[prav66]

Hi all,

I'm deliberating getting a Mac mini as my main music server. Right now I am useing my macbook laptop but because of the hassle of having to continuously disconnect it every time I walk out with frequently and reconnect it, etc a dedicated music server is appealing.

However, I am concerned about sound quality. A review in positive-feedback suggested the battery powered macbook laptop sounded better than the mac mini even when the latter was connected to a good power conditioner.

I was wondering if that was the experience anyone in this forum group. Apologies if this has been brought up before, I did not see it when I browsed the listings

Thanks!

[Crimson]

Hi,

I don't have a Mini, but my experience with a Macbook and an iMac (I use Furman power conditioners) is that there are subtle differences when using certain USB dacs (those running in adaptive mode). I haven't been able to notice a difference when using Toslink or fire wire. I am a believer, however, in optimizing computers when used as an audio source, and whereas the iMac is dedicated (and optimized) the Macbook is not.

I think there are a few posters here that have both a Mini and a Macbook (or MBP). Maybe they'll report their observations.

[Bemopti123]

In absolute terms, battery power will give you a more pristine reproduction, but I have an old, MKI MacMini G4 which I use to rip lossless format through Itunes.  It sounds excellent to me but then, I do not have digital front ends that cost upwards to 10K.  I think you will be quite happy with whatever decisions you make.  In order to know what sounds best, you need to have the items in question side to side and even then comparisons will be quite close. 

[sl_1800]

I use a black macbook as my source.  I have not had the chance to directly compare it to a mac mini but may get to soon.  I did compare the macbook to a friends CEC transport and the macbook was the winner by a mile.  He has bought a  mac mini and says the difference was not as great as with my macbook.

[bunnyma357]

I think it will be a marginal difference, chances are that even though the Macbook can run off of batteries, in a Music Server environment you are most likely running it off of a power supply.

I run my Squeezecenter server on an old Powerbook G4 which is on 24/7, and have recently experimented with running iTunes out from my iMac through firewire to a Focusrite 192/24 interface using Pure Vinyl as a player, and the iMac/iTunes/Pure Vinyl sounds better than the powerbook feeding the Squeezebox. Although both of them sound very good and enjoyable - just very subtle differences.

I would think the lack of fan noise and potential monitor/display interference would give the edge to the Mini (assuming it is in the listening room), even with the potential for running off of batteries with the MacBook. I think value-wise, for a pure music server application, the Mini would also win. You'd pay for a lot of stuff you don't need/use with a MBP server.

It would be interesting to hear perceptions from any direct A/B comparisons. 

Jim C