I have just acquired a Mac Mini (Late 2014) to use as a htpc and music server.
I've connected it up via USB to my Amp with integrated DAC (Nad D7050).. and it sounds beautiful, until it completely cuts out for a second or two every now and again. Completely unacceptable..
I figure there are many potential causes (any suggestions of things to try would be most welcome...) but the first thing i looked at was the USB device tree.
It appears (to me at least) this Mac only has 1 USB Bus??? My DAC is sharing the bus with two services - Bluetooth, and the IR receiver.
Now I really would like to use both those things (Bluetooth for keyboard/mouse connected to the mini, and IR receiver for use with an old Apple remote i have).
I've tried the DAC on every one of the 4 USB ports, no change to the device tree
The Hi-Speed and the SuperSpeed bus appear to be the same bus to me (??) - they are both at location "0x0a"
Thoughts on possible resolution:
1. Forget USB and connect the DAC via Mini-Toslink -> Toslink input. How much of a drop in SQ will i hear from USB here? At least the Mini-toslink output on the Mac Mini is guaranteed to be isolated from, well, anything else!
2. Stop using keyboard/mouse/apple remote, turn off bluetooth and IR receiver (if you can, not sure here..) - and control everything through iPad apps, and when need, screen-share. This is a pretty serious compromise for the "htpc" function of the mini, though
Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I'm pulling my hair out here!
For your reference, I've attached screenshots of my USB Device tree..
