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Anyone using a touch screen for PC audio?

I am almost certainly going to by the new Mac mini for use as a music server when it comes out in a week or so. 500 bucks for a mini with like 160 GB? No-brainer vs. a super-expensive music server.
Buuuut.... I do like the fact that with say, an Olive server, you just put the cd in and burn it-- no keyboard/mouse/monitor required!
I will be using the iphone I have with the remote control program for a controller if I go the Mac mini route and I will certainly be using a USB DAC of some kind or other-- haven't decided which.

Now- once you've burned all your CDs to it- you can let your mac mini sit quietly on your audio stand and not touch it.
But, if you wanna burn a new CD or something- you would have to connect a monitor and mouse/keyboard etc.
Sooooooo.. how bout if I just buy a touch screen monitor and leave it connected on my audio stand? Wouldnt that let me open up programs and such to burn more CDs as well as provide a convenient interface other than my iphone if I wanted to use it?
I figure at like 500 bucks for the Mac, 350 for a touch screen and 500 or so for say an MHDT DAC- isnt this a good computer audio solution? Has any smurf done this type of thing?
I suppose the other option is to leave a small monitor connected (not a touch screen) and then use a wireless mouse and keyboard when doing stuff on the Mac.

Thoughts?
abramsmatch
7 responses Add your response
synthfreek's avatar
synthfreek
627 posts
 
Whatever you do you should put $100 towards an external firewire hard drive for backup.
Is your rack near your tv? I just use my widescreen. I love looking at the album artwork using Front Row or iTunes while I'm listening.
puerto
372 posts
 
Synthfreak is right - by all means invest in a back-up hard drive. (firewire). I use the Cavalry 2 TB with firewire - very fast indeed! Also, I use the wireless keyboard and mouse from Mac (iMac). Since my screen is only 20" I have to sit pretty close to the screen in order to see what I am doing but if you use the widescreen as suggested you could probably operate from clear across the room - OR you could invest in a cheap pair of binoculars!!

Your Mini Mac should serve you well.
jmelvin
17 posts
 
I have an HP Touchsmart pc connected wirelessly to my system so it's not sitting on my audio rack but the touchscreen interface is a slick, convenient, nice looking option. Highly recommended.
jb8312
247 posts
 
At $1350, why not just by a labtop? Then you have the screen, keyboard.....

Last week, I purchased a refurbished MacBook for $879 - with the saved funds, I purchased a 1 TB ext HD.

As I am going to use this laptop as a server ONLY, I was find with going "refurbished". So far I have copied about 25% of my music collection..

Finally, the Macbook is a great size, it sits on the top oy my rack and on a Syposium Svelte Shelf with decouplers.

John
jamesw20
270 posts
 
I would love to go this route but can you still utilize rhapsody and internet radio stations, i.e. the great selections, that sonos allows?
synthfreek's avatar
synthfreek
627 posts
 
One other thing to mention is the option to automatically import and eject a cd when it is inserted. This is all under preferences. Using this method I don't even have to look at iTunes. When we sit around watching tv or a movie or whatever(my widescreen is my monitor) I just pick the next cd from my import stack and throw it in. It looks up artist/track info automatically, imports it into iTunes and ejects when complete. Next!
jeff_ss
91 posts
 
If you had a Mac Book in addition to the Mini you could set up Sharing on the Mini and use the Mac Book from your chair to control and see everything on the mini. This is assuming you have a wireless network in your house.
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