Mac Mini vs. Macbook Pro as a server

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Soundhouse,

You talk about the sound of the Mini vs. the servers but don't mention your DAC. You say the Olive sounds better than the Mini but aren't you really saying it sounds better than whatever DAC you are using?

I have developed a battery for my battery powered Mac Mini

Could you talk a little more about the mystery battery and how it is connected since the Mini has a built in supply?

Thanks

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I am borrowing a Audio Research DAC 8. The Yamaha and olive have their own DACS built in however they both have high end Burr Brown DAC Chips like DAC 8 and I will add they sounded better than my modified Mac Mini using using the Audio Research DAC 8. But when I put on the Olive 06HD, then the Aurender S10 and the Yamaha NP 2000 on the AR DAC 8 it is pure magic. All three the Olive the Yamaha and especially the Aurender S10. I found out quickly how bad the Mac Mini was by comparison. I suspect that the week link is the USB interface and the software i.e music player (Pure Music, Amara.) The fact that you can use your Mac Mini to write a term paper and balance your check book and listen to music might also have something to do with the difference in sound quality. I found that the Mac Mini with a music streamer pro is very good, and as good as you will need with the limitations of the Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is not world class. For the price the Mac Mini is not bad but if you are going to spend money on modifying your Mac Mini you would be better suited buying the the middle Olive or the Yamaha NP 2000 and a good DAC outside of USB.

I have developed a 20AH Lithium type battery for the Mac Mini. It is big improvement. I do not wish to market it at this time due to the liability of such batteries.

In the 6Moons reviews this month there is a discussion of the mac mini use as a server. The author pointed out that one of the keys to getting great performance is have lots of memory, say 8GB. So, your Pro should have at least the 8GB to give you a good comparison. Noted is that the processor takes second place in getting great sound. A minus of the Pro is that if has an optical drive which can add jitter to the DAC. So, with your SSD it would be difficult to tell if the larger memory or SSD drive would be better. I don't the 'battery is better' would make that much difference. Software can edge out the battery issue.

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I don't buy the argument that the mac is limited in audio because it does other things. There is no reason for that to be true.

So you compare the mac usb to the others doing spdif or ??? If so your conclusion that the mac is not world class is invalid. A single DAC that might not be optimized for usb compared to other sources with a different interface and cables and you make a definitive conclusion?

Too many variables to conclude much of anything.
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