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.

[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. 

[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. 

[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!