Heckyman
pfm Member
Anyone care to share impressions?
I used a Mini in 2011, then a MacBook Pro and iPad (with various converters). Later on I found the Raspberry Pi platform better and did various upgrades around the Allo offerings.
Lately I had a much better experience with a (work) 2019 i9 iMac and a Sony smartphone, this led me to consider a new M1 Mac mini with its smartphone like "system on a chip".
First impressions is that the noise floor is simply much lower than anything else I've ever used (never got into high end servers). Improvemens are across the board. It's like computer audio has finally lived up to its promise of off the shelf consumer computer gear sounding better than a compable CD player.
Even the headphone jack straight to amp sounds fantastic. In my system this simple set up has replaced an optimised Pi and a decent DAC. It remains to be seen what a really good DAC might add.
I used a Mini in 2011, then a MacBook Pro and iPad (with various converters). Later on I found the Raspberry Pi platform better and did various upgrades around the Allo offerings.
Lately I had a much better experience with a (work) 2019 i9 iMac and a Sony smartphone, this led me to consider a new M1 Mac mini with its smartphone like "system on a chip".
First impressions is that the noise floor is simply much lower than anything else I've ever used (never got into high end servers). Improvemens are across the board. It's like computer audio has finally lived up to its promise of off the shelf consumer computer gear sounding better than a compable CD player.
Even the headphone jack straight to amp sounds fantastic. In my system this simple set up has replaced an optimised Pi and a decent DAC. It remains to be seen what a really good DAC might add.