Mac mini to DAC V-1 what to use?

You didn`t get alot of support here

Still, my experience is as mentioned. Keep it simple or go straight to a Unitiserve.

No problem connecting a NAS to both Mini and US. I use Synology 212J and it works fine with Mini. UPNP is "Mediaserver" that follows the NAS.

I have struggled with ripping, formats and a NAS. Have learned many things and systems. I get it to work, but it require attention from the user, constantly actually.

Thanks Stover for your replies. I've looked a lot into itunes and by using "Fluke" i can get itunes to accept my FLAC files. I will only need to convert the hi res albums, not supported by "Fluke", but ill use AIFF format as this appears to be a better format for sound quality than ALAC, so ive read.

I also have a 212j and has been serving me well, so will continue to use this for storing my music.

The only concern i have now is how do you know that itunes is outputting a hi res AIFF file at full resolution. In the preferences there is a output tab that is set to standard res. Surely you dont have to keep changing this every time you play a music file of different resolutions

J.River is available for the Mac now albeit in a Alpha/Beta state.

Also applications like Audirvana, Decibel and Pure Music allow you to use FLAC.

Thanks Eloise, i have been looking at a few of those but i need it to have an app for the ipad so i can control it remotely. Yes i think im being too fussy but its about making it easy to use as much about SQ. Don't think ive seen pure music so will take a look at that.

Regards

Fox, I have all of the music players, but I have gravitated to using Audirvana all the time (I like it's gui the most), controlled by the Apple "remote" app, which I believe you can use on your iPad.

Audirvana is working with iTunes, and "remote" controls that. Hope that helps you.

Hi Hawk.

I thought that Audirvana was its own app. How does audirvana work with itunes exactly. Ive had a quick look on the site but doesn't really explain how. Does it look like itunes but uses Audirvana somehow in the back ground

Yes, Audirvana (and some other music players) can use iTunes interface but play through its own sound engine.

It is it's own app, it bypasses CoreAudio, and iTunes is open with Audirvana Plus at the same time, but much of the features of iTunes can be deactivated via Audirvana's preferences. I have mine set up per the instructions from Naim, which ensures bitperfect sound and of course ensures the DAC-V1 firmware update will occur properly (already has had one firmware update). I like Amarra and PureMusic too, they all sound really good (I can't tell the difference). I just found it the most intuitive to use. It has frequent updates. You can talk to the developer personally, he responds to email and is most helpful.

What these apps do is quite clever, but most of them can be easily confused. So sometimes you get both iTunes and the "other player" playing the same tune at the same time 

 ...and even funnier when sometimes iTunes next track is not picked by the other player who instead "thinks" iTunes's playing something else.

Not too bad overall though if you stick to main library order, and much better SQ than iTunes.

iTunes engineering should really provide a much better integration with 3rd party engines, which really shouldn't be all that hard to implement.

I have made some comparisons. Audirvana playlist sounds considerably better than iTunes, perhaps you guys should try it and let us know.

J River

Many thanks all for the replies. Jremote for jriver looks spot on, and to be honest if i can keep away from itunes all together even better. I notice this is beta for mac use so will need to look into it better but audivana in itunes would work for me too.

One question i have is does anyone use there mac mini headless. With just a USB cable plugged in. I ask this as when i was reading about pure music for itunes, it stated that if you dont have a monitor connected and switched on it can affect the performance of pure music feeding to itunes.

Is anyone aware of an issue like this ?

Fidelia uses Apple OSX and has a remote app. See attached link for screen shots of the remote app.:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...18#28880072420695518

Fidelia can use the existing i-Tunes library or it's own library.

The Fidelia library displays artwork ( the remote app. doesn't display artwork) and is compatible with FLAC.

Thanks Graham

On the remote app, does album artwork appear when searching by album or can you get it to appear with the artwork next to the album name. many thanks

As I said unfortunately the remote app. doesn't display artwork, although it has been requested as a future update. Artwork only appears on the main application. If your interested I would suggest going onto the Audiofile Engineering web site for further info. Unfortunately forum rules don't allow a direct link.

Apologies Graham. The reason i need artwork is the same reason i missed your comment. I suffer from dyslexia and find it very hard to search on text alone, as i can never find the album i want. Either that or its the bottles of red

Still im only looking at this point so they may have an update by the time i get sorted.

Anyone use there mac mini in the headless format

Here's a screen shot of the main Fidelia programme with the fully functioning associated player in graphic form (size can been varied).

What made you settle on Fidelia, was it anything specific?

Judging from you're latest comment this may not be the application for you. Sorry

Good spec. Ungradeable from Basic to Advanced spec. Good reports on SQ. Good support. Mimics i-Tune format. I have to say it only displays the artwork currently playing, which may be a problem for you. Good selection of compatible audio formats. Not expensive.

Ah yes indeed that would be an issue. Thank you for your help, but its looking like jriver or audirvana in itunes then.

Just need to find out about this mac mini headless issue.

Thanks again Graham

Regards Graeme (No that's not my dyslexia showing )

Hi Foxman

I use a Synology NAS212+, feeding AIFF files via

a mac mini running itunes + the BitPerfect app

through a USB cable to the DAC-V1, a NAP140 and pair of PMC DB1i 

It has worked flawlessly and most enjoyably from day 1.

However, my Naim dealer recommends Audirvana as the best software to use on the mac, for reasons of sound quality & robustness.  If you are staying with FLAC, then this might be the option for you.

Hope this helps, FT

I've recently been looking at this too. I would be happy to turn the mac mini into a DLNA renderer and use BubbleUpnp to control it. I've not found the perfect solution yet. The simplest option is to use an itunes replacement, e.g. J River Media Centre has a mac version in the works, and point it at the network drive.

I am running the mac mini headless but haven't managed to start j river on boot yet... possibly because I am running the beta?

If you are more technically minded, a completely different approach might be to try mpd (music player daemon) which is available through brew/macports. Then use something like MPoD for the ipad.