.m4a

[wonderboynj]

I know there are lots of Mac guys on this list, so I thought I may throw this question out to you...

My roommate just invested LOTS of money into a high end audio system and he wants to have a music server on it. I've suggested he just use a MacMini and drive iTunes as a server, with an attached firewire drive. Originally that's what he was going to do.

The guy at the store he purchased the equipment from talked him out of that, and suggested he just purchased an actual music server. He says the circuitry on the mac isn't built for playing music.

I think the guy's just trying to get him to spend a lot more money.

But my question is, does anyone know of one of the high end (or even a medium end) music server that plays the .m4a format? Especially ones that came from the iTunes music store?

Comments

[notdefined.livejournal.com]

Can we say bullshit? As long as your audio system has optical input, you can get very high quality 6 channel audio from your mac mini. If you only have analog input, then you use the analog audio out on the mac mini. In addition, with airport express, you can simultaneously ship the tunes around your house to powered speakers or anything that will accept analog, digital or optical digital input. I seem to recall somewhere that there was a piece of software available somewhere that would allow you to control iTunes from a web browser elsewhere on your local network.

AFAIK

[henare.livejournal.com]

there are *no* music servers that support .m4a files--this is the whole reason the french government passed the law they passed last week.

the answer to the question "is the salesguy full of shit?" is both yes and no--macintosh computers aren't audiophile devices ... but neither are music servers. both devices deal in compressed music files--these don't lend themselves to the most faithful music representation.

however, if he's playing mp3 and mp4 files then macintosh is just as good as (and, in many respects, better) than any stand-alone media server. notdefined hits on the highlights.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Basically echoing what everyone else has said.

Bullshit.

Mp3s and M4A files are *highly* compressed, and you'll want to use the optical out on the mini anyway, so it doesn't matter what kind of ground the mini does or does not have.

Also, m4a files are an open format. Anyone can play them, assuming they decide to build-in m4a compatibility. However, the files from iTunes are DRM'd, and *nothing* plays those, save iTunes, and the iPod.

[ursaloco2.livejournal.com]

Unless you burn your iTunes purchases to CDs and then rip and save them as MP3s. :-)

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

then they become re-compressed, and they sound *even worse* than the original, further distancing it from "audiophile" quality (which, of course, it never was in the first place)

[wonderboynj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my point to him to begin with.

Not that he purchases a *lot* from the iTunes music store, but he has a mac now now, and an iPod, so why get into something that's not going to let him use his pre-existing format. Everything he has ripped he's done in the .m4a format.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Yeah...

My set up is this: Desktop with über RAID has all the music (over 106GB of music at the moment, and getting bigger all the time). It also has an Airport card, which talks to the Airport Express module hooked up optically to my stereo. The playlists are shared over the network, so I have my laptop downstairs actually controlling the music that is sent via the desktop to the airport express.

The laptop is basically like a 5lb remote control with a giant screen.

The set-up took about 10 minutes to get going. Plug everything in, make sure itunes is sharing playlists, and configure the Airport Express to ride piggyback on the Wifi network. Simple and easy.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

While a lot of high-end audio has at least minimally believable hype (special coatings on connections, secret number of twists per cable foot, unique assembly using exotic metal blocks), I've never bought any of the hype about music servers. Decompressing and pushing an MP3 out to analog audio is pretty much as standardized a task as I can imagine. I'd be inclined to spend my money on a high-end pre-amp and amp rather than a music server.

Browse the last six to ten months' worth of Audiophile magazine for articles on music servers.

Frankly, I think music servers aren't worth the money, *unless* you really want to drive different music and video to different rooms in the house simultaneously, with multiple remote controls roaming about the house, and/or multiple control panels, one to a room. Those are about the only differences I can think of between some of the dedicated music servers and a Mac + itunes combo.