I have been looking at the Aries Mini as an alternative to an Airport Express, which has died, to feed wireless music into my dac-amp-speakers. I’ve read around a bit and still have a few questions on how it all works.
1. I currently have my CD collection loaded into iTunes on a Mac Mini. This feeds into my DAC via USB. Can the Aries Mini access these files on my Mac Mini? How?
2. If not, I can put them on an external USB drive and plug that into the Aries Mini. Which files do I drag onto the USB drive from the Mac Mini to make this work?
These are approaches I can achieve with the he kit I already have in the house (plus the Aries Mini of course).
3. A simpler long-term solution may be to fit an SSD inside of the Aries. Auralic recommends Intel, Samsung, Crucial and Plextor. Are there any other reliable makes to consider?
Samsung seem to be widely available. Is there any reason to buy a ‘PRO’ model for this sort of usage? The PRO version seems to be twice the cost of the standard one.
4. From what I can see the Lightning app can control Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz. Can it also control Apple Music or would I just use the Aries as an Airplay device from within the Apple Music app on my iPad?
regards
Kevin
1. I currently have my CD collection loaded into iTunes on a Mac Mini. This feeds into my DAC via USB. Can the Aries Mini access these files on my Mac Mini? How?
2. If not, I can put them on an external USB drive and plug that into the Aries Mini. Which files do I drag onto the USB drive from the Mac Mini to make this work?
These are approaches I can achieve with the he kit I already have in the house (plus the Aries Mini of course).
3. A simpler long-term solution may be to fit an SSD inside of the Aries. Auralic recommends Intel, Samsung, Crucial and Plextor. Are there any other reliable makes to consider?
Samsung seem to be widely available. Is there any reason to buy a ‘PRO’ model for this sort of usage? The PRO version seems to be twice the cost of the standard one.
4. From what I can see the Lightning app can control Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz. Can it also control Apple Music or would I just use the Aries as an Airplay device from within the Apple Music app on my iPad?
regards
Kevin