MacMini as a Music Server
Yes, you can add an off-board DAC (I've heard it with several before spending £20K+ on my Linn Akurate system) but unless you already have it, it's pretty pointless as it still won't match a high cd player or indeed, when combined with something like an M1DAC, even something as mundane as the MF's combined pre amp/dac/streamer CLIC.
As long as you're happy, that's the main thing. Luckily for me, I didn't need to spend £20K+ to get enjoyment from my music. I can now put the remaining £19K+, to other uses, like buying more music, that's what it's about after all, not the kit (something lost on some people).
I think youve missed the point entirly. My post was merely to comment upon anyone calling a MAc Mini a premium product. it isn't. Never was, never will be. It is rubbish as a music server regardless of price of a DAC used with it...it is too bady compromised by using average quality components. As I said, the MF CHIC which is infinitely better, with the benefit of a dac and a preamp, and by the time you bundled in a DAC with the MAC MINi, ta similar price. No one who cares about music would ever use a MAc Mini.
As for your comment about spending £19k on music, I have 25,000 cds....
and a chip on your shoulder the size of Norwich.....
Oh and what's with the sudden influx of new members who only seem to have begun posting to start a fight. Kindly crawl back into whatever hole you came from.
Oh and what's with the sudden influx of new members who only seem to have begun posting to start a fight. Kindly crawl back into whatever hole you came from.
He he, it hasn't gone unnoticed.
Oh and what's with the sudden influx of new members who only seem to have begun posting to start a fight. Kindly crawl back into whatever hole you came from.
Exactly MajorFubar,
how someone can say a netbook, PC, MacMini is no good as a music server when all it is doing is delivering 0's and 1's is totally beyond me. Yes you can argue there are moving parts...hard drives, fans etc that can affect the sound, but I would argue that in 99.9% of cases the average listener will not tell a difference (just the same as I am sure most people won't here the difference between standard mains cables and expensive aftermarket affairs).
As I said in my last post...no wonder so many of the knowledgeable stalwarts have decided to leave this site.
MODS: can you please lock this thread for me now??
Fully agree Jason: good luck with whatever you do, and keep us posted.
What?? BCAE is up with the greats in Oz. Not quite your Melbourne Uni, but up there with Wangaratta TAFE. Need I say more?
No. Really.
Lock the thread for you? Why would or should they?
I broadly agree with you and the Major, mind.
Majorfubar, try buying a decent hifi and you'll be able to tell the difference immediately. It stuns me when people listen to low quality cheap equipment assume they know about decent sound quality. So the one talking trash is you, not just trash but complete and utter boll**ks. As I said, I've tried a Mac Mini with several DACS, and the sound is garbage. I've even tried it with a MBL 1511. Now if you're saying that combination outperforms the DAC connected to a 1521, you have no credibility whatsoever....Now perhaps you can enlighten me as to your experience of owning £8000 DACS and transports and comparing them to a Mac Mini. Until then, your utterly ridiculous view that a mediorce £700 PC can perform to the same standard is completely worthless.
User blocked by Mods - Davrid, multiple acounts are against house rules
Majorfubar, try buying a decent hifi and you'll be able to tell the difference immediately. It stuns me when people listen to low quality cheap equipment assume they know about decent sound quality. So the one talking trash is you, not just trash but complete and utter boll**ks. As I said, I've tried a Mac Mini with several DACS, and the sound is garbage. I've even tried it with a MBL 1511. Now if you're saying that combination outperforms the DAC connected to a 1521, you have no credibility whatsoever....Now perhaps you can enlighten me as to your experience of owning £8000 DACS and transports and comparing them to a Mac Mini. Until then, your utterly ridiculous view that a mediorce £700 PC can perform to the same standard is completely worthless.
The derogatory misinformation you post isn't worth seriously responding to. Also this site is not here for people to join just to make trouble, which is the only reason you seem to have joined. Luckily we don't have to put up with you anymore as you have been banned. Goodbye. It wasn't a pleasure.
[edited by mods - no need for that]
If you take all the emotion and posturing out of this, the question of how a well set up PC (Mac or Windows) compares as a transport against a dedicated streamer is a valid one. And judging by this thread one that many are interested in.
So (yet again) could I ask that WHF runs a feature on it. I'm not naive enough to think it would stop all the bickering, but for those of us with open minds it would be an enlightening comparison. I can't help think that advertising issues have prevented the comparison so far; after all you don't see too many adverts for computers in WHF do you? I'd love to be proved wrong on that one though (and I apologise if I am)
My own experience is that a £1000 PC / DAC (excluding NAS, as the streamer needs this as well) outperforms my CD player, a Meridian 508 that retailed around £2k in its day. In my case it's a Mac Mini / Pure Music / rDac. If I wanted to upgrade do I just go for a better DAC, or turn to a dedicated streamer? It's not an apple vs apple comparison (small a!) as a PC does far more. Mine is dedicated to music though, so focus the test on sound quality.
Alternatively if WHF can't do it does anyone with a streamer fancy a trip down to Plymouth to do the comparison chez moi? Devon cream teas provided!
gotta laugh aintcha.... to those talking about dedicated music streamers etc, wonder if they are aware that they are basically computers running either windows or linux... 
either way, hope the op has good luck with his choice and lets us know how her gets on.
And there was me thinking this thread was dying and I wasn't going to have to step in beyond what other mods have done.
Let's keep it calm, please, boys and girls, or I'll have to lock it.
Majorfubar, you'll be able to tell the difference immediately. It stuns me when people won't listen to quality, but relatively cheap equipment, they don't know about decent sound quality. As I said, I've tried a Mac Mini with several DACS, and the sound is awesome. I've even tried it with a MBL 1511. Now if you're saying that combination outperforms the DAC connected to a 1521, you have hit the nail on the head. Now it's time to think about selling my £8000 DAC and transport after comparing them to a Mac Mini and DAC. Until then, I'll have to make do.
User blocked by Mods - Davrid, multiple acounts are against house rules
I feel your pain. I'd be cheesed off too, if my multi thousand pound system was seen off by a mediocre computer and cheap DAC.
If I were you, I'd be looking to do some damage limitation and sell some of your kit whilst it still has the majority of its value and upgrade to a computer based setup.
I know it's not exactly how it was written, but the sentiment was there, I'm sure of it. 
- Login to post comments
Back to the OP then.
When you have made a choice, let us know how you get on. Always good to know peoples findings.
I would be interested in your findings/experience too.
I run Apple Lossless controlled via lap and net books via Belkin N600 to Apple TV3 and on via optical to AVI ADM9Ts. I had the lap/netbooks and the Belkin so my music system cost £1150 and it sounds sublime.
Apple Lossless - ATV3 - AVI ADM 40 or Marantz CD50SE (modded] - AVI ADM 40
also ATV3 into AVI ADM 9T [my wife's system] and Grado SR80i