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mact3333

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  1. Megamonkey, Wise choice!...). http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Very-Shocked-Mac-Mini
  2. Rick, Agreed...my humble system improved greatly when I went from the macbook to the 2010 mac mini...I started a thread on the subject...I was really surprised at the difference...I have had decent CD transports in the past but I dont ever remember hearing music at this level as I now do with the mac mini, itunes, pure music combo.
  3. I was surprised too, but to my ears, there was definitely a noticeable improvement in sound quality with the Mac Mini...I cant comment about the MacBook Pro cause i dont have one of those...but I own a Macbook Air and Macbook and there is a difference between these two and the Mac Mini. Also, many people do feel that the Mac Mini is the best Apple source...some un-named DAC co's say there is a night and day difference also...there is a company modifying Mac Mini's(Mach2Music) and many high end audio co's at CES were using their units for front end, so perhaps it can make a difference.
  4. You are right it doesnt come with a monitor...its interesting because I bought a dvi to hdmi cord waiting for the mac mini to come...to my surprise, the 2010 mac mini only has hdmi out...so I am using a hdmi-hdmi cord directly into my tv which is close by...so now I a using a bluetooth mouse and keyboard and using my 55 inch tv for my monitor...works out great...even better because I can surf the net and download hi rez songs directly into itunes....so i guess I am kinda headless.
  5. OK, I have to admit, I was very skeptical with respect to using a Mac mini versus a Macbook(as i was doing) laptop...I first setup up my Macbook laptop and added pure music a few wks ago...I was modesty impressed with the improvement of adding pure music when compared to itunes alone....btw, I decided not to get a CD player or turntable this time around. I have been reading that the Mac Mini, esp. the 2010 model, is the way to go if you want to stay within the Mac family. Many have said it really opens up the soundstage and gives added detail...to be honest, I really didnt believe them, hence I took my time swapping out my macbook laptop for the mac mini. I have made alot of changes over the past month(literally) so I will grade them with 10 having the biggest/best impact and 1 being unchanged. I started with the Martin Logan CLS I speakers and havent changed this...then went from no name Chinese 50wpc integrated tube amp to Pass Labs X250(250wpc)...I will give this a grade of 8-9(huge difference in everything imagineable)....then I went from older Robert Gradinsky SS preamp to Pass X1 preamp(grade 4, decent improvement)...then I changed my DAC from dB Audio Lab Tranquility to PS Audio DL III(grade 8, but this is skewed as I got a defective unit from dB so I have never heard a properly functioning one)...then swapped out my USB cable from no name brand to Wireworld Starlight(grade 2, maybe 3)...then added MF VLINK asynch USB to SPDIF box(grade 2-3)...and finally I just swapped out my macbook laptop for the 2010 Mac Mini(both had pure music....grade 5). The reason I am giving the grades is this, since there are price points to everything I have done, hopefully I am giving some insight into the "bang for your buck" concept...the caveat being, this is true in my listening room anyway. First thing I did was load up Pink Martini "hey eugene"...first thing I noticed was how much louder the music seemed...but it wasnt actually louder but rather more open...the speakers just disappeared and music become much more transparent ...then I heard fine details in the music that I have never heard...just airy sounding...then I put on Dire Straits "brothers in arms"...now this came across very warm, open, detailed and inviting....music you could just listen to for hrs without fatigue...the soundstage also sounded like it got a few feet wider. I can honestly say, for me in my listening room, upgrading to the Mac Mini made more difference than upgrading my preamp for an additional 2K in cost...bought the Mac Mini with 4Mb RAM and 500GB HD for 600.00 usd on ebay....best 600.00 I have spent in awhile from a music standpoint. Your results may vary.....
  6. Has anyone who has received this unit already tried both the coax and optical out from the VLINK to see if there was any difference????
  7. Chris, Have you compared the VLINK to the Halide yet?...I am curious. Do you think it wouldnt be worthwhile to use the VLINK optical out because some on here have said the same jitter issues would exist unless you used the coax out???...I ask because I have a VLINK on the way and bought a optical cable to use with it. Sometimes I wonder if we all make too big of a deal for cables and DACs and etc...because I swapped my int amp for new higher end amp/preamp and I couldnt believe the sound difference...would be shocked if swapping the cables or even the DAC could make such a change.
  8. Many DAC's I looked at didnt have USB in...but I guess more do have it then I realized...most seem to have digital coax and optical only. I dont think you can go wrong with HRT or Musical Fidelity(VDAC/Vlink) for your budget....you pay abit more, but I would think the MF combo for 450.00 would have the advantage of asynchronous-SPDIF with the theoretical advantage with respect to jitter and clocking if you believe in that voodoo......supposedly, the witch doctors feel that there is lot of inherent jitter issues with laptops and desktops but the Mac mini is supposed to have less. But with mid-fi equipment, it prob wont matter much at all...really we spend way too much time worrying about jitter, clocking and other things we prob couldnt even discern from one product to another if you do the AB randomized taste test. GL.
  9. all DAC's should have RCA out...are you willing to carry your laptop to your receiver?..if not, a decent choice is to get a apple airport express and plug in AE into outlet close to your receiver...AE has an audio jack on it and you can get a cable for 5.00 that is audio jack on one end and optical on other end and then you plug this directly into your DAC...then go RCA out to your receiver....this way your music source doesnt have to be physically connected to your receiver...streams wirelessly. If you go out from laptop directly(ie-physically take it to the receiver) then you will have probs with most DAC's as they dont have USB in...and if they do its not asynchrounous so you worry about jitter issues. One way is to get a DAC like the db Audio Labs Tranquility that has USB in but this is unit is spendy. Another way is to get the Musical Fidelity VLink for 170.00 which uses asynchronous USB-SPDIF out to a DAC(Musical Fidelity VDAC for 300.00) and then back out RCA to your receiver...bet this would sound very good. How come nobody helped me like this 2 wks ago when I was doing my dd!....
  10. there was a time when I tried to hold back from the apple heroin...all my friends used apple and always said how much better it was than pc's...well what put me over the edge was this, I could never even download successfully the latest itunes software...always got some strange error that nobody could help me with...alot of wasted time and effort...the first several times I just bought a new pc...then a yr or so later same problem!. Then I finally caved 5 yrs ago...bought an apple mac mini and no more probs downloading or communicating with my ipods, iphones and itouches. Now I have 3 apple laptops and mac mini and imac and ipad. Moral of the story, there is reason why apple products cost more and it isnt because of the white plastic...just cave and buy the dam apple computer you wont regret it...my only regret is that I didnt do it sooner.... They design apple products like crack, they suck you in and never let you go...thats why they make 7.00 a share. BTW, hope your issue gets resolved....
  11. nevermind......figured it out
  12. think you are right...just listened to itunes using my macbook air and it sounded decent...and even through earbuds I can hear the difference between lossy and lossless files(same song)....can only imagine the difference once I get it hooked up to home audio equipment. kinda sad I have an imac, mac mini, macbook, ibookG4 and macbook air and ipad, 4 ipods, 2 iphones...Apple should give me discounts!.... I am hoping the G4 DAC or analog out is the prob and hope it doesnt alter digital out using USB...otherwise will prob have to pony up for another mac mini to use as dedicated music server.
  13. I am just putting together my computer audiophile system...will start off mid-fi to start. My question is this, I was going to use an old unused laptop ibook G4 as my digital source with itunes thinking there wouldnt be much difference between it and say a Mac Mini(have an extra one of these that is 5 yrs old). I played the same song from my G4 laptop using earbuds and compared to my iphone 4 and couldnt believe the difference...listening to the G4 laptop using itunes sounded like am radio!...lossless and lossy music both...sounded very very muffled and there was no bass. Can the DAC in the iphone be that much better when compared to this older laptop DAC??? I have the Music Fidelity asynch USB-SPDIF on order and have the MF VDAC for now. So main question is this, once I get my asynch USB-SPDIF and DAC set up, will the digital source(G4 laptop) matter much given I am bypassing the internal DAC or will I truly need to update to a Mac Mini???...seems like many on here have had very good results using a Macbook pro. Also, on a side note, I am seriously thinking of returning my MF VDAC and asynch USB-SPDIF(cancelling this order) and just buying the dB audio labs Tranquility DAC and cable...thoughts?...tia.
  14. anyone try the JumiAmp app from itunes app store???...only afew dollars.
  15. thx for reply...wow, tried out that Linn Radio station...just on my apple macbook air speakers(at work hehe) I could hear the difference between the 320kbps and the Pandora 192K service...was very surprised I could hear the difference on the built in speakers from laptop.
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