Mac Mini?

Dear Gary,

The music and DVD playing machine [reason for using a computer that is good for iTunes is explained above] will never be conected to the net. Dial-up can be managed with ease on the old PC. I have a little USB modem that did sterling service and would no doubt suffice once again.

But in reality I am now ready to give up the net in my own home altogether when the hardware breaks down. The BB contract becomes monthly from the end of August, and like the TV Licence, I shall not miss the bill!, so I am inclined to call with the month's notice before the end of July. I can check emails once a week at the library. I have sourced [via the net] all the vintage spares I could ever wish for for my two veteran cycles, and now have an excelent "old boy" building the wheels for the Carlton, and he has enough spares, like suitable bearings, to keep me running for the rest of my days! I sometimes think we are inclined to think we cannot manage without some of the latest technological advances, but a serious appraisal of their significance with an open mind can indeed produce a different view. I shall not be parting with my mobile phone though! Pay as I go of course!!

As for buying music, there is still a superb [thriving] record shop in Hereford, which offers a good telephone/mail order service, and they know me as a customer since 1980. Even though I am rare caller there in person since living in Worcester, we always chew the cud for ages when I do call in. No rushing in and out of a place like that!

ATB from George

George,

I can fully appreciate your reasons for liking iTunes. What I would say though is don't let this blind you to the possible advantages of adopting something different, and the possible disadvantages of staying with iTunes. Speaking frankly now, it seems to me to be barmy to buy a computer just to run iTunes, which is more or less what you would be doing. It is a very non - cost effective and inelegant way of achieving what you want IMO. Of course, if you consider the iTunes database system to be essential to you then none of that really matters - it will be the only way forwards. If you bought the Brennan, then you could possibly adopt some kind of paper index system to help locate particular pieces, if the indexing system in the Brennan didn't suit you. But it would be far more elegant - just a small box and a pair of speakers. I'll suggest something even more radical now, and perhaps run the risk of striking horror into your heart - a return to CD's! IMO there is no quicker, simpler and more reliable way of locating a piece of music than a quick visual scan of a CD cabinet. The human eyes and brain are wonderful for such simple tasks, and any computer will struggle to match the speed/ease with which it can be accomplished. The exception is if you have an extremely large CD collection, eg. taking up a whole room. There are many options for CD storage these days that do not require the discs to be in jewel cases on shelves. "Filght cases" are available easily that will hold up to 1000 discs in supplied plastic wallets, take up little storage space and can be put away when not required. It would be simple to design an index system, or possibly download one of the free ones and print it out. If I may be so bold, this is possibly more in keeping with your general philosophy, which is a good one. Cheap, no running costs, no repair bills etc.

At the end of the day the solution has to be the right one for you, and what anybody else thinks of it or would prefer themselves is totally irrelevant. I suspect that with further pondering you will gradually arrive at exactly that.

Peter

Apple just released an updated Mac Mini and it has no internal optical drive. They are selling a matching (and very thin) external optical but its extra.

The included adapters allow you to connect a DVI, HDMI or VGA monitor. Or look out for a great deal on an iPad and use the Remote-app to control iTunes on the Mini - this makes a very nice system. If you get the 3G model of iPad you can get the internet that way. Rogue Amoeba has a utility for the Mini that receives Airplay so you can send wireless audio from iPad apps if you want services like Spotify.

Far easier & cheaper to get a pay as you go 3G USB data dongle from Vodafone, Orange, O2 ect.

Many thimgs to think about - some far to comlicated for me to want to implement. I may just do a complete reload on the old PC, never reconnect to the net and just carry on like that! Free to do and something that I can do myself! I hate spending money!!

ATB from George

George,

Sticking with your old PC/iTunes set-up may be the most sensible option. Apart from any other considerations, things are advancing so rapidly at present that a more appealing solution than any available now may present itself in the fullness of time. If fan noise is an issue then you could always contemplate putting the PC in another room and connecting wirelessly to your little Sony. There are several methods of doing this ranging from very cheap - expensive. Or just use a long wired connection - cheap screened cable easily available, and since you are at the pre-decorating stage it is the ideal time to install it. Let us know how things progress.

Peter

PS.  Laptops / Netbooks do not have zero fan noise, though they a lot quieter than desktops. Our own little Netbook is very quiet, but I would still find it irritating if it was on while listening to music. One of the reasons why I wouldn't want a computer-based system myself, though I can certainly see the attraction. In time I think budget hard-disc (or solid state storage) based all-in-one systems will become the norm, and I think this will probably be the best option for me. (Brennan comes close, but no radio and still quite pricey!)

George,

Just a few "last" observations on all the discussion above. It seems to me that as you are inclined to dispense with the internet then, leaving iTunes aside for the moment, buying a computer of any kind will really amount to a terrible misappropriation of funds. Only you can decide if iTunes alone is worth the expense involved. If you decide that it is, and you can comfortably afford it, then no problem at all. But in making a decision, I personally would very carefully evaluate such factors as:

What brought me to iTunes in the first place?

Are those reasons still valid to the same extent now?

Do I still need a source of equivalent ability to an entry-level Naim CD player?

What are the alternatives?

What are my objections to the alternatives?

What are the advantages of the alternatives?

Do any objections I have outweigh the advantages?

and so on.....

Making a decision like this is never easy, but in a way, if one is working to a very tight budget, it can help to provide a reference point and clarify one's thinking. The other thing I think is relevant is that when one has invested a lot of time and effort (and possibly money) in a particular project then this can be a sort of inertia against moving away from it, even if logic may dictate that moving away would be the most sensible way forwards. For myself, I think that this is what prevented me from moving away from expensive replay - even though deep-down I knew it would be the right thing for me. It took circumstances beyond my control to bring about the change - but I do not regret it for one instant - it has been one of the most liberating experiences of my life.

I suspect you have a lot of soul-searching to do - I wish you all the best with this.

Peter 

Hi George, I wish you well in your decision.  What I'm impressed with is your use and cataloging of your CDs.   3 years ago I put a bunch of CDs in my iMac thinking I was going to be computer based with a DAC.   Ha!  I have CDs with no images, and I have a couple anthologies that are all split up into singles or small groups.  So I gave  up for a few years because my kit sounds incredible 20 feet away.   

Just upgraded to Lion and iTunes 7.  Tried a few more and same thing, missing artwork, not sure it's lossless, and these are just the rock and pop and jazz.  I can't imagine how you separated the classical and kept them together.

I'm thinking I need a dummy book on iTunes  then when I'm ripping get the new Mini.   

My ultimate goal is to replace my tuner and CDX2 (which is skipping)  with an NDX and have almost an open shelf for the new mini.

Please stay online and maybe do short essays on how you categorize and manage iTunes.

I wish you well,  I've had a tough time too lately, physically so I'm somewhat apartment bound.  Amazing what needs to be done and what I can ignore.

Dear Wolf,

When I first experimented with iTunes, I soon found that to control an album staying together you must first set the list to grouping by artist in alphabetic order, and ensure that the artist name remains completely consistent. Then the album stays intact. Of course this does not spoil the ability to search the music out via composer and music title or publisher [or editor] catalogue number. But again you must ensure that these fields are accurately entered in the "tagging." If the artist field is inconsistent it is quite possible with as many tracks as I have to more or less loose the track file or files concerned. 

The braver thing I did - almost without frustration - was to strip down albums containing two or more pieces as coupled on the original CD. [I left recital style CDs intact as they are often more than the sum of their parts, and enjoyable as a half concert]. This I did by renaming the album as such with the title of the music for the tracks that contained the exact track of the piece rather than keeping the generic title of the original compilation, so that now [for one of many examples] my one complete cycle of Mozart Piano Concertos actually runs in numerical order, and allows for each piece to selected quite easily with the Koechel [catalogue] number and the artist performing. If I enter "466" then I get two performances by Clara Haskil, and one each by Edwin Fischer, and Carmen Piazzini of the "D Minor" Piano concerto [No 20], KV 466. To narrow it down I enter the artist name, and in the case of Haskil also the conductor name. It is an immensely powerful way for me search any music in the system in a matter of less than ten seconds. Not bad for 26 days' worth of music!

I realise this does nothing to solve the problem of getting Artwork displayed, but I am quite happy that I would never gain have to look at it, and disabled it at the first chance. When listening I often turn the computer screen off, so the effect is as a radio broadcast, but without the announcer.

ATB from George

Thanks for the tips.  I'll have to work on it.  I haven't started to download my classical stuff yet.  And I would like to separate some CDs into each separate piece.

I'll have to mess around with it see if I can group the 2 broken up  CDs .  I remember that there was a work around to cmd C cmdV to paste artwork in but I'm surprised it still doesn't work in latest iTunes.

ah well more than enough to keep me busy when I have nothing to do.

Georg,

If you have different artists on the same CD, just check the "Part of a Compilation" checkbox in the "Info" tab of each track, and the CD will stay together.

Regards,

Nigel

Wolf,

I don't have a vast experience of iTunes, but in Windows Media Player it's possible to paste any artwork desired onto an album. Just search out the image you want (I usually just use the album title and search under "images" in Google), then just copy it and paste onto your album. I imagine iTunes would have a similar facitlity.

Peter

Dear Nigel,

In reality I retain the primary soloist for compilations, so that I have a lovely [Naxos] disc of recording by Albert Sammons [the English Heifetz - a comment without exaggeration]  that has various different artists, but I simply tagged Albert Sammons as the artist. I am not remotely concerned about which pianist or pick-up orchestra [and recording "house" conductor] was employed 90 years ago to accompany the great man. But I realise this may not be a universal view. At the time the accompanying artists were not published on the 78 labels as a rule on lollipop pieces. If really needing to know then I can refer to the CD cover.

But yes you are right. I could have used the compilation option.

What is grand is that if I insert Sammons into the search engine, I then get the large [multi-78-side] issues in the list with the recital discs as well - very nice!

ATB from George

George,

I really get the feeling more and more that iTunes suits your purposes so well, and that you are so comfortable using it, that to move away from it would indeed be a mistake for you. There are, I feel, potential benefits in not having to use a computer as part of a replay system, but in your case the loss of the ease of storage and access to your music collection would almost certainly be a significant drawback. I somehow don't see you embracing CD's again! 

Your point about having no interest in album artwork is very interesting. I agree that with most genres of music, the artwork on the album cover is totally irrelevant to the music. One exception though IMO is with film and television scores, of which I have a number. Here the artwork usually depicts elements of the film/TV programme, and since the music was composed specially for this it can at least be of peripheral interest, and can at best help to put the music into some sort of context. Especially true with scores to foreign films, where one is extremely unlikely to ever encounter the film itself, and one cannot read any notes on the CD cover. Here the artwork on the cover can give clues to the type of film involved - romance, drama, thriller, horror etc. For me at least, this helps with my appreciation of the score. Film/TV scores can really be appreciated on two levels. One a purely musical appreciation, and two, an appreciation of the extent to which the music complements the film and also is able to evoke memories (including emotional responses) of it, if one has seen the film in question. The whole thing is further complicated by the commercially issued version of the score often being a re-recording made specially for the soundtrack album. Differences between this and the actual recording used in the film can sometimes be so significant as to render them in effect entirely different works! I recall many times in the '70's seeing a film at the cinema, loving the music and subsequently buying the soundtrack album, only to be bitterly disappointed that the music on it differed from the film performance I had enjoyed. Even relatively subtle differences, such as a slightly different emphasis on certain phrasings or a slower tempo really used to upset me! Anyway, I know I have really digressed here so I'll stop.....

Peter 

I really get the feeling more and more that iTunes suits your purposes so well, and that you are so comfortable using it, that to move away from it would indeed be a mistake for you. There are, I feel, potential benefits in not having to use a computer as part of a replay system, but in your case the loss of the ease of storage and access to your music collection would almost certainly be a significant drawback. I somehow don't see you embracing CD's again! 

Dear Peter,

You are right. The investment in effort put into sharpening the search engine of iTunes by making the tagging so comprehensive and fairly standard throughout brings a functionality in finding music that no other system that I have tried to use comes close to emulating. To adjust tagging, I certainly need a keyboard, and though a computer is not something that is pure audio in some respects, I am sure that a dedicated [not connect to the internet] machine is the way, be it some Mac, or some quiet PC. It does not actually need to be a very advanced machine as iTunes does not take much processing. 

The choice of computer to mount iTunes on has not been decided. As my current desktop tower job has settled down from the two virus attacks, I am content to let it run on for the while, though with a good back-up in place. But for safety and security of the music files and long term reliability, I do want to dedicate something to it. Something durable, and not huge or noisy.

But iTunes brings so much to the facility of replay, and is darned fine as a quality sound/music source that though it may well be bettered by more expensive arrangement, I doubt if I could either afford such or find the search aspect nearly so effective!

ATB from George

George,

Biding your time for as long as you are able to, or feel inclined to, is probably a sensible option. As I'm sure you know, things move forwards at such an alarming rate with computers that even waiting a couple of months could result in a better purchase for you. Also keep an eye on what the computer magazines are recommending. No, I don't mean buying them - just pop into the local magazine library to browse through their very comprehensive selection. Easy to find, it says " WH SMITH" on the front!

Peter