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MacBook, old receiver, and external hard drives

I'm putting together a 2nd system with an older Denon 635R Receiver, 2 year old MacBook and two 1 Terabyte Hard drives that contain most of my music in a variety of formats (FLAC, SHn, mp3, AIFF).

I realize I need a budget DAC between the MacBook and the receiver (looking at the Schiit Bifrost), but not sure about the best way to access the Hard Drives and manage through the MacBook (without loading all the music on it).

Also, I'm reading other threads about limitations of the USB interface btw all these components, but don't quite understand that.

Finally, would it be easier to load up everthing on to iCloud for ease of access/storage?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
bigasscab

Showing 1 response by mateored

mateored
258 posts
 
Create a new iTunes library on 1 of your external hard drives. Move all of the music into that library (on that drive). Use the second drive as a backup, I guess. I use Audivarna+ on my MacBook and PureMusic on my Mac Mini for playback. Both are excellent. For some reason, Audivarna is glitchy on my Mini, but it works great on my MB.

For the money, the Schiit Bifrost gets fantastic reviews. I've never heard it myself, but that's where I would start if buying a new budget DAC. Asynchronous USB DACs work great, in my opinion.
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