The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

mindhead1 said:
Do you have a recommended method for using a Mac Mini in a hifi rack as a music server directly feeding a DAC?
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I did it as one of my many many steamer experiments down the years. Yes usb cable into DAC for music. Ran it headless with a control app on my MacBook for settings and software updates.
 
Joe Mac said:
I did it as one of my many many steamer experiments down the years. Yes usb cable into DAC for music. Ran it headless with a control app on my MacBook for settings and software updates.
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I should have made my question more clear. I’m particularly interested in how you controlled the Mac Mini headless?

Was just with some RDP type solution like Chrome Remote Desktop?
 
Via USB it’ll send whatever your computer is playing and whatever the DAC can handle. 48k would only be limited to HDMI out I believe
 
I don’t think this was a thing when I was on Spotify.

The new releases section on Qobuz feels like an old school listening station at a record store. These are the new releases this week that have our stamp of approval type thing.

Spotify is constantly trying to drive the algorithm.

I have used tidal in years but its curation was clearly not aimed at me and the algorithm wasn’t great.
 
Lee Newman said:
I don’t think this was a thing when I was on Spotify.

The new releases section on Qobuz feels like an old school listening station at a record store. These are the new releases this week that have our stamp of approval type thing.

Spotify is constantly trying to drive the algorithm.

I have used tidal in years but its curation was clearly not aimed at me and the algorithm wasn’t great.
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I've found great success using Tidal's "Suggested new albums" section. Its been the primary way I've discovered great music over the last few years. Every week I go in there and save anything that seems interesting and then go back and listen to them between each Friday which is when this gets refreshed. I find it's done a good job at exposing me to music that fits my taste as well as bringing me music that expands upon my taste.

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mindhead1 said:
I should have made my question more clear. I’m particularly interested in how you controlled the Mac Mini headless?

Was just with some RDP type solution like Chrome Remote Desktop?
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not sure how much a mac mini costs these days, but I built a NUC for a few hundred bucks and put Roon Core on it. then you drop files onto it from your computer via network and control the whole thing via Roon.
 
Ghost said:
I've found great success using Tidal's "Suggested new albums" section. Its been the primary way I've discovered great music over the last few years. Every week I go in there and save anything that seems interesting and then go back and listen to them between each Friday which is when this gets refreshed. I find it's done a good job at exposing me to music that fits my taste as well as bringing me music that expands upon my taste.

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I hear you and I’m sure it is much better than it was. It’s always been a little confusing to me as the beats app was really good before Spotify got good at the algorithm. I really don’t need too much help in that regard though… we have the New Music Friday thread. Between @avecigrec and @jt4527 combined with Qobuz there is more interesting new music than I could ever want. I also have found the my weekly Qobuz playlist on point. However my list is in perpetual lag so like Christmas music was showing up through mid February… (to be fair I do listen to a metric ton of Christmas music between thanksgiving and Epiphany.)
 
MikeH said:
not sure how much a mac mini costs these days, but I built a NUC for a few hundred bucks and put Roon Core on it. then you drop files onto it from your computer via network and control the whole thing via Roon.
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You don’t need a new Mac mini. Once it’s compatible with the music playing software music playback isn’t processor intensive. The one I had was around 2012 and modding it with an ssd and more ram came in similar price to the NUC. The NUC is a mile better roon core given that with ROCK it is essentially an appliance doing solely that. The Mac Mini was a better player. I probably wouldn’t have both in the system though.
 
Joe Mac said:
You don’t need a new Mac mini. Once it’s compatible with the music playing software music playback isn’t processor intensive. The one I had was around 2012 and modding it with an ssd and more ram came in similar price to the NUC. The NUC is a mile better roon core given that with ROCK it is essentially an appliance doing solely that. The Mac Mini was a better player. I probably wouldn’t have both in the system though.
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To expand it I was going roon I’d get the NUC and build it and stick it in a cupboard by the rooter connected with Ethernet. I’d then have a player as a roon endpoint next to the system. You really could quite happily run it with anything from a pi&hat running roopie all the way up to a fancy pants streamer.

If I was using a different library management or streaming service then I’d be very tempted by the Mac Mini, providing it was a used one. At full price I’d save a little more for the entry level eversolo.
 
Lee Newman said:
I don’t think this was a thing when I was on Spotify.

The new releases section on Qobuz feels like an old school listening station at a record store. These are the new releases this week that have our stamp of approval type thing.

Spotify is constantly trying to drive the algorithm.

I have used tidal in years but its curation was clearly not aimed at me and the algorithm wasn’t great.
Click to expand...
Again, i wasnt looking for music suggested by the algorithm. I just want to check if any artists I follow drop a song, ep or album, lets say each friday. Its also good to keep track of new podcast episodes by the ones i have bookmarked.
 
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