grant - let me explain. this device you talk about for $4000 is a multiroom capable system with 5 different sources with a simple interface. if i had a 3 story house with 5 different systems throughout the house (basement, outside, main floor, and upper floor), how would you come out of this unit to each of the systems? Wired? Wireless? Since it has 5 pairs of rca’s, i’m guessing wired. now you need to run wires all throughout the house. your system becomes much more difficult. plus, my pair of interconnects each cost me over $1000 a meter, so if i need to run a 100ft pair of interconnects, it will be very expensive or i would have to scrimp on quality.

you also reply that the mirage can be your backup. as my initial reply stated, i have 2TB of music, how can the mirage backup 2TB of music onto its 1TB disk? also, you never state how you can add more disks to the mirage to grow your music library.

now the meat of this reply: with a mac mini server as your music repository, i can have many more independent music sources than just 5. how, easy, have an older apple tv with disk (< $100 now) or have a user mac mini at each location (intel based mac minis used for around $300). each apple tv or mac mini would link to the mac mini server and can play any song/album independent of the other apple tv’s/mac minis. I know, i do it now.

another benefit to this is that each zone can be connected using wired or wireless network, not rca cables. now i can take that streaming data and send it thru a system that has been setup for high quality listening or for background listening. the system setup would dictate if you would need an external dac (high quality) or maybe use an internal dac in a receiver.

as for controlling the system, the free iphone/ipad app remote will do that easy. you can even use the free apple white apple remote.

another benefit is that the mac mini server can hold many terabytes of disk storage configured in any way you want: single disk all the way up to multiple raid 5/10 arrays for fault tolerance. you can even use a NAS device if desired. unlimited potential.

PLUS, with this configuration, you get music and video. you can stream ripped movies with 5.1 digital or high definition music (use pure music or amarra). again, the choice is yours since it is open.

the price of all of this would be considerably cheaper than going with your device with all the hard wiring that would be necessary for 5 zones. even if you go with all new mac minis in 5 zones, it would be much cheaper than your option.
Cheers

@rs350z, all good questions. First, remember the Autonomic is a multiroom system. You get independent control over 5 different audio zones with one simple interface. How many independent zones do you cover with your mac setup? And is there a control app for that? As for backup—there are two ways to answer that. First, the Mirage essentially is your backup. You don’t rip directly to the Mirage, so it’s not your only copy. The Mirage is backing up your iTunes or music folder and also your Amazon Cloud content. So in that sense, the cloud becomes another backup. Finally, the Mirage is designed to be integrated into a home control system (Crestron, Control4 URC ...). If all you want is an easy way to distribute music around the house, then I’d recommend Sonos, but if you have or want a larger control system and want to add a comprehensive music device (with better amps and speakers) to that, the Mirage is hard to beat.

this unit doesn’t provide any more than my mac mini setup and actually provides much less. my mac setup uses XLD to rip music, and i use Pure Music to play the music which i have setup to play songs from memory. i hook the mini up to a fantastic sounding DAC with 24/192 async or use coax or toslink, your choice.
in your article, you never mentioned how you back this hard drive up? so if you have a 1TB disk in it now and you fill it up, then what do you do? on my mac, i have 2-2TB disks setup and all my data is backed up every hour. PLUS, i have a 3rd 2TB disk that i take out of my safe and back everything up to that so if the house burns down or my system gets ripped off, i still have my music library and all my other critical files backed up.
what happens if your music server is in a fire or gets ripped off?

@TDJ,  yes, it’s in part the annoyance factor, however, in my house, we have two separate iTunes accounts (me and my wife) and I expect there are lots of people like us. And, like you said about parking fees—just roll it all up.  Also, there are hundreds of other CE devices that offer their app for free. Consumers are conditioned to expect that by now.

On the other hand, a lot of work obviously went into developing this app—it’s a very good one. Programmers don’t work for free.

Good Article…the only thing I’d like to comment on is the iTunes app statement….granted, there are some consumers out there that are completely unaware of the ability to use a single iTunes account for all of the Apple mobile devices….but, for the rest of us with a bit more intelligence, we know that if you are smart enough to use a single account, you would only have to spend $20 once for the app and it could be loaded to all devices on that account….personally, while I get your point, I do not find $20 some big deal in the scheme of things….that said, if I were Autonomics, I would charge a little more money for the unit and allow the client to download the app for free….in the end, the issue isn’t the $20 or even the $100 extra but rather the psychology of it all when it comes to the consumer….it’s like I always say about theme parks, I’d prefer them to just embed a parking fee to my ticket price instead of nickel and diming me to death by charging me another $10 just to park my car….