Changes in DAC Presentation - Need Advice

As stated by many, a slow subtle change is what you would expect from burn-in or power.  You would also need to turn the unit on and off.  A momentary change, it sounds bright and then it sounds smooth or vice versa can happen once or can happen each time a unit hits temperature.  This usually happens with tube units but in a SS device that is on all the time, it has to be a sudden change in what is being fed to the unit or the unit is defective.  

Power generally doesn't have sudden changes.  One exception might be if your air conditioner is going on or off or some other unit that requires huge power.  This is often accompanied by the lights dimming for a second.  

I would be biased toward some other problem if a Mac Mini wasn't involved.  I have had so many customers have bizarre problems (DAC can't get IP Address, Cut outs, noise, skips in certain tracks, etc...) with Mac Mini's that I am prepared to believe they can and will cause any issue.  

An easy test would be to set up your server on another computer of any sort and see if the problem goes away.  

My MacMini (and all MACs I have had) are awful. I had to buy a cheapo DELL to move my ROON CORE off the Mini. Just too many problems. I do not know how people put up with all the issues I see on Macs. 

Recently ROON had some hiccups for me. I did see 3 software updates from ROON that seemed to have fixed that for me. My music would stop periodically.  So, make sure you have updated all the ROON software to the latest and greatest bits.

When I had the Terminator on loan for a week. On some material I never noticed a difference between it and my “Forever DAC”, the PS Audio DirectStream DAC Sr.
On others, it was night and day. The Denafrips was forward and a tad “shouty” on some tracks where as I stated in my Video, the PS Audio was smoother and more Vinyl like in audio reproduction.

Break is BS IMHO. I’ve never heard ANY difference in sound of any of my electronics or Speakers from initial turn on to several hundred hours later.

Bring it on Bee aches !

@yyzsantabarbara ​​​​, if I'm only using the Mac for the core with no playback issues, wouldn't the separate streamer remove any of the sound quality issues? 

I was also only using my MacMini for CORE. My issue was not sound quality. It was that ROON would have performance issues on the Mac. It would crash, stop playing, the MacMini would update the OS and then not reboot. I had to restore this machine close to a dozen times with a backup OS copy. That was also a PIA to do. Just a piece of crap software.

I am a software developer myself and I get frustrated to no end when I have to use the Mac. I am too old now to deal with stuff like this. I just need a machine that just works all the time. 

BTW - I am one of those heretics that say that by using Fibre Optical wire just before the DAC. It does not matter about the quality of the machine hosting the music server (ROON Core in my case) as long as the machine is located before the FIbre Optic cable. Fibre cannot carry analog noise.