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2012 Mac Mini power supply upgrades

mattski

mattski

pfm Member
Hi,

Has anyone tweaked their recent Mac Mini to use a battery or external PSU? If so, was there a notable improvement and what was done and by who?

Thanks,
Matt
 
AFAIK, we're the only people - apart from Core Audio in the States - who offer a later Mac Mini with external power options. We did it first, natch!

So, although we are bound to say it works, there are some owners out there, or who have had auditions, who might want to chip in.

There was also an article in HiFi World back in 2011, I think, where such a Mac was reviewed feeding Firewire to one of those 'transport agnostic' Weiss DACs - worth looking up.

Having said that, no-one else's opinion much matters re: listening impressions. If you want to borrow one with an external Paul Hynes supply, you're welcome to play with the demonstrator for a week. Why not let the forum know how you get on? Most - but certainly not all - auditionees find it's a usefully a bit more transparent.
 
That could be interesting. The PSU in the one I have affects other components a little, even with an AC regenerator.
 
The quality of power into the device tends not to be significant until you deal with the noise generated by the computer itself.

We had a 12V internal Mac Mini PSU measured at almost 500mV peak ripple.

The Mac demands very tight 12.0V regulation, and linear PSUs and batteries sound a bit different.

If you do nothing else with a Mac by way of other tweaks, changing the PSU gets you at least half way 'there' in one step.
 
mattski said:
That could be interesting. The PSU in the one I have affects other components a little, even with an AC regenerator.
Click to expand...

What connections are there between your MM and other componenets? How far apart are the MM and these other components.

What do you mean by affect? And what are the components?
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

So, the MM was plugged into a PS Audio PPP along with my DAC and active monitors. I noticed that the speaker nearest the MM had a very slight intermittent buzz coming from the tweeter.

Thinking it was the new speakers, I swapped them only to find the other unit also affected when near the MM - tried different cables etc.

I then powered down the MM and sure enough, everything inky black silent again.powered it back up and the slight buzz was back.

I then powered down the MM and plugged it into a separate Isotek mainline and that's tamed it - down to perhaps a very slight 5-10% of what it was in the PPP.

I'm being picky but I figure improvements can't hurt and the thing can be physically noisy in any case so I'll grab an SSD and see what else I can do to it.
 
Is it your speakers picking up the interference or your DAC? What DAC do you have and how is it connected to the MM - USB or s/pdif?
 
FYI I have a mid 2010 Mac Mini right next to my DAC and sitting above two BIG power amps each with 2 off 1.2KVA transformers and with my ear flat against each of the seven drivers in each speaker hear nowt zilch naga zero. I do feed the DAC via the Firewire port and have isolated the the +ve and earth feed on that connection.

Just for info as further investigation may also reduce the OPs interference.

Cheers,

DV
 
I'd say an SSD and fan-less computer, along with a DAC which is properly galvanically isolated will sort you out. I had a noisy SMPS with a laptop, when I used the Antelope Zodiac Gold and Voltikus PSU, I had similar results as you're having with the MM, albeit though both SCM25As. I then got a better computer (SSD fan-less etc, but still uses an SMPS/brick) along with the Resonessence and all is inky, inky black, black.
 
Perhaps some other Mac Mini owners can offer their experiences. It seems unlike Mac stuff to be so "faulty".

My speakers are at the end of 3.5 m of cable so no problems in this respect.
 
I have a 2012 mini sat right next to my dac with no noise issues same if I plug my brand new MBP in.
 
I have a late 2012 Mac Mini with an external SSD mounted directly underneath an Audiolab 8200CDQ in a cabinet. No issues with noise, apart from when Mrs Wobblybob tells me to turn it down.
 
Having said that a battery is a bad idea for the Mac Mini generally, the one exception is the Red Wine Audio Black Lightning, which is designed specifically for it.
 
The ugrade menu on your site looks interesting but I'd only be interested in, say, the Kingrex PSU upgrade and perhaps the SATA filter and case if the latter could be silent. I've already got the software I want and an SSD to go in.

Have you looked into any 1U rack mount cases with removable mount ears?
 
The passive heatsinks we fabricate to replace the fan are designed specifically for the original case, but it's possible to have the PSU-only mod: we're preparing a how-to video for the new website.
 
I'm also thinking of moving from my MBP to an upgraded mac mini. Another option I'm considering is a powermac g5 or early mac pro - can be had from about £130 on gumtree. Has anyone experience of the g5 versus a mini or thoughts on how to upgrade one for best performance?
 
Out of curiosity I have just set up a i3 Dell lap top with a SSD and windows 7 running J River media. I have been surprised to find the SQ is better than from my i5 Macbook pro and Mac pro SSD, work station both running audirvana.
I don't know if this is down to the hardware or the different audio software.
 
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