Headless Macbook for audio with iPad remote

[micksa]

Hi – I'm thinking of repurposing one of my old macbooks – a 2009 black 2.2Ghz core 2 duo, 4gb, 10.7.5 – as a headless music server in our kitchen. Plan is to wire everything up wherever possible: ext drive > Macbook > DAC > amp. I guess I can use Remote on my iPad2 but has anyone ever tried this? What's the best way to set it up? And how much control over iTunes (or other players) do you get before you need to lift the lid?

Cheers!

 

[andy9l]

I'm sure there are better solutions, but I just ran the caffeinate command in Terminal when I used my '09 MBP as a media server. Worked fine for a few weeks before I got a better solution. Means you can close the lid and the MBP will never sleep - I also disabled pretty much all security features on the Mac to prevent auto-log offs etc.

Whilst running that in Terminal, you should have full control over iTunes so long as you leave Terminal running and your Mac doesn't lose internet connection (and you leave iTunes running too!). I used Home Sharing without a problem, which relies on the same conditions as Remote.

I can't guarantee this works with the latest versions of macOS, though.

 

[micksa]

I'm sure there are better solutions, but I just ran the caffeinate command in Terminal when I used my '09 MBP as a media server. Worked fine for a few weeks before I got a better solution. Means you can close the lid and the MBP will never sleep - I also disabled pretty much all security features on the Mac to prevent auto-log offs etc.

Whilst running that in Terminal, you should have full control over iTunes so long as you leave Terminal running and your Mac doesn't lose internet connection (and you leave iTunes running too!). I used Home Sharing without a problem, which relies on the same conditions as Remote.

I can't guarantee this works with the latest versions of macOS, though.

Cheers for the reply Andy, really helpful.

Don't think the Core 2 Duo macs will go beyond Lion, so no danger of using a more recent OS!

So what was the better solution you ended up going with? I had a play with a Cambridge Minx recently and that was superb, but way out of my price range.

 

[andy9l]

Cheers for the reply Andy, really helpful.

Don't think the Core 2 Duo macs will go beyond Lion, so no danger of using a more recent OS!

So what was the better solution you ended up going with? I had a play with a Cambridge Minx recently and that was superb, but way out of my price range.

Ended up with a Synology NAS back then. It was ok.

To be totally honest I now just use Apple Music, Netflix, Amazon and iCloud storage for 99% of my media. I got caught by consumerism, it seems.

 

[micksa]

Nah it's just a sign of the times. I should really just bite the bullet, skip the storage headache and painful iTunes home sharing, and sign up to a streaming service.

The only reason I didn't go with a box like the Minx was cost, and the fact that my iPad can (theoretically) deliver the same content, if only it had space for a large hi-res music collection. The cost/convenience of something like Tidal might actually be a decent compromise.

Lot of fun playing with the laptop but I'm basically trying to shoehorn hi-fi into a lo-fi space. I think I'll leave the hi-res stuff in my listening room & take that trade-off tbh.