Advice for a 2014 Mac Mini model selection

[Atobit]

Hello everyone,

I just moved to Japan and purchased a pair of B&W CM6S2 and a Teac AI-501.

I'm looking for a Mac Mini as transport. Not sure what configuration is the most suitable to run Audirvana+. The Mac Mini will be dedicated. The audio files will be stored in a NAS.

My initial thought was to get the 2.6GHz Dual Core i5, taking the 16GB memory and 256GB as upgrade.

Or the basic model with 8GB is enough, removing the HD, using an external SSD for OSX.

 

 

Your advice/experience is much appreciated!

 

 

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[Murmelbier]

Think 16gb ram is better.

[Atobit]

Yes for memory more is better.

 

I've understood that some are putting OSX on a SD card and removing the HD from the Mac, I think with an SSD instead of an HD, there is no need to use an SD card for the system, any opinion about that OSX management?

 

 

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[lkypeter]

If I am not mistaken, the 2014 Mac mini memory and storage canon be upgraded with after market as they are soldered in instead of plugins in the previous. Have to decide config at time of purchase. Wonder why apple is making such marketing moves that for whatever merits they might propound, makes the apple after market ecosystem smaller.

[ilia.smirnov]

Actually - 4GB is already enough I have Mac Mini (MC936) as dedicated source - with 4GB + SSD, last Yosemite & Audirvana - as per software everything works fine.

 

BTW - there's a minor issue with fan noise, but it's 2011 models issue, they not as silent as other years models (look in wikipedia for noise level).

[alsterfan]

I'm looking for a Mac Mini as transport.

 

Hi Atobit,

Please have a look here (# 19+27):

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/mac-mini-2012-vs-new-model-dual-vs-quad-cores-23384/

For the time being I use a SD card (32GB Sony 15mb/s) with my Music OS X on it until I am able to compare a MacMini late 2012 Core i5 16 GB RAM to a late 2014 Core i7, 256 GB SSD flash, 16 GB (soldered) RAM.

If afterwards my SD card will still be my best sounding choice I will have a look for a used MacMini late 2012, 2,6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 6MB L3 cache (as opposed to only 4MB in the current model).

Regards,

Uwe

[stevebythebay]

Hello everyone,

I just moved to Japan and purchased a pair of B&W CM6S2 and a Teac AI-501.

I'm looking for a Mac Mini as transport. Not sure what configuration is the most suitable to run Audirvana+. The Mac Mini will be dedicated. The audio files will be stored in a NAS.

My initial thought was to get the 2.6GHz Dual Core i5, taking the 16GB memory and 256GB as upgrade.

Or the basic model with 8GB is enough, removing the HD, using an external SSD for OSX.

 

 

Your advice/experience is much appreciated!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

 

I've been using a Mac Mini late 2014 for over 6 months. It's 2.8ghz, 8GB memory with 256GB SSD. The SSD, especially as it is PCI-E attached to the motherboard is important here it would seem. I also use a Thunderbolt 2 external drive for all the music. Speed of retrieval and movement of songs would appear to be of benefit. I'd used a MacBook Pro from 2011 for some time, and when I replaced it with the Mac Mini there was a noticeable improvement in the quality of sound. However, there may be other factors having to do with Yosemite's device drivers and actual internal chips in the chain that have made the difference. Also, the processor's caching technology is different which again has an impact on just how the system delivers and manages memory. I'm using Amarra so I know it's limited in the amount of music that gets cached in the application. A+ may allow for more caching, especially if its already designed as a 32bit app.

[Atobit]

Thanks everyone for your feedback, I really appreciate.

After further search, the 2012 i7 Quad Core 2.6GHz seems to be the preference for audio application as it is quad core processor. Unfortunately this model is pretty expensive in the used market.

It would be nice to have a face to face comparaison: 2012 i7 vs 2014 i5 to see how perform the two machines with equivalent RAM size and system drive (SSD vs. SSD or SD CARD vs. SSD).

Frankly speaking I have difficulty to accept I've to go backward to get a machine to play audio file, HD or not.

Another important factor are the softwares, for example I assume Audirvana developer consider recent machine when optimizing the code,I have not red anywhere that a quad core was necessary to get good audio.

As mentioned above, recent machine have also faster memory and drive that compensate the missing number of core

As per stevebythebay experience, a recent machine with SSD, 16GB Ram and external thunderbolt musical library drive should do the work...smoothly.

 

 

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[mqioverrue]

well,A+ may allow for more caching, especially if its already designed as a 32bit app.