BillyBobSIN

I got one and quite like it as an object: small, functional, quiet, does the job I wanted it to do. I cannot hear it at all, even with my ear right up against the case. My calibrated SPL meter registers no change in ambient noise level in the area of the NUC when next to various points of the case. Loaded it up with 16GB of RAM, 120Gb SuperSSpeed S320 mSATA MLC drive and Win8, using J River, networked to a Buffalo 2TB RAID1 external drive. Can actually be fitted in a jacket pocket. Well two really, you need the other pocket for the power brick. SQ almost certainly limited in my set up by the DAC I'm using, but it seems to sound pretty good to me as well, if not up to the standard of my analogue set up(s). Probably a shopping opportunity for the near future. Caveat: this is my first music server, so my sample size is what one could describe as "small" :-) Maybe I got a "quiet" one and am thus lucky. My 2 cents, YMMV etc, etc. Note to Chris: I'm not suggesting that the one you have is not noisy, just that I appear to have a "quiet/silent enough" one. Thank you for the great site and resource. Cheers, Bill

Ted and One and a Half, thank you for your helpful replies, they are greatly appreciated. Given my lack of geek-ness I am starting to lean toward the Mac Mini path. I no doubt mis-read/mis-interpreted something re DSD on the Mac. Thank you for clarifying for me. thanks again for your help. cheers, Bill

Hi All, I'm completely new to, and somewhat flummoxed by, the whys and wherefores of Computer Audio and have a similar, but subtlety different, question to that posed by dionisio elsewhere: Why would choose a MacMini over say a CAPS2 as a music server? This is absolutely not a trolling question as I honestly have little understanding of the pros and cons (despite lurking here for a about a year doing a lot of reading and trying to understand) of each option. It seems to me that they both cost about the same, might have similar capabilities in terms of audio performance (I use "might" as it seems to be a bit of a religious position as to which "might" be better) and some guidance here would certainly be appreciated. I can design and build some very nicely performing tube gear and can align a turntable set up with precision, but building a PC makes my head spin, but the CAPS2 path appears to offer some functionality (I very much like the idea of DSD music file playback for example) that "might not" be possible with a Mac Mini. Not to mention that steps 3), 5), 6) and 9) in Ted's recent post might as well have been in Swahili from my perspective. :-) And there are definitely parts of Chris' CAPS/CAPS2 articles that soar way over my head from a PC perspective. So in essence, My question is not only "which mac mini?" but "which PC or mac mini and why?" Thank you in advance for any comments you may make. cheers, Bill