Well, it is no secret that the whole lot of us here in Albuquerque have been making the best of the Tranquility DAC/MAC Mini matchup. Eric and company have been very helpful in a lot of areas and there has been a lot of communication back and forth trying to make the magical combo even better. I've developed the MPC/Mini power cable that really is a boon to the sound of the Mini. During all of this Darrell McCombs and Kevin Burke have been tweaking the 2010 Mini, step by step and improvement by improvement: a little here, a little there. Every time I heard the reference system for all of these mods: the DAC and Essential USB cable, my MPC/Mini power cable and their computer wizardry, the system sounded just a wee 'bit' better. Tonight was an unbelieveable eye, ear and brain opener. We compared the current SOTA of their Mini tweaks with a bone stock Mini that has come in for the full Darrell/Kevin - Dynamic Duo workover. I am almost at a loss for words to try to explain what I heard. I'll try to give it a shot.
Darrell's machine is a 2010 Mini with a SSD, 4 gigs of RAM using Play as an interface and reading from an external HDD that uses the Oxford controller - a controller that has been proven to be the best sounding of what is currently available. The Mini that came in is a stock Mini as purchased also running Play.
Switching from Darrell's Mini to the stock one was like going from a wall to wall, 180 degree soundscape of lush texture and detail out the wazoo to a stark, 2 dimensional image trapped between the speakers. Vocals lost that "they are here" quality and the harmonic series of acoustic instruments became foreshortened with a loss of clarity that makes that "real" thing happen. Dynamics were compressed and the tail of sounds, the release just kind of slammed shut on the stock Mini whereas on the Tweaked Mini the release trailed off into blackness. Listening to the Mini as modded by these two guys was a transcendental experience... really. I'm not kidding. I heard digital come of age tonight. I am happy to have been there. I don't know what else to say.
A few months ago we all thought that it couldn't get much better than a Mini/Tranquility combo. Things have changed. The bar has been raised way, waayyyy up. These guys have opened the MAC Mini up to let the genius behind the Tranquility DAC shine through in spades. To say that I was dumb-struck by the comparison doesn't even begin to tell the tale. What it says is that the Tranquility is even better than we all knew it to be. I can't wait for my Signature. My head will probably explode.
Spellbound in Albuquerque,
Dave
ADDENDA: I read what I posted and Darrell's reply and I need to add MORE to this to set the story straight and get this headed in the right direction. The LAST thing I want to imply is that the MAC Mini is not up to the task of providing the owner with a fully satisfying musical experience. The MAC Mini is THE BEST option for a music server that is out there. We have compared it to several different PC based solutions including one that was built specially as a music server. To compare a PC side by side is to a Mini is like comparing Apples (
) and oranges. The Mini simply kicks the crap out of a purpose built PC as a server. If anyone reading this post has any doubts about whether or not the MAC is the best option available, they should just fold those doubts up into a little oragami goose and just throw it away. You cannot do any better. We've tried. Audiophools are like that.
Darrell McCombs and Kevin Burke are a couple of local vinylheads that were looking for a digital soultion that was easier to deal with than all of the rigamarole that goes into playing a record. I had told them that I was going to a music server as my sole source and they became interested in the concept. That was the genesis of what has transpired since then. They are guys just like all of us that keep tweaking their way to audio nirvana. They both have outstanding systems.
Before Darrel and Kevin started down the road to optimizing the 2010 Mini, the Tranquility DAC, along with the Essential USB cable into a Mini, was simply the best digital audio most of us had ever heard and we've heard a lot. What I am talking about is a musical experience that has the "listen to me" characteristic of the best vinyl rigs, not the "LISTEN TO ME, DAMMIT" kind of over detailed, etched digital that is pervasive throughout the industry. Like any other completely satisfied group of music lovers we immediately began thinking about how to make that stellar combination even better. It is like Eric and company setting out to take the Tranquility to the next level. I started working on some things and Kevin and Darrell on the Mini. First, they tried all of the mods that were readily available on the 'net and then started down the road of operating systems and hardware. The result is mind boggling. Something that we thought couldn't get any better is now simply astonishing.
Here is the bottom line. The Tranquility DAC/Essential USB cable/Mac Mini is the single best option available as a music server. The sound is amazing. Consider the service that Darrell and Kevin can provide as the icing on the cake. Like I said earlier, no one thought that it could get any better before the MAC Mini tweaks, but it did. The design and manufacturing genius behind both the Tranquility and the MAC Mini is astounding. All these guys did is allow ALL of this genius to come shining through.
Brilliant, simply brilliant.
