Moving to a Mac

Funnliy enough I am possibly the opposite from most of the users here I prefer Windows because of it's upgradablity.

I can change HDD's, DVD drives, Motherboards etc and have never really had any issues that I have never been able to fix, viruses, HDD probs etc.

I possibly am that used to Windows that whenever I use Apple computers and I do with work a lot through out the year I am not a great fan.

But it is horses for courses.

Ok, a MacBook Pro is on its way from the Apple store.  As I'm back at university as a part time student right now I got a reasonable discount as well as 3 years warranty.  

Last night the first possible hitch occurred to me; I use a Terratec USB ADC and it's Mac drivers are only available in 32bit.  I'm wondering if there's a way to get it to work with the current OSX Which I believe is 64 bit.  Perhaps I should just wait and try it out first before getting concerned. Niggling... 

Good choice, but you missed out the surface pro 3 

Good choice, but you missed out the surface pro 3 

Which would be my choice.

Well, I think I'm going to finally admit defeat and move to 'the Dark Side'.

Just spent an hour trying to get my Windows 8.1 laptop to work with my new Roland A-500 Pro keyboard.  Drivers wouldn't install properly, even tried the laptop's one USB 2.0 as well as the USB 3.0 ports (I read the Roland manual!).  Installed without difficulty on SWMBO's Windows 7 laptop, even though her USB ports are known be a bit flaky on occasion.

The f***ing thing has managed to decide it won't work with TWAIN, and has (again) lost the ability to communicate wirelessly with my Epson XP700 printer.  Debated getting a copy of Windows 7 to install instead, but I've decided that I've had enough, even though my current laptop cost me nearly £2000 only a year ago.  I'll bite the bullet and give a Mac a try instead.  I'll ring the local Apple Store tomorrow and arrange to go and try out an iMac (I only use my laptop as a desktop replacement) and decide which mouse or tracker pad I want.

Now I'll have to figure out how much RAM to put in it, whether I need the 27" version, and decide what new software I'll need.  Don't really want to spend the dosh on a Mac version of Microsloth Office, so perhaps I'll give Open Office a go if I can figure out how to stop it installing that annoying adware Webget etc (had real problems with that when I installed it to try out once).  Perhaps MacOS built in document writer and spreadsheet will suffice for my needs.

Of course, dBpoweramp won't work yet with the Mac yet, so I'll have to use something else instead.  Also I'll need something equivalent to Syncback Pro (synchronising, mirror drives, VERIFY).

Memo to self : Check if there is a Mac version of Audacity ... find out if my LG GE24NU21 external DVD writer will work with an iMac ... etc etc

Hi Jude... I was trying to send you PM re. the issues below but did not know how to. 

------------

In one of your posts you mentioned 

"Anyway, I wanted to explore the suitability of the 200 and V1 in March this year . So,if you search under my name name you should find the thread and the response from Phil from Naim on a number of questions regarding the V1 from a number of people. I have been using the V1 with the 200 for six months now and am enjoying it immensely"

Could you please point me to the thread you mention?

I am considering moving to set up just like yours. Demoing ND5 XS with Nait XS at the moment, hating n-stream's UI and considering the V1+Power amp (totally different set up I know but it might work) but 'feel' that going from the Nait XS as amplification to the NAP100 is a bit of a downgrade... hence my idea to get a NAP200 instead...

Thoughts more than welcome!

PS: teaching me how to PM would be a bonus!

I thought so... I'll just wait for Jude2012 to see this then ...

thank you

Greetings Alonso, I think this is the thread  https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...78#24797126413364678

More than happy to share my experience etc etc regarding the V1 ( you may wanna start a specific thread to save  hI jacking this one )

Jude 

Excellent Jude! thank you!

Just made a new post with the question. 

Alonso

Thanks.  MacOS RAID and Backup seems very much geared to backing up the Mac to an NAS.  OK with that, but what I mostly use Syncback for is backing up my NAS drives to external hards drives - after all nearly 3GB of FLAC files are very precious!  (Not to mention the 350 GB photo collection belonging to SWMBO)

Yes, Audacity is available for Mac, so no problem there

I just happen to like dBpoweramp, and a Mac version is, I believe, in development.  In the meantime I will probably try XLD.  Don't know what its tagging capabilities are, but I'll no doubt find out.  My transcoding is done by Asset QNAP (working very well, thank you!), and that will still be working if I "go Mac"

Not really interested in running Parallels - after all I'd have to buy a copy of Windows (7) to do it, as I think a lot of the problems are with Windows 8, and that would be going with the current laptop to whomsoever I decide to inflict it upon.

I'm off to the Apple Store in Leicester tomorrow to look at the 27" iMac.  If I decide to get one, I'll have 16GB RAM, Fusion Drive, Keyboard with Numeric Pad (Sibelius is much easier to use it you have one).  I'll check with them whether that machine will do for my needs, and whether Pages and Numbers will suffice.  (Almost certainly yes, as long as they will import Word and Excel Files from MS Office 2010)

SWMBO has, thankfully, acquiesced to my possibly coming home with a new computer - that's assuming that they can supply one on the day.  Otherwise I suppose I'll have to wait (sigh) 

If you buy a new Mac you will have Thunderbolt capabilities which will be useful for transferring large data files. I'm just setting up a MacMini/External RAID/DAC system using a Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo which has dual 4Tb drives and can be configured to RAID1 with automatic backup. No more worrying about when to back up files.

Thanks to Wat for his advise on this.

Good luck.

Steve

Enjoy !!   BTW, I guess you know anyhow, RAM from Apple tends to be expensive.  I get mine from Crucial.

J

Just seen this, but can't see where you post is

Give me 5 min.  I'll try again

Well, I bought myself a top of the range iMac yesterday, and have spent most of today hurling abuse at it.

Accesses my Buffalo NAS, albeit rather slowly, but I had great difficulty making Finder "see"my QNAP NAS (the one with all my FLAC files), but eventually managed it (rebooted router etc).  Now I can navigate to its root directory, but when I click on Multimedia to try to look at my music files, all I get is "The operation can't be completed because the original item for `"Multimedia" can't be found"   Checked the router login page (Netgear N600) - yes, my NAS drives were both there.  Double-checked that with NAS Navigator 2.  However, when I try accessing the QNAP using QFinder, I seem to be able to login to its webpage OK, and could check my Asset QNAP settings etc, but Qfinder throws up an error message "can't open user configuration file", and after I tried refreshing the QNAP, has just now has told me "Cannot detect any servers on the local network" and asks me to check my connections, and firewall settings.  Works fine via the Windoze laptop!   Sitting here tearing my hair out!

Also, not overly enamoured with the Mac's way of connecting to Printers and Scanners.  Suggests not using the discs supplied with the printer and scanner.  However, all the Mac does is install the drivers, and none of the supplied software!  Tried downloading and installing the latest software from the Epson and Canon sites, and had to go through the rigmarole of temporarily turning off the "can't install because not from a recognised vendor"!  Installed Epson CD Print - works OK, Epson Scan - won't run (although supposed to be compatible according to Epson).  To make life complete MP Navigator (Canon's scanner software) doesn't want to run either.

The other really annoying thing is that I moved my iTunes library to the iMac using a 64GB USB flash drive, dismounted it as per Mac instruction, but now my Windows laptop says that drive is now corrupt, and won't even reformat it, although the iMac will still read/write to it.  God knows what that's about, as the Windows USB port is working perfectly well with a couple of my other flash drives.

Completely pissed off, and have postponed going to the trouble of getting Mac versions of some of my other software, because if I can't solve these problems in the next few days, I'll be taking it back for a refund and "upgrading" my Windows 8 laptop to Windows 7.

I suppose I was ready for a MAC when I changed, and so the transition was very easy. In fact painless, but you probably need to find a MAC-versed friend to help you to start with.

I got round this by keeping things very simple. 

I don't find any computer particularly easy. I can see how any operating system that is entirely new to a person could be completely disorienting ...

ATB from George

The only thing that occurs to me is that my IMac is possibly not properly installed on my home network.  Tomorrow I'll see if I can figure out how to tell what network it thinks its on.  I did notice that my other NAS (or it could be the Mac thinks that it's a 'guest' .  This happens whether I connect the Mac via wifi or ethernet.

Wonder if i could somehow just get rid of the network set up from my old laptop and set up a new one, to include the Mac, SWMBO's Windows 7 laptop, buffalo NAS, QNAP NAS, and Epson XP-700

It just works then.

Take it back and then learn how to use Windows 8.1 properly.

It just works is a myth! But having said that, all Mac and Windows issues are just simple issues, it just take a little time to get used to, and get to know how things work,

There are differences between how Windows and Macs do some things. If you haven't done so, I'd suggest having a look though this web page, to avoid further immediate or long term frustration http://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/pctomac/

J

Solved the QNAP NAS problem myself.  Perhaps I was just too tired yesterday.  Had a long think, and checked what the mac was actually saying.  It was trying to connect to the NAS as a Guest.  Changed it to my password and logged in again to the NAS.  Now working again.

Don't know why the MAC couldn't access the files on the QNAP while a Guest, as my daughter's macbook manages that trick OK.

Now to try to figure out why the Epson and Canon software isn't running.  After all, that was one of the reasons for the change to Mac.

"It just works"?  Not so far.

Also, don't understand why the supposedly British Mac Keyboard with Numeric Keypad actually seems to have an American Keyboard layout, which means that the @ and " keys are in different places (@ key on this keyboard is on the same key as 2).  Very annoying when trying to enter a web address or put in quotes, as I keep hitting the wrong key.  Daresay my mind will retrain itself after a while, but I've been able to touch-type for many years.

Nice big retina screen, though.  

Now need to go back to my Epson XP-700 and make it connect wirelessly.  Either that or go out and buy a USB3 hub - already connected via USB are Keyboard, Canon Scanner (nicer to use than the one on the Epson all-in-one), Apple Superdrive.  Would rather not have to use a USB hub

p.s. Bananahead - I do know how to use Windows 8.1 properly.  Just that it seems to have a habit of failing and losing registry entries etc.  Windows 7 was much more stable.

Our youngest daughter and her family are coming up from Wimbledon on Wednesday for a week to go house hunting and School viewing in Sutton Coldfield and Little Aston.  My son-in-law is a long-term Mac User (although he also uses a huge Windows 8 server with several hard drives in RAID to run Asset among other things).  Think I'll get him to give me a hand if he has time.

Still trying to decide on Backup software for the Mac, so that I can synchronise my NAS drives to external hard drives - still finding occasional errors in the ID3 tagging of my music files (mainly on those I generated myself while digitising my LPs) - must keep it consistent to make finding things via nStream easier.

Well, all seemed to be (almost) well for a few hours, then the iMac suddenly decided to lose my Servers (NAS drives) from the Finder Sidebar.  They are still there if I look at "John's iMac">Network (my computer name, and I can access them via that route, but nothing I have tried has managed to put them back on the Sidebar (Command K, change smb to cifs, etc etc).  Spent about an hour searching for solutions on the web, tried several, none worked.  Seems Apple have a big problem with Network access using Mavericks.

Incidentally, the Twain Drivers for my 2 scanners (Epson, Canon) not working either, and I can only use my Scanners by going through the Apple menu System Preferences.

Good news is that my Roland Midi Keyboard controller works with the iMac, although it was a bit of a faff getting it right.

John

Interesting that so many design and audio house currently use Macs and did so before they were mainstream without an issue with mixed Windows environments.  Perhaps a Mac is not for you

J