Mac Mini As A Streaming Source

I will say that digital audio is such a mess and I’m in tech. I’m amazed it works at all. I’d actually like to spend most of my time listening to music and not messing around configuring a device.

Roon has worked well for me for years. It’s pretty easy to set up, the apps keep getting better, it streams from multiple providers and to multiple devices. It’s pretty cool. 

It is funny to hear so many different takes on streaming digital audio.

I don’t expect anyone to tell me what to and everyone has a different opinion on what to do.
I’ve always operated under the assumption that I should improve my amp, preamp, and speakers first in order to achieve large improvements in sound quality.

I have used 3 successive Mac Minis for dedicated music servers. They have been pretty trouble free and easy to operate.

Currently:

Mac Mini M1>iFi Zen Signature V2>Linn Akurate Kontrol>Linn AV5125 Aktiv>Linn Keilidhs

I use Roon, Qobuz, Apple Music and Spotify.

I control Roon through an iPhone, iPad or MacBook Pro. The interface is clean and easy to use.

You will need a keyboard, mouse and monitor to set the Mini up, but then will be able to go headless after you have installed your source preferences.

The ambient noise level in my living/listening room hovers around 28 dB, so any “dirty” computer noise is certainly below my threshold. Roon accesses all of my legacy iTunes library, which is a mix of CD burns, HD tracks downloads, mp3s and more than a few experimental LP>digital transcriptions before I got tired of that process. 
 

The Mini is connected by Ethernet to my router, and all three that I have used have been really reliable.
 

You must understand that all of the opinions in play here exhibit a bias of one sort or another, Apple-haters, NUC-ers, golden ears, etc. 

The streaming part of my set-up cost approximately $600. It takes a little time to disable some of the background programs in the Mini, but it works.

Opinions should be treated "as another way of doing things". This is a forum where we share ideas. I think there is bias, yes. I also think there is bone headed arrogance and rudeness. But in the end, it's like a wise person said once, " You do you, boo." Just enjoy the ride and experiment if it strikes your fancy. Here people share different ways to get music into your life.

“What do people think about the workaround for Roon using HQPlayer which is used in the LinQ?”

@larrykell 

You can buy and download the HQPlayer license ($299) on your Mac Mini. As you may know, Roon can be configured to implement HQPlayer into a Zone. Once you do that, HQPlayer becomes the Audio Engine and Roon is just passing along a stream of bits from your local media files / Streaming services as Qobuz and Tidal. This allows you to enjoy the benefits of HQPlayer amazing SQ and the library management capabilities of Roon at the same time.

I just bought the HQPlayer license recently and I am amazed by the improvement. To my ears, it’s worth the upgrade over Roon audio engine which is pretty decent but HQPlayer is whole another level. 

As far as LinQ goes, only your ears can decide if it’s worth the upgrade over Mac Mini, once you’re ready to audition. That’s the only way to know. If I were in your shoes and owned AQUA DAC, I would wanna audition LinQ at some point. 

If you do decide to try HQPlayer, the Roon community forum is a good resource for setup and configuration. In fact, whenever I need support, I rarely go directly to the HQP site, I go to the Roon forum (https://community.roonlabs.com/)  Many participants use the Mac Mini (or have used it in the past) to run Roon Core, HQPlayer desktop, or both.