[wgscott]

Here is a nice, free, unobtrusive temperature monitor:

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html

This guy writes extremely high-quality software.

[naggots]

I'm a newcomer to computer audio, previously had a Wadia transport and 80gb iPod with WAVs feeding a W4S dac1......

Sold them and bought a John Kenny DAC and the new Mac mini, 2.7 i7, 8gb ram. ....... Had to re rip all my CDs after spending a week trying to transfer itunes from my macbookpro/windowsXP...... So purchased the superdrive...... Re ripped everything in aiff to keep metadata....... So after 10days I now am hearing music properly. I use Bitperfect 2.9 but will try Audirvana.

The sound is better than I've ever had...... Much better....... The wadia combo was great for 2 yrs but this is in a different league.........warm, detailed, airy with deep tight bass..... Not digitally or sharp as before........

I don't notice it running warm at all, no drop outs or clicks yet

[JohnR]

Here is a nice, free, unobtrusive temperature monitor:

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html

This guy writes extremely high-quality software.

Thanks but... I don't need one

[wgscott]

Lucky you.

[JohnR]

Here's someone that reckons that the temperature goes back down after a few days:

http://gigaom.com/apple/is-your-mac-running-hot-with-lion-heres-why/

I have spotlight turned off.
 
Also there's a link to something you can use to manually set the fan speed.

[wgscott]

That's interesting.  Spotlight (when it is turned on) should only take a few hours, but clearly there is more going on, if it takes five days.  (I've heard the new whole disk encryption takes a long time, but as far as I know, I am not doing that.)  Several people have claimed 10.7 needs to break in, which I thought sounded nutty, but maybe there is something to it. 

The bit about the processors automatically slowing or stopping to prevent overheating could easily account for what is going on in terms of sound quality. It would also explain why people using macs with the Sandy Bridge processors appear not to have this issue.

Good find!

[JohnR]

I suppose that's why dedicated devices like the Bryston BDP-1 (and I think I read about some others recently, although I don't recall model numbers) make sense.

[wgscott]

£2.2K   That's almost $2K, using the Apple Store's currency converter.  Takes the fun out of it, too.

[JohnR]

All I'm saying is that there is a reason

[gprro]

Anyone think a 2010 might still be better, considering it runs leopard well? Or stick with the 2011 and figure they will figure it out. The mach2 guys have leopard running on their 11's, but I'm hoping they'll figure a way to tweek lion.  I just bought an '11 but have until fri. to return it...

[wgscott]

I just brought home a 2011 mini from work and compared it to my 2010 mini.

Briefly, the 2011 mini running 10.7.1 works absolutely fine, doesn't run hot, and to my ears sounds identical to my 2010 mini running 10.6.8.  I only compared rebook lossless via iTunes, but the main point was to check to see if there were any obvious deficiencies.  I didn't have time to do an extensive comparison, but it appears to work fine.  If I buy one for myself, I wouldn't bother putting 10.6.8 on it.  (In fact, I created a second partition with the intent of doing just that, and put briefly, I never was able to do it.  Others have reported problems with 10.6.8 on the 2011 mini, so probably this is not a good idea).

[gprro]

Had an email exchange with Eric from db labs, with his minor tweaks he still prefers the '11 with lion. With iTunes having a noticeable improvement, maybe due to running in true 64 bit now. Admitidly though he agrees the mach2 guys using leopard probably works better because they can strip away so much  more back ground code from leopard. Hopefully they can get there with lion as well. So lightly tweaked lion 11 beats a leopard 10, but the fully rewritten 11 running leopard is the best I guess.

[JohnR]

I just brought home a 2011 mini from work and compared it to my 2010 mini.

Briefly, the 2011 mini running 10.7.1 works absolutely fine, doesn't run hot, and to my ears sounds identical to my 2010 mini running 10.6.8.  I only compared rebook lossless via iTunes, but the main point was to check to see if there were any obvious deficiencies.

Interesting to hear. Thanks for the update  Curious that the earlier hardware would have such an issue.

[wgscott]

I didn't "stress-test" it by compiling something that used both processors to the max, for example.  But in the typical low-CPU-demand setting, it seemed perfectly fine for audio.

[jrebman]

So, hate to ask a stupid question, but which are the Sandy Bridge processors?  Are these in the minis?

So much conflicting data on the 2011s, Lion on the 2010s, etc., wish I could find a real definitive answer as to whether the 2011 running PM is indeed better or at least equivalent to the 2010 with PM, though for now I'm betting that my Mach2 2010 with PM is still the best choice (obviously with snow leopard).

-- Jim

[jtwrace]

You could just buy this and be done.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=97823.0

[JohnR]

It's the latest processor from Intel, released this year. The 2011 mini has it, I assume the most recent model iMac and powerbooks do too.

[jrebman]

Jason,

Thanks, but why would I want to take a step back from my 2010 mach2 mini with 8 gb ram?

Thanks, John.

-- Jim

[jtwrace]

Jason,

Thanks, but why would I want to take a step back from my 2010 mach2 mini with 8 gb ram?

Thanks, John.

-- Jim

   Missed that.  Sorry.

[Crimson]

Newer is better. 

Isn't that always the case?