Recently got my upgraded 250 connected to a new mac mini music server with the music stored on external hard drive. I am in the process of making sure that I shut down every unnecessary program on the mac mini. I am streaming through ethernet and the sound and responsiveness to the Apple remote on the iPad and itunes has been wonderful. The Devialet is connected to Magico speakers.
I am interested in input about USB-3 cables for the connection of the external hard drive to mac mini and ethernet cables. I currently am using a generic USB 3 and Cat 6 cables.
I do occasionally experience the drop out of a few seconds of music,so I not for sure yet whether that is do to not stripping the mac mini as much as I can or could it also be a cable issue?
Thanks
(05-Oct-2014, 20:06)drdkey Wrote: [ -> ]I do occasionally experience the drop out of a few seconds of music,so I not for sure yet whether that is do to not stripping the mac mini as much as I can or could it also be a cable issue?
I think it's fair to say that choosing between different standard spec digital cables (from very cheap to very expensive) should not make any difference whatsoever with dropouts etc. I refer to cables of the same "standard", and not cables of different standards (USB3 vs USB2etc).
There are many who notice a difference in sound quality, but that's a quite different story to dropouts and data transmission problems.
Assuming you are using normal, standard cables then I strongly suspect your problem is not the cables.
I had problems with USB on my MacMini when streaming anything above 44k, looked like some buffering problem but I never managed to find the problem (tried different USB ports, disabling non-used ports etc etc). Now I use Win7 on my mini and the USB connection is fine..... (same cables !)
Can you tell me more about WIN7 on the mac mini?
(05-Oct-2014, 20:06)drdkey Wrote: [ -> ]Recently got my upgraded 250 connected to a new mac mini music server with the music stored on external hard drive. I am in the process of making sure that I shut down every unnecessary program on the mac mini. I am streaming through ethernet and the sound and responsiveness to the Apple remote on the iPad and itunes has been wonderful. The Devialet is connected to Magico speakers.
I am interested in input about USB-3 cables for the connection of the external hard drive to mac mini and ethernet cables. I currently am using a generic USB 3 and Cat 6 cables.
I do occasionally experience the drop out of a few seconds of music,so I not for sure yet whether that is do to not stripping the mac mini as much as I can or could it also be a cable issue?
Thanks
Ethernet cable between the Computer and Devialet is (I found) very important. I, like some other members here, use Audioquest Diamond Ethernet.
No experience on external disk connection USB cables. Would love to hear opinions.
However, you may watch the thread on Cubox for a quite different experience... No more Windows or Mac for me.
Cheers.
(06-Oct-2014, 07:12)Kunter Wrote: [ -> ] (05-Oct-2014, 20:06)drdkey Wrote: [ -> ]Recently got my upgraded 250 connected to a new mac mini music server with the music stored on external hard drive. I am in the process of making sure that I shut down every unnecessary program on the mac mini. I am streaming through ethernet and the sound and responsiveness to the Apple remote on the iPad and itunes has been wonderful. The Devialet is connected to Magico speakers.
I am interested in input about USB-3 cables for the connection of the external hard drive to mac mini and ethernet cables. I currently am using a generic USB 3 and Cat 6 cables.
I do occasionally experience the drop out of a few seconds of music,so I not for sure yet whether that is do to not stripping the mac mini as much as I can or could it also be a cable issue?
Thanks
Ethernet cable between the Computer and Devialet is (I found) very important. I, like some other members here, use Audioquest Diamond Ethernet.
No experience on external disk connection USB cables. Would love to hear opinions.
However, you may watch the thread on Cubox for a quite different experience... No more Windows or Mac for me.
Cheers.
It sounds like you have the Devialet connected directly to the computer via the ethernet cable? If this is the case, then do you have the computer connected to the network via wifi? Thanks for the suggestion about the cubox
(06-Oct-2014, 13:33)drdkey Wrote: [ -> ]It sounds like you have the Devialet connected directly to the computer via the ethernet cable? If this is the case, then do you have the computer connected to the network via wifi? Thanks for the suggestion about the cubox
Yes...
Even if you use a switch in between and connect mac and Devialet with one ethernet cable each to the switch, high quality ethernet cable makes a lot of difference...
(06-Oct-2014, 13:33)drdkey Wrote: [ -> ]It sounds like you have the Devialet connected directly to the computer via the ethernet cable? If this is the case, then do you have the computer connected to the network via wifi? Thanks for the suggestion about the cubox
You could also install a second network interface card in your PC to accomplish this and don't use WiFi. I did this and used an Intel CT Desktop Adapater (Gigabit), although a more modern Intel Ethernet I210-T1 GbE NIC is on route to me now.