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The new M1 Mac mini

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’m using a 2015 Mac mini for my music server duties. Have been wondering about what to replace it with when it starts to slow up/play up.
Maybe time to jump to an Aurelic, or some “proper hifi server” type thing.
Or
Just go for a newer Mac mini. This would purely be for hifi server duties, no multi tasking duties required.
I’m a Qobuz with Roon user, so maybe a Roon nucleus would be the obvious choice but it’s a fair bit more ££ than a new Mac mini. It will be interesting to hear others views on the new Mac mini.
 
Thinking of buying one but need to confirm it’ll work with my 3x27inch 2560 monitors, looks like I can kludge it using a Displaylink dock/adapter. It will link to a Topping D90 by USB. Doesn’t look like the headphone port is Toslink anymore, last Mini I had had it and my 2015 iMac does.
 
I got a Mac Mini M1 a few weeks ago and I’m really pleased with it. Just silly fast. Haven’t used it for music (apart from with a piano/harpsichord emulator) but I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be fantastic. Right enough, it has a fan, but I can’t see why playing music would ever make it come on.
 
What playback software would you be using on these Macs?
I only ask as I was playing about with an older Mac Mini last year with Audivarna and found it a little clunky to be honest. It sounded ok though.
So half thinking of having another stab at it, particuarly because i ripped 100s of CDs as well.
 
If I get a Mini M1 I plan to try Amarra and Audirvana cos I’ve not used them for a long while, I use ROON at present - NUC ROCK and PC/iPad Apps.
 
What playback software would you be using on these Macs?

I use Spotify or Apple Music for streaming, and Audirvana (with the Remote app) for local playback / Qobuz. I also have HQplayer which is great (with control app) for serious listening, but I haven't set it up yet on the Mini as most of my listening is not serious, lol.

For BBC Sounds, YouTube etc I just use my phone directly.

It all depends how you like to browse / discover music.

..
it has a fan, but I can’t see why playing music would ever make it come on.

The fan runs constantly but it's inaudible. At some point I will try HQplayer upsampling which should test the machine properly ;-)
 
The fan runs constantly but it's inaudible. At some point I will try HQplayer upsampling which should test the machine properly ;-)
I hadn’t realised that the fan is on constantly, not that I’ve held my ear to it or anything, but I’ve never heard it from a meter away. Unlike my fancy iMac which sounds like it is going to take off on occasion.
 
What playback software would you be using on these Macs?
I’m not using mine for music at the moment, but if I was I would go for Roon in conjunction with Qobuz. If I only wanted to play my own rips, J River Media Center. I didn’t like Audirvana. I wouldn’t get evangelical about any of these; they all have free trials, make up your own mind. ITunes itself will suit many people.
 
My new Mini sits very close to me. It's totally silent, and even after running some hungry graphics stuff, it remains cold and quiet.
 
My new Mini sits very close to me. It's totally silent, and even after running some hungry graphics stuff, it remains cold and quiet.
Seriously tempted, just need to work out if my 3 screens will work and I can flip over to one as my main PC, retire my iMac/NUC and just keep a lappy around for the odd occasion I need Win 10 or to go onsite.
 
When sitting at my 2014 iMac I can hear the fan but then my nose is only 10-15cm away from the screen. The noise level is constant and definitely low level. At 2m it is inaudible.
Unlike my various experiences of desktop and laptop computers from MSDOS 3.3 through Windows 10, the noise level doesn"t seem to have increased with time. I have not noticed a slowing down or degradation of performance over the six years either (I wish I could say the same about my Windows laptop).

I run Roon and everything else on the one and only iMac and the dCS Rossini still amazes me :)
 
My Mac Mini M1 is totally silent - totally unaware of a fan being present. Works fine with Roon but i do get the occasional “Object Not Found” message which prevents Roon from opening. Works fine after that. The only other noticeable difference from my previous Intel MBP is it takes longer for Office apps to open.
 
Must be me but all my computers like my washing machines ;-) have got noisier with time. I would like a Mac mini myself though for music server and also to show videos.
 
I only discovered the fan was running because I could feel cold air coming out of the back of the case then if you put your ear to the case, there is indeed a fan. I really wouldn't worry about it ;-)

Audio wouldn't cause the fan to speed up unless you were doing HQplayer upsampling, even then it would depend on the type of filter

The iMac 2019 fan is, in contrast, audible if the room is very quiet.

... don't think computer, think smartphone on steroids...
 
My Mac Mini M1 is totally silent - totally unaware of a fan being present. Works fine with Roon but i do get the occasional “Object Not Found” message which prevents Roon from opening. Works fine after that. The only other noticeable difference from my previous Intel MBP is it takes longer for Office apps to open.

Some / most apps have not been updated for the M1 processor so are running in emulation mode. This might explain the above.

Audirvana and HQPlayer are already M1 native, Spotify on the other hand, isn't yet.
 


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