Hi barr
have you had any issues running your mac mini in headless configuration. This is exactly how i want to set mine up when i get it. And just like theophan its great to hear jremote works well.
No issues at all. Initial setup of the Mac Mini needs to be done with a Monitor and keyboard/mouse attached, but after that no need for them. I have Splashtop Streamer installed on the Mac Mini and on my iPad. To boot the Mac Mini I just hit the power button on the back of the Mini, after it boots I can use Splashtop on my iPad to control any functions on the Mini. I have also configured my Mac Mini to automatically startup MC upon boot time and mount my NAS drive with my music (if you have a local HD either in the Mini or attached to it you need not perform the second step).
So once the Mini boots I can use JREMOTE on my iPAD to control JRiver and spin my tunes.
To shutdown the Mini I use Splashtop as well. Note there are other Remote Desktop application other than Splashtop, it just happens to be the one I am using, I have not done an extensive comparison.
And of course you can use it to download and install new versions of JRiver.
Now, that all being said, when intially configuring JRiver and the music library, if there is alot of tagging, editing of cover art, etc that you want to do, I would not do it via my iPad. However for core functions of using the Mac Mini with JRiver and JRemote on a day to day basis (Play songs, shutdown Mac Mini) it works great.
Alternatively if you have a second Mac you can always use screen sharing to login to the Mac Mini.
Some folks have reported a slight performance degradation with headless Mac Minis, I have seen such postings on the Pure Music forum as well as associated workarounds. I decided to use a low cost solution "just in case" I cannot state whether it has made a difference or not (too lazy to test it), and I have not experienced any performance slow down.
Here is the link to the low cost solution if required. It requires a trip to Radio Shack for a resistor, and enables you to make a "dummy dongle".
http://blog.macminicolo.net/post/33839671756/build-a-dummy-dongle-for-a-headless-mac-miniHappy to answer any other questions you might have.
Barr