5/29/2023 0 Comments Macbook air media server![]() ![]() Considerations such as whether you want portability are more easily quantifiable than whether one Mac model sounds better than another.Īpple offers all its computers with different memory and hard-drive configurations. Any Mac that supports the current or near-current operating system can be used for audio playback duties. Also a Mac Mini can be run “headless” after initial setup, without a monitor or keyboard via the “Remote” Smartphone app (a Mac portable can be used this way also, but the screen will remain active). Mac Minis are the most popular “desktop” machine due to their size and price. Nowadays, the Macs I see most often used for audio are the Mac Mini or a Mac portable. Some folks (like me) even use a MacPro desktop machine for audio duties. An iMac is also a good option and the monitor is built-in. A Mac Mini is less expensive initially, but it does require an external monitor and keyboard for full functionality. Portable Macs, whether MacBook Pro or Air, make great audio computers, especially if you want one system that you can take with you. Which Apple computer you choose for computer audio will depend on several factors, but principally budget and portability. Even a naïve user should be able to use a computer audio system almost as easily as a CD player. (John Quick talks about this in the following feature.) No, the goal here is to achieve a system that is going to deliver sound 99.9% of the time without having to screw around. ![]() Given my priorities, the principal goal of this guide won’t be the best performance. Sound quality comes after these three primary goals are met: ultimately it doesn’t matter how good your computer audio system can sound if you can’t get it to work. the following guide will hopefully get you to a reasonable starting point for your Mac computer audio odyssey.įor me, the three most important aspects of a computer audio system are stability, reliability, and simplicity of operation. often it’s a case of not getting the machine configured correctly. but it’s still possible to end up with a system that doesn’t perform optimally. When it's not convenient to be sitting at my desk (i.e., couch surfing, etc.), I want the Air to be a mirror image of the iMac sans the media.Setting up an Apple computer for audio is simpler than a Windows pc because Apple offers fewer options. But, I also want the iMac to serve as my main machine when it's convenient to be sitting at my desk. I can just sit right there in front of the screen and take care of everything. That way, the iMac runs as the server and is easier to manage the media b/c I don't have to screen share into it. However, what I want to do now is use a Thunderbolt iMac as not only the media server, but also as a bootable clone/back-up of my Macbook Air. The mini ran headless and I would screen share into it from the Air to manage the media. With my Mac mini media server, I had it set up to sync with my Gen 1 Apple TV and with our iDevices (iPad/iPhone). My media (music, photos, videos) totals about 310GB or so and is obviously continually growing. I currently have a Macbook Air with an OWC 240GB SSD (in place of the stock SSD). I didn't like the Mac mini media server set up I had going on for various reasons which I won't go into right now, so I'm trying to figure out another solution. ![]()
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