iMac vs. PC Laptop

A few issues on this one, I think I can comment as I have gone both roads...

PC's require more geekery to setup as you need to avoid the dreaded Kmixer, research the forums for more on this, but they obviously have more hardware and software options and can be had cheaply.

I ditched a PC and went to a Mac Mini which is tiny and makes no noise, making it a perfect companion to live in your listening room, but you could also use a NAS storage device or just share your files off your PC via router instead of having it at hand. I use my mac for other things so it is handy to have it in-room.

A laptop typically will have a smaller hard drive, and if you want to store your tunes in uncompressed or lossless formats (which is the only way to go) you might have a hard time finding the drive space if you have quite a few discs. Laptops also in my experience can be noisy, or at least noisier than a Mac mini, and could be distracting as it will be close to you if you interface directly with it.

Also I tried wireless, and even with a great wireless router I still occasionally had dropouts or interference issues, it still isn't 100% reliable like an ethernet cable. I went back to wired, and use a Squeezebox via ethernet cable from the mac mini to access music. Check out the Squeezebox and Sonos units also as they free you from worrying about where the PC is much more than pulling music straight from the computer.

One more thing, if control or a display is in room is an issue, there is a software called Salling Clicker that can control many devices on your PC or mac from a bluetooth PDA, so you have a great interface without a monitor etc. cluttering up your room. May be worth checking out.

Good luck!

I can't speak to the Windows approach to doing this, so I'll confine my comments to Apple based digital server approach. I use a MacBook Pro two ways: 1. As a wireless server via Aiport Express to DAC via fiber optic output; 2. Hooking up the laptop directly to the DAC with fiberoptic cable (Van den HUL). To me, the 2nd way sounds better, but either way you get surprisingly good digital sound. All my music is in Apple Lossless, so it does take up more room as Sbrtoy mentions. If you store most of your music on a separate HD you can just move the music onto your laptop when you want to do more "serious" listening.

Thanks guys.

Bruce1, I am looking at doing something similar to what you are doing, which seems to be a fairly common set up.

My question is really more to do with the capabilities of a PC to do something similar. Is there a PC device similar to the airport express? Can I use Apple Lossless on a PC? Is the storing and accessing of music in lossless files on a PC as easy as it is on a Mac?

Thanks again,

Lawrence.

Hmm...Well for someone who uses PC's for work, it seems pretty straightforward, but if you are a Mac person then it will not be...you can use Apple Lossless through iTunes on PC which is the easiest way, other ways get more convoluted. You can use a media player or Squeezebox much like an Airport except these also give you a screen and remote to control them with unlike an Airport which still depends on the computer for control.

It really is just what you are comfortable with, both can be configured almost identically, however as mentioned you need to bypass Kmixer on PC which was a deal breaker for me. I have heard the new Windows Vista will not have this, but it is not out until year end.

Your best bet is to use PC + Itunes + Apple Lossess + Sqeezebox for a while until the new Windows comes out...

That's what I'm doing now... I'm using USB + External DAC for my main system and Sqeezebox for my second system.