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Mac Mini Power Supply Upgrade

I’ve thought about it but decided to accept that Audirvana can pass a decent signal on extreme settings and that my dac’s USB is robust enough to deal with what’s left. I did plug the Mini in to a separate socket in an attempt to semi isolate the SMPS.

Logic tells me to accept that or move to dedicated streamer/servers with their attention to music replay (only) and robust power supplies.
 
Not sure I'd bother. I had a Welborne Labs PSU on a 2010 Mac mini back in the day, which if memory serves cost me around £400.

Improved the sound, but transformer hummed like a bugger, especially late at night in an otherwise completely silent system.

These days the Mac is very much a secondary source for me, I'd agree with Alex, IME there's clear daylight between something like a Melco and a Mac no matter how many spoilers and racing slicks you add to the latter.
 
Interesting replies thanks. Was looking the other day at the Naim Unity Core. I'm currently plugging my mini into a CD player via SPDif and using the DAC in that. The Core would allow me to directly plug in with no USB to SPDIF conversion and it has a nice LP Supply. Melco seems like it has more than I need. Thing is any of those solutions and I'd have to re-rip right? I have 1000+ CDs ripped and I really don't fancy doing that again!

Have dabbled with Audirvana but maybe I should revisit that.
 
I have a Teradac on my mini and it did certainly cleaned things up but am now probably moving on to different transports, starting with digione sig and we'll see how that goes. The mini has Amarra (sounds lovely but flakey) then firewire into Weiss and this has remained for a while, it's a good implementation so will compare with digione sig. into spdif??
So in answer, I'd think about mini as a hub (roon?) and explore different transports....
 
It's many years since I ran a Mac Mini as my streamer. I was given the Mac, but it came without a PSU. I did think of an 'audiophile' PSU, but couldn't convince myself it would make any difference, so I just got a standard (non Apple) SMPSU. At the time my system was all Naim. It never sounded that good, and eventually I bought a Linn DS which was a lot better. Having got the Mini I decided to use it as a computer. Plugged it in, fired it up, worked fine, but my system took on a familiar slight edge, even with the Linn DS. Shut down, all ok again, disconnect Mac Mini from PSU, switch on PSU, sound quality goes off. So, my cheap Chinese PSU was spewing out probably RF rubbish that the Naim system was reacting to. So, if you are going to use a Mac Mini, get the proper PSU! I then went on an anti SMPSU crusade, though now my system is not Naim at all, and seems pretty much immune to interference, though I don't have the Mac or PSU anymore.
 
synapse said:
I have a Teradac on my mini and it did certainly cleaned things up but am now probably moving on to different transports, starting with digione sig and we'll see how that goes. The mini has Amarra (sounds lovely but flakey) then firewire into Weiss and this has remained for a while, it's a good implementation so will compare with digione sig. into spdif??
So in answer, I'd think about mini as a hub (roon?) and explore different transports....
Click to expand...

Hmm, the digione looks interesting. I had been looking at similar for awhile. I wonder how the Ciunas would compare to this one. I had also had a look at the Berkeley Alpha but that is huge money.
 
JemHayward said:
It's many years since I ran a Mac Mini as my streamer. I was given the Mac, but it came without a PSU. I did think of an 'audiophile' PSU, but couldn't convince myself it would make any difference, so I just got a standard (non Apple) SMPSU. At the time my system was all Naim. It never sounded that good, and eventually I bought a Linn DS which was a lot better. Having got the Mini I decided to use it as a computer. Plugged it in, fired it up, worked fine, but my system took on a familiar slight edge, even with the Linn DS. Shut down, all ok again, disconnect Mac Mini from PSU, switch on PSU, sound quality goes off. So, my cheap Chinese PSU was spewing out probably RF rubbish that the Naim system was reacting to. So, if you are going to use a Mac Mini, get the proper PSU! I then went on an anti SMPSU crusade, though now my system is not Naim at all, and seems pretty much immune to interference, though I don't have the Mac or PSU anymore.
Click to expand...

Was thinking of a Linn streamer too but those are big money. I really only need something simple so maybe one of the older Linns streamers that just has an spdif and no dac. Lots to consider!
 
When I bought a Melco it could read my AIFF files from an external drive without issue. So no, I don't think you'd need to re-rip – he says blithely, while knowing bugger all about the Naim.

At worst you might have to convert files to a different format, but there are software utilities which can do that for you losslessly without the need to start again from ground zero.

I've heard some of the Naim file/streamer doodads, but only in the type of system which tends not to engage me for very long, so difficult to comment meaningfully on absolute performance.

The first thing I noticed with the Melco compared to the Mac set-up I had was just the lowering of the noise floor. This was very apparent on the hall ambience and audience applause before anyone played a note on the first album I played on it.

The type of noise I'm referring to isn't a constant, rather it's present with, and can modulate the music signal. It tends to manifest as that digital 'glare.' Generally it's only when it's removed you become aware of it.

Ironically it was the Melco which despite being the best file-based replay I'd heard, began to put me off the whole file-based thing. As Gilbert Briggs once sagely said, "the wider you open the window, the more muck blows in..."

These days I still use a Mac, but as noted, it's very much a secondary source (to CD).

Broadly similar set-up to yours, 2012 mini, 8GB of RAM, SSD for the OS, music on an external drive connected via Oyaide FW cable, and Audirvana in 'full on psycho mode' or whatever they call the maximum optimisation setting these days – shuts down a number of potentially noise-generating background processes which used to require fannying about in Terminal.

I use it with an Atlas 4dd fig8 power cable and a Mavros USB cable with the Grun mains adapter designed to dump noise to earth. The combination seems to work very well, the noise floor isn't perhaps quite as low as via the Melco, but it's probably the best sound overall I've had from a Mac mini.

Ironic that I get it sorted a decade down the line just as I lose interest in it...
 
interesting thread.. I use a mini as roon core feeding my nd5xs2 via ethernet. Cant say I've noticed any noise or smps artefacts but worth comparing tracks from usb drive into the streamer with roon version. Incidentally the mac is on the same rack as my hihi and plugged into the same bank of wall sockets, so is there any merit of moving it?, as being networked it can sit anywhere within 5m of my naim.
 
hifi-dog said:
Cant say I've noticed any noise or smps artefacts but worth comparing tracks from usb drive into the streamer with roon version. Incidentally the mac is on the same rack as my hihi and plugged into the same bank of wall sockets, so is there any merit of moving it?, as being networked it can sit anywhere within 5m of my naim.
Click to expand...

Er, no, that's rather the point. You're not really aware of the issue until you hear it dealt with, ie. removed/minimised.

As far as moving the Mac, no, I doubt there would be any benefit, but there's an easy way to find out for sure...
 
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