At home in the main system I have all my music on a Mac mini that is connected via the optical output to an nDAC + XPS. The Mac mini has no monitor or keyboard. It runs all the time, sleeps when not being used, and wakes up whenever I use an iOS device or laptop to choose / play some music.
I'm happy with the sound quality. It's simple. It's works every time I want to use it. I love the convenience of being able to control it with the free Remote app or the Apple screen share from laptop, etc.
I have accepted the limits of the functionality that Apple have chosen to provide.
But . . .
I want a copy of all my music and a similar system in my holiday home.
I can copy the iTunes library, that's simple enough as I maintain serveral copies of the library anyway (no way I'm ripping all those CDs again)
I can buy another Mac Mini (£450 to £500 I guess) and all the software is "free".
Or I could put the £500 towards a nice laptop and play music from that when I'm away.
Or I could look at alternatives - something like media monkey or JRiver on a PC similar to the Mac mini if anyone makes one.
So, can anyone recommend some alternatives to consider ?
I'm tempted to just buy another Mac mini because it's simple and I know it works without a lot of hassle to set up, etc but that feels like a lazy option.
IT
Posted on: 11 June 2013 by Bart
If it were me, based on what you wrote . . . I would buy another Mac Mini. I do not think that you'll find a PC that will rise to the Mini's overall set of attributes, including its small footprint, quiet running, and build quality.
I own both Apple and various pc products, but it would be another Mini given your experience with your current one. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with being lazy, when it just works! And given it's for a vacation home, I suspect that you want to arrive, turn on the hi fi, and listen to music. If you want to play with a micro-footprint PC, do it at home in your spare time as a hobby 
Posted on: 12 June 2013 by JeremyB
If you have the room I really like the HP energy efficient desktops for around $300 each new, even cheaper if you go for older used models which are actually built better. The HPs are super reliable, quiet and run really cool when idle. If you can roll your own a Corsair Obsidian 550D gaming enclosure/power supply and ASUS motherboard is pretty easy to build and almost completely silent. It's really nice to have a very standard PC, a huge amount of room for additional PCI/PCIe cards and as many 2T or 3T drives as you could ever want in one place without resorting to the expense and clutter of thunderbolt, external drives, NAS etc. I have two of the HPs running Ubuntu servers, a Corsair/Asus W8 machine and the mac mini in an entertainment center that used to hold a medium size TV and together they don't seem to get as hot as the little Cisco RV042G router and the cable modem that connects the whole lot to the interweb.
Posted on: 12 June 2013 by tonym
Get another Mac Mini IT. I'm in a similar situation to yourself, except I use an iMac in our main home & a Mini in the holiday home. Nowadays I just copy whatever music I've recently ripped to the iMac onto the HD I use for the Mini backup & add it to the Mini iTunes library when next I'm there.
It all works so well, as you know.
Posted on: 12 June 2013 by Jasonf
Originally Posted by pcstockton:
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/index.asp
they range from $400 to $1200 or so. Pick your poison. You can't go wrong here.
-Patrick (VERY happy owner of the CoreHT 252B)
Hi Patrick,
I own a Core HT but I don't use it for storing music files or any type of media server function. I use it as standard pc to run a Cad software that I cant run on a Mac. I wanted something that was small and compact and silent, the Core fits the bill very well and works very well.
So I can second the Core HT.
Jason.
Posted on: 12 June 2013 by pcstockton
Originally Posted by Jasonf:
Originally Posted by pcstockton:
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/index.asp
they range from $400 to $1200 or so. Pick your poison. You can't go wrong here.
-Patrick (VERY happy owner of the CoreHT 252B)
Hi Patrick,
I own a Core HT but I don't use it for storing music files or any type of media server function. I use it as standard pc to run a Cad software that I cant run on a Mac. I wanted something that was small and compact and silent, the Core fits the bill very well and works very well.
So I can second the Core HT.
Jason.
Jason,
Agreed. I wanted an HTPC/Hifi Source for my living room. All media is stored in my office PC on my "Server". I run JRiver Server in there 24/7 and send music where ever i want it to go.
I stream movies/TV to my HDTV and music to my Naim gear through the ASRock. As quiet as possible and it is SUPER fast. My fastest PC (even faster than my new MacBook Pro running Win7).
-p
Posted on: 12 June 2013 by -goat-
Hi Mark... really curious about this! Can you tell me if this can be used as a streamer? I have my existing music library in a NAS on the home network my NDX reads from but am getting keen on the idea of setting up a separate headphone system in another room. Can this read from Upnp and send audio to a DAC? And how do you go about controlling this wee thing?
Originally Posted by Marky Mark:
Raspberry Pi (£25) plus USB HDD (£25). Even cheaper second-hand.
Posted on: 12 June 2013 by Jasonf
Originally Posted by -goat-:
Hi Mark... really curious about this! Can you tell me if this can be used as a streamer? I have my existing music library in a NAS on the home network my NDX reads from but am getting keen on the idea of setting up a separate headphone system in another room. Can this read from Upnp and send audio to a DAC? And how do you go about controlling this wee thing?
Originally Posted by Marky Mark:
Raspberry Pi (£25) plus USB HDD (£25). Even cheaper second-hand.
Hi Goat,
I believe Simon in Suffolk is currently assessing the Pi also and has posted here regarding his progress. A quick search may (if your lucky) find his thread.
Jason.
Posted on: 12 June 2013 by IT
Many thanks for all the replies.
Some good suggestions there for mini PCs that I will check out.
For those that run mini PCs as part of the HiFi, are they running without screen and keyboard ?
And if so, what's a simple no-hassle alternative to the Apple screenshare feature so you can control from an external laptop, etc ?
Doing it with a PI would be an interesting project as would building your own pre and power amps. I've done some of that in the past but these days I'm happy to leave that to the experts.
IT
