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I'm sick of my mac laptop and its high and low humors.


I decided to buy something not too expensive to replace the laptop and just dedicated to music.

I'm thinking between a mac mini and an Innuos Zen Mini MK ll 1TB, which I can buy for a reasonable price and replace in a near future with a small loss.

The idea is to clear the process, less failures and, if possible, increase slightly the SQ.


Please, I would like to know your opinion. If you see any others at this price level, let me know.

If your choice is mac mini, which one.

Thanks.
Hi. According to my experience the Innuous is considerably better than the Mac mini in terms of sound quality and convenience. I also like Aurender machines, but they are more expensive.


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(06-Jul-2019, 23:14)ruivilar Wrote: [ -> ]Hi. According to my experience the Innuous is considerably better than the Mac mini in terms of sound quality and convenience. I also like Aurender machines, but they are more expensive.


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Olá Rui,

Thanks a lot for your support.
I´m trying now to find something to replace the laptop, and the Mac mini is already out of the equation.
I´ll take a look at the Aurender and if there´s one affordable considering i pretend to replace it for a better device maybe in a year.
We have more in common than a simple devialet.
Thanks again.
Grande abraço.
(06-Jul-2019, 19:51)BoyScout Wrote: [ -> ]I'm thinking between a mac mini and an Innuos Zen Mini MK ll 1TB, which I can buy for a reasonable price and replace in a near future with a small loss.

The idea is to clear the process, less failures and, if possible, increase slightly the SQ.

Please, I would like to know your opinion. If you see any others at this price level, let me know.

If your choice is mac mini, which one.

As long as the Mac mini is configured to feed the signal and not process the signal at its output, sound quality will not improve with any other solution.  Other glorified canned computer solutions like the Innuos can be more convenient to setup and use and perhaps look more elegant in form and function but for signal integrity and performance the Mac mini is an optimal choice.  As for which one, any will do but care should be taken when configuring it for the dedicated role of a music medium.
Sorry to contradict the above but the Mac mini is not a Great streamer. You can put an ssd in it, a new power supply and so on, but then still you will be better of with a dedicated streamer for the same price. You will find this conclusion on many online fora and I believe John Darko reviewed in the past Some cheaper alternatives to the Mac mini... Good luck and have fun.
Mac mini's are quite overpriced nowadays. I have one but if i were to need to replace it I'd go dedicated streamer. The price difference isn't that large anymore.
I switched a few months ago from Mac Mini to Aurender N100H with an internal 4 TB HDD. Fantastic system, Never ever regretted the switch!
(10-Jul-2019, 09:42)Stino Wrote: [ -> ]Sorry to contradict the above but the Mac mini is not a Great streamer. You can put an ssd in it, a new power supply and so on, but then still you will be better of with a dedicated streamer for the same price. You will find this conclusion on many online fora and I believe John Darko reviewed in the past Some cheaper alternatives to the Mac mini... Good luck and have fun.

Wrong.  The Mac mini is a fantastic streamer and it cannot be bettered.  Modding it with SSDs and different power supplies make no difference whatsoever to signal integrity.  I can show you objective measurements that prove this, can you to the contrary?  Where people go wrong is in how they configure it and how they use it which done incorrectly can make the Mac mini underperform.  However, there is nothing inherent about the hardware that is faulty or inferior to any other streamer.

The people that spread the mistruths about the Mac mini are the same people that BELIEVE upgraded power cords and power conditioners and voltage regulators and so forth are better than using stock equipment.  These people take leaps of faith and pawn it off to others that they can hear the difference, which is all bunk.  If people want to invest in other solutions that is perfectly fine and I can see the value in doing so.  But spreading mistruths that it's going to sound better just for having done so is grossly misleading.  Observing and sharing the science in audio is is far more valuable and rewarding than learning and spreading the faith in audio.
(10-Jul-2019, 11:04)Pim Wrote: [ -> ]Mac mini's are quite overpriced nowadays. I have one but if i were to need to replace it I'd go dedicated streamer. The price difference isn't that large anymore.

Indeed, they have skyrocketed and I agree with you but if you live in an Apple centric ecosystem you may have to consider the impact to that as well.
(11-Jul-2019, 00:35)RebelMan Wrote: [ -> ]
(10-Jul-2019, 11:04)Pim Wrote: [ -> ]Mac mini's are quite overpriced nowadays. I have one but if i were to need to replace it I'd go dedicated streamer. The price difference isn't that large anymore.

Indeed, they have skyrocketed and I agree with you but if you live in an Apple centric ecosystem you may have to consider the impact to that as well.

I live in an "Apple centric ecosystem": Mac Mini desktop computer, iPhone, iPads, Apple TV, and I use a Roon Nucleus+ for my server. Absolutely no problems in an Apple ecosystem. I simply connected the Nucleus+ by ethernet and the Mac Mini could see it immediately. I download music purchases to the Mac Mini, open the zip files, and do a drag and drop copy of the files to the SSD in the Nucleus+. I use Roon's iOS app to control streaming and use a browser interface for managing Roon OS updates and other server OS related issues. I previously used an Antipodes DS in exactly the same way. It's 2 years now since I stopped using my Mac Mini as a server and I have had no problems in an Apple centric ecosystem and no regrets about replacing the Mac Mini as a server.

I can't see that there's any impact to consider if you're using Apple gear.
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