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Advice on best upgrade path for a Mac Mini setup

Hi all,

My beloved PWT transport was shipped out for service last week, so in the mean time I decided to experiment with the Mac Mini which usually resides in my 2nd system. It was no surprise that it doesn't even come close to the PWT, but it sounds OK, and now i'm curious as of what I can achieve with it without spending another $2K.

It's a stock Mac Mini about 2 years old with an SSD drive.
I'm using it to stream TIDAL Hi-Fi.
I have it hooked up to a Schiit Wyrd USB re-generator via a Pangea silver USB 2 cable, which in turn is feeding my DSD via a WireWorld Starlight 7 USB 2 cable.
My thinking was that the Mac-to-Schiit path will be less critical in terms of cables, as it gets regenerated anyway, but I'm open to listen and learn...
That "Wyrd Schiit" re-generator did make quite a noticeable positive impact when I hooked it up in my 2nd system.

My question is - what will be the best bang-for-the-buck upgrades? 

I guess the switching power supply is a weak link so I looked at Mojo Audio stuff and those prices seem unreasonable - they want more for their power supply than what I paid for my PWT (including its superb power supply).
Any other recommended power supply upgrade kits?
I'm good with DIY and can probably do the upgrade myself.

Perhaps go with much better cables? Better isolation? Better re-generator?
What did you guys try that proved to really do the "magic" for similar setups?
Perhaps it is a 'losing battle' and it will never sound nearly as good as my PWT without spending $2K in upgrades?

Thanks for your advice!

Ami

128x128ami
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,316 posts
 
@rbstehno 
Hi and thanks for that detailed history.  The Aries Mini does sound interesting.  My music is on a Western Digital powered external hard drive so I'm not tied to a device with internal drive to hold it.  

The good news now is that Auralic's control app can be downloaded to an iPhone.    

rbstehno - Running the Aries, do you miss the Audirvana software at all? Does the DS Lightning and now Lumin software provide similar functionality with the Aries?  OR are these simply control programs doing nothing to enhance the "bits to music" conversion process? Let me know please.  

Thanks to everyone for their input.
rbstehno
1,473 posts
 
Internal or external are the same in regards to noise in your audio room. You don't want any spinning disk in the same room you listen to music in. Buy either a NAS drive or mount the drive on another computer in another part of your home.
1 thing I should have mentioned is that I designed and implemented a switched Gb network that all routers and devices attach to. Very fast for both audio and video.
as far as the GUI goes, the Lumin and DS Lightning software is light years ahead of the Mac based audio programs. I was using the 1st release of audirvana on the iPad and it was crude but I knew it is a work in progress. I like the DS software better but Lumin sounds better. What's nice I can pick which 1 to use.
With audirvana, I got rid of iTunes and let audirvana control everything which sounded better.


jond's avatar
jond
5,880 posts
 
rbstehno is correct, ideally you want your NAS drive or music server elsewhere, my NAS drive is in my office and I listen in my listening room. And that's interesting info on the Lumin app I may have to check that out. One thing about the Lightning DS app for me at least I thought it sounded better on Ipad then Iphone.  I didn't have an Ipad when I got the Aries originally but I was able to pick up an Ipad Mini for around $200 very cost effective and I just use it as a remote control.
ami's avatar
ami OP
63 posts
 
Thanks for your thoughts everybody.

Other than replacing the Mac with some dedicated streamer, what in your opinion would be the best value upgrade if I want to keep using it?
:-)


ryriken66
47 posts
 
I have a Mac Mini with iTunes and Audiovana. How do you get rid of iTunes and just use the Audivana. Do I just buy the app from the iTunes Store. Thanks for any info or help. I'm using an iPad 2 to play music from its itune app.
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