Replacement of Mac mini

[gigatoaster]

Hello there

 

I used to have a Mac mini with my previous hifi system. I gave all to my parents and I moved to Singapore. I bought a Teac AI-503 with KEF R300 and as a source I use a old MacBook Air  13" from 2011 connected via USB.

 

I am waiting for the new Mac mini but we are in October and no announcement on this. So I am considering an equivalent. I'll buy an Panasonic OLED TV very soon so I'd like to know what would you recommend for a Media Center, quiet and similar to the Mac mini?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[gmgraves]

What's the matter with the current "crop" of Mac Minis? The "New" ones (which are just a rumor anyway) will likely be more expensive, especially the rumored Mac Mini "Pro" series that they are launching. I'm guessing about this, but look at the prices for the iMacPro's - over US$5K! So, my guess is not without precedent. I would suspect (to continue my educated guess) that the Mac Mini Pro-line will use the new Intel I9 for the highest end model, and the i7s for the rest. The current Mini with an i7 and 1TB and 8 GB RAM is already $1200, So I suspect that top of the line i9 model will probably top out at about US$1600-$2000.

OTOH, if you're just going to use the Mini as a music server (as opposed to a general purpose computer) the $500 entry level Mini will be more than satisfactory. In fact, I use a 2008 vintage MacBook Pro with a 2.3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, a half-terrabyte solid state hard disk, and 8 Gigs of memory, and it's perfect as a music server feeding my Schiit Yggdrasil. Your Mac air should be just fine as it is (unless you need more music storage). 

[gigatoaster]

Hello

 

Thanks for your message. However it seems you forgot the second part of my message. I used to have a Mac mini 2014 and playing 4K video files was complicated. 

 

That at is why I’m looking at equivalent of Mac mini in size and fanless and powerful enough to play 4K video files. 

[bruny]

If this just for 4K. Then why not get a Apple TV 4K. Couple of hundred dollars or so. And maybe a RPi for Audio. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Many of the Intel Nucs are capable of what you require. 

[gigatoaster]

Great thanks. 

 

Ill look for a NUC, any recommendation of a particular NUC model & hardware configuration in mind?

 

i don’t want an Apple TV because I’ll be using uTorrent to get movies in 4K. 

[John55]

If you use Plex media player with Apple TV the issue of uTorrent’s use of MKV video files is moot. 

[gigatoaster]

In the end, I ordered a Mac mini:

 

 

i might get an Apple TV 4K, too as apparently the mini is not able to display HDR & 23.976 fps. 

 

I’ll use Roon on my setup. Hopefully DSD upsampling will work because on my MBA from 2011, the DAC goes to sleep. 

 

Thanks for your messages. I didn’t want a NUC nor a Rpi because I am in the Apple Golden Jail and don’t want to waste my time in settings but enjoy the music & movies. 

[gigatoaster]

Hello there

 

Just wanted to do a follow-up.

 

I had one big issue with the mini: my external HDD where I store all my music library was disconnecting and then he was not recognized anymore. I didn't have back-ups but I managed to recover the music and bought 2 HDD to make a backup of a backup. The faulty External HDD worked only on USB2.0 on my old 2011 MBA and not in USB3.0 so I spent one day transferring at USB2.0 speed.

 

So I don't know if the culprit is the External HDD or the mini

 

Other than that, it works like a charm, but I'm stuck at DSD256 upsampling, which is fine for me. Apparently, my manufacturer needs to release specific MacOS drivers...or I go to Windows, but then it's pointless to have just bought a mini!