ATTENTION Current Mac mini/A+ users: Boot Mavericks from an SD card, load a RAMdisk, dismount your internal SATA drives, and pour a drink for the musicians walking out of your speakers!

[hytechrednek]

I purchased a Sony 40 MB/s card and compared it to the Sony Class 4 card I have (15MB/s). My initial impression is that the faster card is more responsive in use but the sound is better also. Both Sony Cards have polished contacts. Previous to this I had only compared a Sony Class 4 with a Sandisk Class 4 which had matte finish contacts.

 

I should point out the new Sony card is a UHS-1 (up to 40MB/s max and 10 MB/s minimum) The older Sony Class 4 card is (15 MB/s Max and 4 MB/s Minimum).

[alcarp]

I reformatted a Sony 40mb/sec card and attempted a clean install of Mavericks from the HDD - yet again.

 

Same result - the install took well over an hour and boot time is something like 8 minutes.

 

This exercise has been a huge waste of time, for me at least. And I'm not sure if I could pick the difference in sound quality, blind.

 

In hindsight, running an OS from an SD card is a ludicrous idea.

[hytechrednek]

I reformatted a Sony 40mb/sec card and attempted a clean install of Mavericks from the HDD - yet again.

 

Same result - the install took well over an hour and boot time is something like 8 minutes.

 

This exercise has been a huge waste of time, for me at least. And I'm not sure if I could pick the difference in sound quality, blind.

 

In hindsight, running an OS from an SD card is a ludicrous idea.

Sorry to hear it did not work out for you. There must be something unique about your setup. Boot time on Mavericks from the SD card is about 45 seconds on the 2010 mac mini and works quick enough to control it headless using screen sharing from another computer.

 

Which machine / card reader are you using? Have you looked into the write protect tab issue of placing it in the middle of the slot? Perhaps this is messing with the performance? Just a "SWAG" on my part (Aerospace technical terminology and acronym for Super Scientific Wild A$$ Guess).

[Superdad]

Something weird is going on here. I am traveling, but maybe next weekend I can do some more tests and experiments. I have been running my same Transcend 32GB Class 10 SDHC as a Mavericks boot since I started this thread, and have used it to boot at least five different machines--all in 45 seconds and all with snappy responsiveness both locally and headless.

 

But as I last reported here, I too am having problems with a new SD card (the Sony that hytek recommended). I am pretty sure that cloning method is going to prove to be the culprit. I'll let everyone know if I manage to get to the bottom of it.

 

--Alex

[alcarp]

Sorry to hear it did not work out for you. There must be something unique about your setup. Boot time on Mavericks from the SD card is about 45 seconds on the 2010 mac mini and works quick enough to control it headless using screen sharing from another computer.

 

Which machine / card reader are you using? Have you looked into the write protect tab issue of placing it in the middle of the slot? Perhaps this is messing with the performance? Just a "SWAG" on my part (Aerospace technical terminology and acronym for Super Scientific Wild A$$ Guess).

 

I'm using a mid-2011 Mac mini and the internal card reader on the mac. Tried moving the write protect tab but this made no difference.

 

I did a clean install of Mavericks. Even tried running the CAD optimization script but no luck.

[alsterfan]

Something weird is going on here.

--Alex

That´s true, and it seems to me that different hardware and software could be the reason for the problems.

Apart from that concerning the findings of hytek the improvement of sound quality probably boils down to polished/unpolished contacts, for the time being anyway. Hopefully Alex C. will find out more when he is back.

Regards,

Uwe

[hytechrednek]

That´s true, and it seems to me that different hardware and software could be the reason for the problems.

Apart from that concerning the findings of hytek the improvement of sound quality probably boils down to polished/unpolished contacts, for the time being anyway. Hopefully Alex C. will find out more when he is back.

Regards,

Uwe

 

I agree, polished contacts appears to be the determining factor for SQ.

Performance problems are a mystery at the moment...

[alsterfan]

I agree, polished contacts appears to be the determining factor for SQ.

...but there must be more to explain why in your setup SQ of the Sony UHS-1 card is better than that of Sony class 4.

In 2 days I will get my copy of the Sony UHS-1 card to find out if in my setup it sounds better too.

 

Regards,

Uwe

[hytechrednek]

...but there must be more to explain why in your setup SQ of the Sony UHS-1 card is better than that of Sony class 4.

In 2 days I will get my copy of the Sony UHS-1 card to find out if in my setup it sounds better too.

 

Regards,

Uwe

 

I went back to the class 4 card for a quick comparison again. The faster card just sounds a bit better to me but the difference is hard to describe. Perhaps a more relaxed and effortless quality. I'll be interested to know if you hear the same difference.

[alsterfan]

Perhaps a more relaxed and effortless quality.

 

After a few hours of comparing the 2 cards my result goes into the same direction. Maybe there is a bit more transparency, probably because of the bass not being as strong as before. Or should I say it is tighter than with the class 4 card? With Jennifer Warnes´ "Way Down Deep" there is not a hint of resonance in my listening room. And that is why I keep the new card.

Apart from that it is a bit more responsive. And as I use WiFi with my La Rosita Streamer it is more stable (a result of the card being quicker?).

Regards,

Uwe

[alsterfan]

And that is why I keep the new card.

Yes I will keep the new card, but I want to add something.

The longer I have made an A/B comparison the less I know which card to prefer. To sum things up: The class 4 card produces a richer and more analogue sound with bass and drums having more of their real size. In contrast the UHS-I card is more analytic, detail-focussed. I would prefer it if I´d mainly listen to music with acoustic guitars.

All in all it is a draw. For me the differences were difficult to find and probably very much depending on the software/hardware you use.

Regards,

Uwe

[Pocobear]

I just read thru this entire thread and no one has mentioned that over 50% of all SD cards are counterfeit, as many professional photographers will attest too. Buy only from authorized dealers! This could account for some of the slowness that you are encountering. Sandisk website, and other major brands also, have sections on how to tell if yours are real or counterfeit. I would not be surprised if some are counterfeited so well that you can't even tell, except by direct comparison. Hope this helps someone.

[Jud]

I just read thru this entire thread and no one has mentioned that over 50% of all SD cards are counterfeit, as many professional photographers will attest too. Buy only from authorized dealers! This could account for some of the slowness that you are encountering. Sandisk website, and other major brands also, have sections on how to tell if yours are real or counterfeit. I would not be surprised if some are counterfeited so well that you can't even tell, except by direct comparison. Hope this helps someone.

 

The number I have read is over 1/3 of SanDisk cards in particular, rather than over half of all cards by any manufacturer. The main issue appears to be counterfeited storage size (e.g., 1 or 2 gig SD cards labeled as much larger) rather than speed or other performance parameters.

[Superdad]

I just read thru this entire thread and no one has mentioned that over 50% of all SD cards are counterfeit, as many professional photographers will attest too. Buy only from authorized dealers! This could account for some of the slowness that you are encountering. Sandisk website, and other major brands also, have sections on how to tell if yours are real or counterfeit. I would not be surprised if some are counterfeited so well that you can't even tell, except by direct comparison. Hope this helps someone.

 

I think 50% is a major exaggeration. Search the web and you will see that virtually all the reports of counterfeit SD cards are for Sandisk branded pieces being sold on eBay. And the problem was worse in the past (2010-11) when 32GB cards were more expensive. I can't find any reports of counterfeit Sony, Toshiba, or Transcend SD cards being sold on Amazon, Newegg, or any other major retail or wholesale distributor.

 

Last week I spent a ton of time doing a fresh install of Mavericks on my new 2012 i7 Mac mini so that I could more carefully document my steps to making a slimmed down and responsive SD boot card. I was forced to do this because during my tests to compare the Sony Class 4 to my trusty Transcend Class 10, I did something that made my Transcend act just like my funky Sony clone--in other words the thing came to a crawl and despite various recline attempts (from my back-ups I could not bring it back to usability). The action that killed it was deleting the cache files with MLCC.

 

I don't have time this morning to document my new and reliable procedure, but what I discovered (and can consistently repeat) is that the CAD launch agent/daemon unload script should be run AFTER cloning your OS X to the SD card, NOT before.

 

It is okay to first do some manual pruning and slimming of your clean "factory" Mavericks install on an HD partition--such as running Monolingual to delete both foreign languages and non-intel architectures, as well as light pruning of some Library files, and deletion of large apps and utilities you don't plan on using for your music SD card (you need to boot from a different partition or OS X won't let you delete some of its default apps). All that is in the name of getting the size of what you will clone down to a third or less of your SD card size. I got mine down to 8.5GB.

 

Since my new mini has a 1TB HD (whose partitions I all unmount after SD boot so the drive/interface shuts down), I cut it into 5 partitions. One or two are for future experimentation (Linux, Yosemite, Windoz, whatever), one is left with an absolutely stock Mavericks install (which is good for s/w updates), one is for creation and testing of the manually slimmed OS that will go on the SD card (so it is my clone source).

 

After the manual slimming I run the latest CAD script on the HD and test again. (I discovered that some things I deleted--possibly some apps or some Spotlight-related items--cause my slimmed OS to have runaway consumption of CPU by the "disnoted" and "fontd" processes and one other; That upset me an I almost started all over, but running the CAD script too care of it perfectly!) But cloning the partition to SD after running the CAD script (and CCC will only work to do so if you boot from a stock partition--otherwise it chokes at the end) yields a VERY unresponsive boot disk. Finder takes forever, some apps won't quit without forcing--basically unusable.

Reversing the CAD script on the HD source, then cloning that to SD, and THEN running the CAD script directly on the SD boot is what lead to reliable success (with several SD cards so far).

 

By the way, I finally compared the CAD script unloads and its other tweaks to my Word file where I have been accumulating my own list of optimizations. I was very pleased to find that the CAD script was a super-set of what I had accumulated. I now have only a couple of small additions. Here they are, with comments:

 

Remove Spotlight icon from menu bar:

sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search

 

killall SystemUIServer

 

 

Turn off Spaces:

Defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces -bool false

 

killall Dock

 

 

Turn off Safe Sleep (prevent background copying of RAM contents to boot drive file):

Google about it and you will see that the sleep file is mostly an a vestige of the past, and was meant for laptops.

 

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

 

Actually, the above command is part of the CAD 1.2.2 script, but the below two are not.

 

Delete existing Safe Sleep file (file is at least half the size as your system RAM; so for my 16GB machine that's an 8GB file written!):

sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

 

Keep it from coming back after restart:

sudo ln -s /dev/null /var/vm/sleepimage

 

This last command was a new addition last week. Despite the fact that the "sudo pmset -a hibernate mode 0" is supposed to permanently (for that boot drive) keep the giant, useless sleep image from coming back, it does come back after every reboot--unless you run this last command. It is odd, because I don't think that problem existed with my 10.9.0 version of Mavericks, but since my new up-to-date install on my new machine, it was coming back.

 

Oh well, I guess I gave more detail than I had time for! Let me know if you have questions. Maybe you guys already figured it out, but I feel like discovering that the serious (and worthwhile) unloads of the CAD script need to be done AFTER cloning a basic OS to the SD is pretty important. Maybe those of you who have always had trouble making a usable SD boot will find some success with this method.

 

Doing the new install also brought back function of internet sharing for me (BlueJeans/Belden Cat6a mini-to-mini requires that my desktop machine then share its Thunderbolt>Ethernet adapter net connection for my music mini to be able to look up track names or stream radio). That was a nice reward for my many lost hours!

 

BTW, I have a Toshiba Exceria (Amazon.com: Toshiba 32GB Exceria SDHC Type 2 Class 10 Memory Card (SD-H32GR7WA6): Computers & Accessories) arriving today. It will be interesting to see if one of these super fast SD cards sounds better or worse (the Mac's SDXC card reader limits write speed, but seems to be able to read at upwards of 65MB/s).

 

I did not like the sound of the Sony Class 4 that hytek liked. A bit flat and irritating in my system. I did a whole bunch of controlled comparisons, including: just booting from the SD and running A+ from the SD with music files on RAM disk; A+ on RAM disk also; OS, A+, and music files on SD. RAM disk was always the clear reference winner, and since with the Sony it was by a larger margin than with the Transcend, that confirmed it for me. Also, since I use my trick direct Ethernet connection to my desktop for my main iTunes library (better SQ than any direct connected FW or TB drive), I also compared the same tracks from the Sony SD to getting them from the shared HD over the Ethernet line. (A+ playlist makes this very easy since wherever you drag the file from is where it will play from.) With the Transcend SD and Ethernet are about equal (with Jumbo frames my Ethernet is actually slightly better), but with the Sony the Ethernet was a lot better.

 

Sure wish I knew what was causing these SQ differences. They are not huge, but they are real. Probably has to do with the particular chips and design of each SD card and how much noise/radiation they put out. RAM of all types is very noisy stuff at high speeds.

 

Regards,

 

Alex C.

[alsterfan]

Thanks Alex for letting us share your findings. I have done all the "sudos" you suggested and I can say it was good to do so with respect to SQ.

Regards,

Uwe

[alcarp]

I'm a novice with the mac. Can I partition the internal HD without affecting the files on the drive currently?

[alsterfan]

I'm a novice with the mac. Can I partition the internal HD without affecting the files on the drive currently?

 

Yes, you can do so.

Regards,

Uwe

[Jud]

I'm a novice with the mac. Can I partition the internal HD without affecting the files on the drive currently?

 

Yes but do *not* format a partition on which you have files you want to retain.

[sonata]

Last week I spent a ton of time doing a fresh install of Mavericks on my new 2012 i7 Mac mini so that I could more carefully document my steps to making a slimmed down and responsive SD boot card .... I don't have time this morning to document my new and reliable procedure, but what I discovered (and can consistently repeat) is that the CAD launch agent/daemon unload script should be run AFTER cloning your OS X to the SD card, NOT before.

 

Regards,

Alex C.

 

Hi Superdad,

 

This is the first post I have ever made on a forum - I have until now always been content to read and enjoy - but I was inspired to post after reading through this entire thread over several months and benefitting from it.

I have always loved music, but it has only been in the last year or two that I have put together a half decent sound system. Before becoming aware of computeraudiophile.com, I had purchased a “Hi-Media HD600B” media player. After some time I realised it was really designed as a general media player, more than a serious music player.

This led me to purchase a Late 2012 Mac Mini (2.3GHz Quad core i7). I removed the standard 4G RAM and replaced it with 16G of Crucial RAM. I then purchased a 64G Sandisk, Class 10, 30 Mbps, SDXC Card (currently AU$53 in Oz). Ideally I would like a 256G card, but they are very expensive (I could get a 128G micro card for AU$140). And Sony and Transcend are dearer still.

Following your lead Superdad - I did a fresh install of Maverick 10.9.3 to a 120G partition of the Mac Mini HDD, and copied all my music files to the remaining 880G partition. I deleted unwanted apps to reduce the size of the Mavericks partition to 13Gb. I then ran the CAD 1.2.2 Optimisation Script. This has resulted in about 350 threads and 79 processes running. I intend to implement the couple of additional optimisations you mentioned in Post #414.

The Mavericks partition I imaged to file on my iMac via Thunderbolt Target Disk mode using CCC, then imaged the SD Card from this. My music files I copied from the second HDD partition to the SD Card, leaving 17G free. I may be over-filling the SD Card, but I want as much of my music collection as possible on it. Maybe others can advise me on the amount of free space I should leave. Presently it takes 71 seconds to boot to the desktop - a bit slower than others have reported - but I can live with that. And in use Mavericks is running at an acceptable speed.

A couple of times the SD Card became corrupted, and could not be repaired with Disk Utility. So I had to repeat the above cloning process, which does take some time. I had been using my TV via HDMI for control of the Mac Mini, and suspected that the interaction between these 2 at startup and shut down was possibly causing the corruption. So I have, like you, commenced controlling the Mac Mini with an iPad running VNC. I believe this has solved the problem of corruption. The SD Card did become un-bootable one more time, but Disk Utility quickly fixed it.

At one time after re-cloning the SD Card, I encountered what others have experienced - Mavericks slowing to a crawl. I happened to stumble on what you have discovered - I simply ran the CAD Reset script, then immediately ran the CAD Optimisation script - and that solved it for me.

I have tried playing the music files from RAM Disk, and agree it is the best. But for convenience I run them from the SD Card. I am unsure whether for me there is an difference between running Audirvana from RAM Disk or the SD Card. Currently I am using a modified script (gleaned from here) to eject the HDD, create a RAM Disk and copy Audirvana to it.

Like others here, I have been amazed at the resulting SQ - truly wonderful. One additional change I did make to my sound system, was fitting Herbie’s Isolation Feet to my floor-standing speakers, and to my amplifier, DAC and Mac Mini - surprisingly they made a noticeable imrovement.

 

I am now eagerly awaiting Damien’s imminent release of Audirvana 2. This software (I am currently using V1.5.12) was another big factor in improving SQ on my system.

 

I must express a big thanks to Superdad and all the others here who have contributed to a great end result for me.

 

Regards from ‘Down Under’,

Rob

[Superdad]

Hi Rob:

What a great first post to end your "lurker" status with! Nice report and I am glad you have achieved such good results.

 

To be clear about one thing: I don't VNC with an iPad (though I can); rather I control the headless "music" mini from the one on my desktop via Screen Sharing (actually I use Remote Management, but I've never found any resource or function difference). And except for when I load tracks into a 2GB RAM disk, I use A+ playlist mode and get the tracks from the hard drive I share from my desktop. That way the only physical connections to the music mini are USB DAC, Ethernet cable, and linear power supply.

 

Thanks for calling my attention to Herbie's isolation items. I currently have four Black Diamond Racing Mk.IV cones stuck to the corners of the mini (the angles aluminum corners of the case) with blu-tack, and a heavy stone on top.

 

I meant to mention about boot times: My Transcend SD used to boot in about 45-50 seconds, but I am beginning to suspect that these SD cards "wear" a bit (even read something to the effect on some computer tech site), as my new, very clean and responsive install on the same card now takes about 70 seconds or so, same as you. But in actual use it is quite snappy (the 16GB of RAM helps that).

 

The 32GB Toshiba Exceria arrived this afternoon, but with my current schedule I don't think I'll be able to try it until Sunday. I'll let everyone know if there are any surprises.

 

Oh, you mentioned A+ loaded onto RAM disk. I used to not like the sound of that, but the recent advances in my system (the new i7 and our Mac mini linear fan controller--kits shipping by the end of next week! $135) are allowing me to hear all sorts of amazing things. I spent this evening with HQ Player for the first time--trying all the filters, some are wonderful and beat the heck out of iZotope, though I am not happy with HQ Player being stuck with CoreAudio, it is easy to hear how A+ manages to bypass more of it. Next up is getting Miska's Linux/NAA working on the mini so I just run HQ Player at my desk.

 

So much fun it is a wonder I ever get any work done!

[Le Concombre Masqué]

Something weird is going on here. I am traveling, but maybe next weekend I can do some more tests and experiments. I have been running my same Transcend 32GB Class 10 SDHC as a Mavericks boot since I started this thread, and have used it to boot at least five different machines--all in 45 seconds and all with snappy responsiveness both locally and headless.

 

But as I last reported here, I too am having problems with a new SD card (the Sony that hytek recommended). I am pretty sure that cloning method is going to prove to be the culprit. I'll let everyone know if I manage to get to the bottom of it.

 

--Alex

 

I doubt it : i use my sluggish (counterfeit ?) Transcend (same ref as yours) as the source to cc clone to my resurrected Sandisk and boot times are very much in favor of the Sandisk clone

[sonata]

Alex,

 

I actually use 3 methods of control:

- screen share from my iMac

- VNC from iPad

- Logitech KR400 WiFi keyboard (with trackpad) with no visible display (most functions work, including sleep and shutdown, even though designed for Windows, and only costs AU$37)

 

It's good to know my boot times are about standard also. I must have got something right in the whole process.

 

I believe that the CAD script prevents running my own modified script at startup, which means I must manually run it as an app from the dock - not a big hassle though. Have you managed to automate running such a script with the CAD Optimisation?

 

I have chosen not to follow your path with an ethernet connected iMac for the music files. But then I only have a fraction of the files you have accumulated. I seem to recall from your other related thread that you would require a Tera Byte HDD.

 

Thanks again,

Rob

[alcarp]

FWIW ... I followed Superdad's procedure to the T but got nowhere - bootup time is almost 5 minutes and everything takes an eternity to load.

[Jud]

 

I believe that the CAD script prevents running my own modified script at startup, which means I must manually run it as an app from the dock - not a big hassle though. Have you managed to automate running such a script with the CAD Optimisation?

 

Thanks again,

Rob

 

Hi Rob. Somewhere back in the CAD thread - http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/computer-audio-design-osx-audio-optimization-script-18128/ - there's a discussion between me and the CAD folk about what needs to be turned off in the optimization in order to allow the RAMdisk script to run afterward. Sorry that I don't remember off the top of my head, but at least that's where you want to search.

[Superdad]

Hi Rob. Somewhere back in the CAD thread - http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/computer-audio-design-osx-audio-optimization-script-18128/ - there's a discussion between me and the CAD folk about what needs to be turned off in the optimization in order to allow the RAMdisk script to run afterward. Sorry that I don't remember off the top of my head, but at least that's where you want to search.

 

The following command not only allows .dmg images to mount, but I seem to recall it allowing documents to launch their associated applications--rather than requiring one to open the app and then go File>Open for the doc or script. I suspect that is why your script won't auto run. Just like the fact that, at least for me, to run the CAD Reset script, I have to manually launch Terminal and then drag the Reset script into the terminal window. But I think reloading the CoreServices UI Agent with the below command restores normal opening.

 

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.plist