Apple exasperation!

[joethebus]

I find the whole Apple experience a tad frustrating - I guess largely because I'm not used to my tools having their own rigid ideas of exactly what I should be doing with them and how I should be using them.

But I digress!

I have four Mac Minis in various places hooked up to moderately good DACs/amps/speakers, and I'd quite like to be able to use them to play music saved on my mobile 'phone (including Spotify) when away from the internet when camping, at shows, etc., and also to allow family and friends to play their own music digitally on my machines rather than sticking minijacks into the headphone sockets and amplifying signals optimised for earbuds. These 'phones have USB output and Bluetooth, obviously nowadays, but I can't persuade iTunes or the Mac Minis' 'Finder' thingy either to acknowledge the USBs other than to want to download all the photos on the phones without being asked to do so, and I can't get the Bluetooth systems on any of them to pair.

The Mac Minis will recognise my daughter's iPod, which just pops up in iTunes when plugged in, so why won't they recognise my iPhone 5S or my friend's iPhone 6?

Is it just me that has these difficulties, and are they easily overcome? Or is the railroading and general bolshieness a carefully crafted feature of the Brave New Apple World so many of us have bought into, and will the devices simply not perform what seems to me a perfectly reasonable task?

[struth]

Maybe airplay is answer? most modern apple stuff uses it now I think. crtainly the phones have it.. would have thought the mac mini does too.. apple tv box does too

There is also something called air server which may be of use

[Roy S]

Use one of these to play music via my 5S

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00O8GASEA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Werner Berghofer]

Joe,

The Mac Minis will recognise my daughter's iPod, which just pops up in iTunes when plugged in, so why won't they recognise my iPhone 5S or my friend's iPhone 6?

because iTunes by design allows to be linked to only one iCloud account.

Any why do you have to use four different Mac Minis for music playback? What about just one Mac Mini as a central music server and three or four remote AirPlay destinations (AirPort Express plus a decent DAC plus a connection to active monitors or an amplifier) able to receive wirelessly streamed music? AirPlay destinations are able to wirelessly receive from any Apple device, regardless if operating under Mac OS X (desktop, laptop) or iOS (iPhone, iPad), as well as devices from other manufacturers supporting the AirPlay protocol.

Have a look at my system as an example:
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?11546-Werner%92s-system&p=763801#post763801

Werner.

[r100]

I wouldn't use Bluetooth, rather use Airplay especially if your environment is Apple. If you would like to turn your Mac into an Airplay device (audio receiver), accessible from mobile devices you could maybe use this...

https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

but I'm not quite sure if I understood your issue correctly.

Best

https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/images/screenshots/screen-smac-01.png

[robtweed]

Rather than use Airplay (which re-samples to 16/44.1k Apple Lossless), I use MoodeAudio on a Raspberry Pi and access my iTunes directory (held on a USB drive on a singe networked Mac Mini) as a NAS drive folder. That way I get bit-perfect playback. That having been said, if your music is from CD lossless rips, Airplay re-sampling shouldn't make any difference.

Apple does seem to have some strange ideas about audio output from their devices, and you do seem to have to go out of your way to force bit-perfect digital output from a Mac (either from the TosLink output or USB). Even odder, if you have an Apple TV accessing music via Airplay, the ATV will then re-sample again to 16/48k.

[r100]

In this case, Airplay is used to interface with the Mac. The music itself is on the Mac and goes from the Mac over USB or optical to the DAC and from there to the Amp. The music app as it where is running on the Mac. It should be "bit perfect" (you can set the sampling rates, etc. with an app called "Audio Midi Setup" on your Mac.

I also was under the impression that convenience was a priority in this case and not absolute sound quality. But maybe wrong.

But of course, the Pi solution would be the most elegant and cheapest of all, as it would save you a couple of Macs which then could be used to do other stuff :)

[Werner Berghofer]

Rupert,


I also was under the impression that convenience was a priority in this case and not absolute sound quality. But maybe wrong.

convenience as well as absolute sound quality are the priorities in a wireless Apple AirPlay setup. Really don’t want to open another can of worms, but I’m a strong believer that a bit depth of 16 bit and a sampling rate of 44,100 Hertz are more than sufficient for absolute sound quality playback. In my opinion AirPlay’s often criticized “limitation” to 16/44.1 is yet another not provable HiFi myth.

Werner.

[r100]

1+ I'm a believer :)

[robtweed]

Rupert,
convenience as well as absolute sound quality are the priorities in a wireless Apple AirPlay setup. Really don’t want to open another can of worms, but I’m a strong believer that a bit depth of 16 bit and a sampling rate of 44,100 Hertz are more than sufficient for absolute sound quality playback. In my opinion AirPlay’s often criticized “limitation” to 16/44.1 is yet another not provable HiFi myth.

Werner.

It's not the 16/44 bit rate that concerns me, but the potential side effects of multiple up/down sampling along the chain. Again, possibly negligible, but if I have a 96/24 recording (eg my own recordings in my case) I'd like to know I'm hearing this in its original format...and if that's possible with little or no loss of convenience, then why not?

[Werner Berghofer]

Rob,


It's not the 16/44 bit rate that concerns me, but the potential side effects of multiple up/down sampling along the chain. […]

I see and fully understand your concerns. The basic requirements assumed by me were 16/44.1 lossless rip to ALAC, Audio/MIDI setup according to this bit depth and sampling rate, local playback to a DAC via USB or optical Toslink and remote streaming to Airport Express (but *not* Apple TV). There is no up-/down-sampling in this “bit perfect” signal path, and no additional, non-standard Apple hardware or software is involved. If anything else than 16/44.1 aka Redbook Audio is required, one has to look for different methods.

Werner.