a FAT32 drive (easiest way would be to use the Mac to format it and choose the FAT option here). This ensures it can be read by both PC and Mac. Once this is done, transfer the music on to the external drive. Connect to your Mac and within iTunes on the Mac, select Add to Library from the menu option. Point to this folder on your external drive and it should then import all the music in fine.

knacker:Also, I have a DACMagic currently connected by USB- can I still connect this way with the mac? If not, what do I need to connect the mac to the DAC Magic?
Yup, this will work fine.

 

[Sorreltiger]

I would also add to the Prof's excellent advice, that if you want the files to be stored on the HDD, you can tell the Mac to look for your iTunes Library there, rather than on an internal drive.

Go to iTunes preferences - Advanced - and set the iTunes Media folder location.

If you have a lot of lossless files, this is probably a better solution than going down the internal route as you need so much capacity!

 

[knacker]

Many thanks, espec Da Prof.

Out of interest, if I wanted to connect the DM to the imac digitally, what would I need?

 

[Anonymous]

You can use a tosslink cable - although I think you may need a mini jack adapter for the imac.