I Mac as a music server on a wireless network?

ehoove

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I was given a I Mac and was wondering about it's use as a music server. Being a PC guy any suggestions or info would be helpful. I know that Macs' are very proprietorial, and wondered if you could run other programs to use it as a server, or whether a PC would be better or about the same.

And please no Apple verses PC Wars.
Regards,
Jim
 
There are a number of iMac's over the years - and depending on the year,
that determines which version of the Mac Operating system it can run, an how useful it might be.
The newer ones just look like a mac monitor and have what amounts to a laptop stashed into the screen.

Have you started it up and "booted" it yet?

If so, once it finishes booting, there is a grey bar across the edge of the screen, often on top, called a dock. At the far end is an Apple symbol - if you click it, you should get a drop down menu - click "About This Mac" and it will display a brief summary of your machine. Let us know what it says. You can see what year it is, what version of the OS, how much memory, how big the drive is - all kinds of good stuff!

It will look something like this -
(and if you click the "System Report" button, you can learn even more!)

Sierra-1012GM- 20160908.png
 
I was given a I Mac and was wondering about it's use as a music server. Being a PC guy any suggestions or info would be helpful. I know that Macs' are very proprietorial, and wondered if you could run other programs to use it as a server, or whether a PC would be better or about the same.

And please no Apple verses PC Wars.
Regards,
Jim

Music server should be just that- server. That means no monitor, keyboard or mouse. And kept in some closet so that no noise escapes.

If you are into high-res audio, forget wireless and have real network cables either copper or fibre.
 
I gather this is kind of an experiment to see if you like having your music in digital form on a computer. Lot of folks like that - you can make up playlist just like mixtapes in the old days.
Like an infinite record changer with no wear issues ...

There is similar stuff for the PC - I am not being mac-centric - its just how I built mine.
I wound up doing mine with a Mac Pro (thats like a tower type PC).
I did have a mac mini at one point, but like the Pro/tower better.
I do have it in my office, with a keyboard, mouse and monitor right there.
I have an external case with hard drives, connected by eSATA
(but I have a friend that has the same thing connected by USB)
I rip all my CDs in Apple Lossless format to that hard drive - and can play it locally, or use the Mac Wifi to stream it around the house to other rooms,like to the parlor downstairs with the integrated Jolida tube amp and the Magnepan IIcs and sub.
Or to the other room downstairs with the UREI speakers and the B&K power amps.
Or to the back porch where I have a 3rd wifi receiver that feeds a boombox ...
Or if I stick a wifi receiver in the bedroom, I could stream it there.
I have software on my iPhone that lets me use it as a remote control to pick album, artist, genre, playlist or whatever, from wherever I am sitting.

Of course, direct feed is better than a wifi link ...
and with that great system you have, it could be right there with your amps and maggies ...

Pretty sure the iMac is basically silent ... my mac mini was too ...

The great part about ripping your tracks to a external drive is you can do extensive/regular drive backups so you don't have to worry about drive failures,
and don't have to worry about having to rip all your music again.
Plus, if you decide to get a better/newer mac, you just move the drive to the new machine.
 
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I have a Mac Mini that I run "headless" what I've done is set iTunes to open automatically when I turn on the Mac. Click on the Apple log in upper left hand corner
Click on "System Preferences" > "Users & Groups" > "Login Items" towards the bottom you'll see a + & -, click on the plus and navigate to the iTunes app and add it. This way iTunes will always open when you turn on you Mac.

I can control via "Screen Sharing" using my MacBook Pro or I can access via the "Remote" app which is free on my iPhone, iPad or iPod to do what hjames suggested "use it as a remote control to pick album, artist, genre, playlist or whatever, from wherever I am sitting."
 
Jim it can be your sever and anything you want to listen to on the internet. One thing about Appel you can update the OS for free, I also like the units from around mid 2010- 2013 or up to when they removed the CDP on the side of the unit.

IMG_3343.JPG IMG_3339.JPG
I use Audioengin D2, 24bit WiFi DAC, for it's wifi only as I have a McIntosh D100 for DAC duty.

BTW I have three 27" iMac, a Time Capsule and my mobile devices and they are all networked together in the house.
 
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Music server should be just that- server. That means no monitor, keyboard or mouse. And kept in some closet so that no noise escapes.

If you are into high-res audio, forget wireless and have real network cables either copper or fibre.
Such stringent, archetypal (headless, stuffed away) constraints you suggest for a home computing device to be classified as a "music server" is excessive and quite unnecessary. Nothing wrong with going headless and hidden away, if that’s one’s need or preference…but by no means should it be considered… a requirement.

FWIW, his iMac should be dead quiet relatively.
 
wondered if you could run other programs to use it as a server,
Most certainly.

Keep in mind that it’s not all about the box and/or platform proper as it is about the network friendly player and library management software. There are many choices for your iMac. From free (to just wet your feet) or more advanced solutions like JRiver or Roon.
 
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To the OP I forgot to mention that I have my Mac connected to a DAC (Schiit Modi 2 Uber) withthe DAC feeding my pre-amp.
 
Such stringent, archetypal (headless, stuffed away) constraints you suggest for a home computing device to be classified as a "music server" is excessive and quite unnecessary. Nothing wrong with going headless and hidden away, if that’s one’s need or preference…but by no means should it be considered… a requirement.

FWIW, his iMac should be dead quiet relatively.

Reminiscent of the days when an OpenGL screensaver would bring an NT 3.51 server to its knees.
 
As was mentioned, there are a lot of media players available for the Mac. I typically use iTunes with an app called Bit Perfect but there are audiophile choices all over the place for it. If you want, you can buy Windows and install it on the iMac, as well (though, I don't think it is necessary).

I mainly use a Mac Mini as my server and I like having it hooked up to a monitor since I find it easier to use that way. However, apps like Splashtop Personal make it easy to access from other devices, if I want to access it from a separate room or with the monitor off.
 
Such stringent, archetypal (headless, stuffed away) constraints you suggest for a home computing device to be classified as a "music server" is excessive and quite unnecessary. Nothing wrong with going headless and hidden away, if that’s one’s need or preference…but by no means should it be considered… a requirement.

FWIW, his iMac should be dead quiet relatively.

How much solid state storage you can install in iMac? 1TB? Spinning disk will make noise, as fan will do too. 1TB is only 300 CD in lossless files. Too small space for real media server.
 
How much solid state storage you can install in iMac? 1TB? Spinning disk will make noise, as fan will do too. 1TB is only 300 CD in lossless files. Too small space for real media server.
again, whatever you do, you create an EXTERNAL drive system for your music files.
You use a drive with spare room, plus a matched drive for backups ..
 
Right now I have a 1TB ext drive on my main PC upstairs which has a copy of my music files. (WAV Lossless) I do stream this over my wireless into a Squeezebox to the living room system. The music files on the second hard drive in the tower are played thru a HRT Music Streamer II into my vintage rig (Hard Wired) I was wondering about using the I Mac hard wired into the Main Rig.
Regards,
Jim
 
The I Mac runs OS-X 10.4.11 and is a duo-core processor with 2mb of Ram. thanks for all the comments and thoughts so far.
Regards,
Jim
 
How do I move my music files onto the I-mac? I plug in my Ext hard drive, but the files do not show up??
Thanks,
Jim
 
Sorry, but I am a Mac newby
Thanks,
Jim
 
How do I move my music files onto the I-mac? I plug in my Ext hard drive, but the files do not show up??
Thanks,
Jim
Is it safe to assume that you've used this ext. drive with your Mac before? Or is this a virgin run plugging the drive into the Mac?
 
Seems like I had to use an app called NTSF for Mac by Paragon software when I got my first Mac back in 2010. Not sure you need it with current MacOS, but you are running an old version of OSX, so your drive may be in a format that your computer can't use. I would open Disk Utility to see if you can see the drive and run First Aid, or whatever they call it on that OS, and see if it fixes it. I wouldn't reformat it unless you want to lose the data on it.

There may be better options these days, but I needed the third party app back in 2010.
 
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