General purchase advice: Ask your questions/for advice here!

I’ve periodically lived a 100% Apple life at home – with a MacBook, iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. It sometimes makes sense and truly does simplify many things. I moved in this direction following the Windows 8 debacle and instability of early Android phones. However, Apple can be 2x the price for 1/2 the functionality. Apple loves to abandon industry standard connectors and reduce their products to a self-defeating minimum. I don’t think they realize/care about the impact on users. The ecosystem can feel like a blind autocracy or cult. My $$$ MacBook Pro has the notorious butterfly-switch keyboard that is guaranteed to skip and double characters after a year (they’ll replace them for free, but not with better technology). Beware.

I still have that exact machine – set up as dual boot Win 7 and Ubuntu Linux (a very old edition). It was always a nightmare to use per the 1024 x 600 resolution. It still boots up but won’t run many/most webpages today.

I’ve been playing with the Raspberry Pi 4B (newest) – it is very, very, very slow as a desktop system. The Pi 3 is unusable for any video and many webpages. The standard Raspberry OS is a conventional Linux with specialized I/O functionality. If you like adding challenges to your life…

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my wife had good luck with mac in the past but she’s now a windows person (not sure where her old mac is…). I’m absolutely aware how Apple loves to do proprietary devices and I don’t see that changing. Keyboard, mouse and storage is the most I care about. The M1 chip seems to be putting the intel chip to shame. Maybe I’ll just keep doing the phone for music until I found out how work changes use with the phone. I’d rather invest in a laptop then invest in a dap. I’ve been in pc building, dos, windows and electronics since I got out of the service in 92.

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What are you talking about? My Appletalk cables are sitting in the basement, but the IIsi and the Apple Laserwriter IINT are long gone. I still have some firewire stuff. But back in the day, SCSI cables and big chunky SCSI terminators were the norm. Iomega. Syquest. Wham!Net

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I dumped the stock pads on HD800 and HD800S. Dekoni Hybrid and Sheepskin. Sold the HD 800 at Christmas, I liked the Dekonis better,

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Elegia has too much clamp pressure. Clear was not too bad in that respect. Could just be the different pairs, but that’s how mine panned out.

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Lightning cable would be my first thought.

Second thought, Intel and Amd, the ability to build computers with a generic standard. Buying parts from many vendors that work together, install your own os, unix, linux, dos, windows, etc.

When has Apple ever let generic parts be available to build a Mac?

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In the mid 1990s. Look up Kangaroo computers. My first “Mac” was my Atari, with an eeprom Mac rom, the “Magic Sack” System 5 Finder 6.

@TylersEclectic - should this be moved to off topic

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I have no more comments on it. In regards to purchase, if I decide to set up a music server, two directions, mac or intel. Right now, this is low on my needs right now. Never owned a mac, who knows, I’ll have to do some research. Personally would rather do a laptop to put all the blame on a vendor. External storage if I need more space. I’m kind of eh, when it comes to Dell’s and Lenovo’s. I have a Dell for business and it loves to drop the wifi but that goes back to separating personal and business. Since I’m on the Apple wagon lately, that’s the reason why I’d like to give them a try. Been doing intel windows for the last 30 years, guess it’s time to try something new…

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Good luck with the Mac. (That was sincere, not sarcastic, probably).

I’m a lifelong Windows user and my wife is a long time Mac user, and I hate having to use her Mac because everything is in the “wrong” place, which really means I’m too lazy/stubborn to learn the nuances of the Apple ecosystem, because it’s much easier to complain how much I hate it. And of course she does the same every time she has to use my PC. :wink:

So I admire you for getting out of your comfort zone.

BTW, @pennstac, my intro to computing was the venerable BBC Micro, which I don’t think made it to the US. I saved up to get it, and was so excited it had colors, as opposed to the green screens of the Commodore Pets at my school. I got the TOTL model, which had 32KB of RAM. Learned Basic and machine code.

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Perhaps we should start an Off Topic: Old Fart Computer Memories thread (@SenyorC - Las computadoras de los pedos viejos) to talk about this. I think I mentioned somewhere that I started with an abacus. Then Timex-Sinclair, and finally Atari 800. No Tube interface like your Beeb, but we both learned some 6502 assembler apparently.

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I started on a handed down Commodore 64, does that count?

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File server? Why not a straight up NAS and avoid the whole mac/windows debate nonsense?

(Coming from a apple ecosystem guy)

Sorry, late to the discussion. May have missed something.

Newbie!

I used a first generation Apple II in school, my father had a TRS-80, and I had a first generation Commodore VIC 20.

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I’ve yet to hit the nas with roon idea yet. A laptop would provide productivity beyond a nas. I’m guessing I could manage a nas with an ipad (no laptop other than work and trying to keep work equipment for work and separate personal equipment).

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Alright I’m back to create drama.

Just Kidding😂

I’ve been considering, and just recently purchased Airport Express 2nd gen, and I’ve been debating do you think it’s better to buy a streamer(pi2aes/Andover audio) or buy a second airport express and use the airplay for lossless streaming to my dac. Not sure which is a better idea. Would appreciate your thoughts

Ive been pretty impressed with AirPlay, in fact my speakers were having a very poor performance when connected to my pc via 3.5 mm to rca to my Marantz. I started to use AirPlay which basically activates heos and it literally sounds like night and day in comparison.

To the point that I never even knew my speakers had that potential. I later learned AirPlay is different than Bluetooth.

The reason for buying the airport express was I have a second pair of speakers in my living room area with an analog integrated amp which unlike my Marantz has no AirPlay/BT or digital functions even though it to uses the 3.5 to rca doesn’t sound like crap vs PC.

So maybe buy one for my headphone listening?

So it’s $30-40 for the airport Express
$120 Andover Audio
$250 pi2aes

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I got a stellar deal on a Focal Arche a few weeks ago that I was not able to pass on but I have a nagging feeling that I should have purchased the RME ADI 2.

I can not find any comparisons between the two and wanted to know if anyone has had the opportunity to A/B them that can give me some notes on differences to sway me one direction or another.

I like the sound of the Arche but the options that the RME ADI 2 give are very compelling to make a switch. I listen through USB from an ipad and Tidal.

If it makes a difference I am listening with a pair of Focal Clears.

Thanks for any input.

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I remember those BBC Micro’s fondly. Though I wasn’t a power user like you with all those Kilobytes of Ram at your fingertips. :wink:

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I had hours of fun with an old Vic 20 in the late 80’s.

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Whippersnappers!

I came across this photo a couple weeks ago as I was organizing some old albums. Circa July 1982! First person to correctly identify the computer shown may win a fabulous prize :wink:

This was the computer I learned how to program in assembly language, though the relatively tiny 8-bit instruction set was pretty easy to learn. Still a ton of fun, and you’d be surprised how much you can get done with 1K of memory!

I too started on an Apple II, spending hours and hours at the public library either programming or playing simple games. At our high school we had a VAX 11/78x so I think that was programmed using Pascal or Fortran. C64 was next at home, then all the Mac SE machines. I’ve been an Apple user ever since.

Good times! :grin:

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That looks like a ZX81 to me. Made by Sinclair, but I believe sold by Timex in the US