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Newest iMac i5 top spec quiet?


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I bought a Mac Mini 6-Core i7 with 16 GB RAM, 1 TB internal SSD to be used as the Roon  core. Additionally, I intended to use it as a general purpose computer for other things. I set it up in my office and connected it via Ethernet to my Devialet Expert 120, which is two floors below. I was curious to see if the fan would go off when running Roon simultaneously with some CPU-intensive graphics software like Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop crunching on some complicated graphs/photos. The fan did go off, but it is so quiet that I first didn‘t realize that it was the fan. Nevertheless, as my Mac Mini and my Devialet are far apart, fan noise is not an issue for me.

What turned out to be an issue, though, was sound quality: streaming music via Mac Mini/Roon/Ethernet to my Devialet wasn‘t so good: the sound was nervous, treble-harsh and there was often an unpleasant ringing associated with high hats and cymbals. It was really unpleasant.

Last week, I had a demo Roon Nucleus from my local dealer for trial, that is basically Ethernet in, USB out to my Devialet. The difference to my Mac Mini was immediately obvious: the unpleasant harshness and ringing was immediately gone! The sound from the Nucleus was neutral, it left nothing out, highs are just as present as bass, and everything is quite well balanced. The Nucleus sounds way better than my Mac Mini setup, and I immediately bought the demo unit!

I also tried Audirvana plus with the Mac Mini. It did sound better than running Roon on my Mac, but Audirvana has a couple of flaws, like often duplicating tracks that cannot be undone, and above all, I find Izotope SRC rather confusing and too complicating!

All in all, I am truly satisfied with the Roon Nucleus!

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15 minutes ago, gryphongryph said:

Biosailor-Thanks for your input, I was thinking about the Nucleus also, just think it is too expensive for what it does ! And I need to update my iMac in not too far future also.

 

You are right, it is too expensive. I think there's no secret that the Nucleus has a NUC i3 running inside the cabinet. However, I just didn't feel like fiddling around with a NUC to get it built into a fanless encolosure, so I took the the route of having a turnkey solution!

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2 hours ago, biosailor said:

I bought a Mac Mini 6-Core i7 with 16 GB RAM, 1 TB internal SSD to be used as the Roon  core. Additionally, I intended to use it as a general purpose computer for other things. I set it up in my office and connected it via Ethernet to my Devialet Expert 120, which is two floors below. I was curious to see if the fan would go off when running Roon simultaneously with some CPU-intensive graphics software like Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop crunching on some complicated graphs/photos. The fan did go off, but it is so quiet that I first didn‘t realize that it was the fan. Nevertheless, as my Mac Mini and my Devialet are far apart, fan noise is not an issue for me.

What turned out to be an issue, though, was sound quality: streaming music via Mac Mini/Roon/Ethernet to my Devialet wasn‘t so good: the sound was nervous, treble-harsh and there was often an unpleasant ringing associated with high hats and cymbals. It was really unpleasant.

Last week, I had a demo Roon Nucleus from my local dealer for trial, that is basically Ethernet in, USB out to my Devialet. The difference to my Mac Mini was immediately obvious: the unpleasant harshness and ringing was immediately gone! The sound from the Nucleus was neutral, it left nothing out, highs are just as present as bass, and everything is quite well balanced. The Nucleus sounds way better than my Mac Mini setup, and I immediately bought the demo unit!

I also tried Audirvana plus with the Mac Mini. It did sound better than running Roon on my Mac, but Audirvana has a couple of flaws, like often duplicating tracks that cannot be undone, and above all, I find Izotope SRC rather confusing and too complicating!

All in all, I am truly satisfied with the Roon Nucleus!

 

This is strange, do you have any idea of why running core on mac mini and Roon Nucleus provide different sound quality?  Would it be the sound processing engine on OSX and linux are different?

 

* I just realize you were comparing mac mini through ethernet to devialet and nucleus through USB to devialet.  This is even more hard to explain *

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5 minutes ago, Uni said:

 

This is strange, do you have any idea of why running core on mac mini and Roon Nucleus provide different sound quality?  Would it be the sound processing engine on OSX and linux are different?

 

* I just realize you were comparing mac mini through ethernet to devialet and nucleus through USB to devialet.  This is even more hard to explain *

I have no explanation other than what's been discussed in various forums, namely that a computer output is noisy and what I hear as perceived brightness from the Mac might very well be spurious signals getting into my Devialet.

 

I do agree, the two setups cannot be compared side by side. Ethernet from my Mac involves AIR transport built into Roon, while Nucleus goes straight USB into the Devialet.

 

The Mac Mini wasn't bad, by no means, but it had a brightness that became fatiguing quite quickly. The Nucleus sounds smooth and neutral.

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I use my 2009 MacBook Pro with usb, can not say that the sound is in any way unlistenable, I listen for many hours at a time, often with Tidal, and it is not fatigueing in any way, but I have not tried in other way, maybe I would gain some by using the Ethernet instead of usb output!

 

By the way when I use my MacBook Pro in my living room playing music, I quite often hear the fans go on, even if I only have Roon running, I sit about 3 meters away from the laptop.

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5 hours ago, gryphongryph said:

I use my 2009 MacBook Pro with usb, can not say that the sound is in any way unlistenable, I listen for many hours at a time, often with Tidal, and it is not fatigueing in any way, but I have not tried in other way, maybe I would gain some by using the Ethernet instead of usb output!

 

By the way when I use my MacBook Pro in my living room playing music, I quite often hear the fans go on, even if I only have Roon running, I sit about 3 meters away from the laptop.

 

I used to have a 2014 MacBook Pro, and when the fan went off, which was quite often, it was loud. So no way it could be in the same room as my listening equipment!

 

BTW, the Mac Mini wasn't bad at all, it just was a tad too bright.

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