MikePid Posted December 28, 2021 Share Posted December 28, 2021 I think so too. I don't remember seeing those in Big Sur, so maybe new to Monterey. Mine only show up on the efficiency cores, which is good because that means HQPlayer can use all the Performance cores it wants. My System CPU load is almost always under 1% Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 28, 2021 Share Posted December 28, 2021 So, in this case, red is not a big deal? Link to comment
MikePid Posted December 28, 2021 Share Posted December 28, 2021 Probably not. Red usually means bad, but if you look at the main window, then it shows the System usage number in red. Apple probably should have picked a different colour. I'm not worried about it. If I stop the music, I can make the red dots appear occasionally by moving the cursor around in Screen Sharing (and waking up the WindowServer task), otherwise they don't show up. My guess is that the red dots are caused by Activity Monitor. So if you quit Activity Monitor, they won't happen (but just like the the light in your fridge, you can't tell if it goes off if when you close the door 🤣). Link to comment
MikePid Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 Haven't received shipping confirmation yet. Probably due to holidays. I upgraded to faster shipping. Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 I received shipping info yesterday. I paid extra for express. It is not a race!!!! Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 In saying "It is not a race!!!!", I was paraphrasing our Prime Minister, who was desperately trying to defend the fact that his Government had stuffed up the Covid vaccination rollout! - Of more significance to Aussies than Canadians. Link to comment
MikePid Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Lookie what Santa brought for my MMM1! 🎅 Wow, that is one hefty LPS! Miska 1 Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Wow! Easy to install? SQ improvement? Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 But seriously, from the picture, I am trying to work out where white shrunk object goes? Link to comment
MikePid Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 grrr, the screws on the bottom of the MMM1 are Torx security (anti-tamper), so my OWC Torx screwdrivers don't work. I put in an order on Amazon for a basic iFixit toolkit, so I have to wait for that now. So won't be until next week before I can try it. no instructions in the box, so I had to watch a couple of MMM1 teardowns youtube videos. This one seemed to be most helpful: https://youtu.be/R4ArjHz4gd4. Does not seem like a 5-minute job, but seems doable. There might be a way to temporarily leave the existing power supply in by leaving the unit flipped over and open (with fan unit unscrewed and out of the way but still connected), then just swapping the power connector, so that I can do some A...B...A...B testing before permanently mounting the TeraDak strip inside. Probably need to be careful with the bank of caps in case they hold a lot of charge. I'll provide some feedback to KamAudio to include the screwdrivers as part of the kit for the future. Link to comment
MikePid Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 That "white shrunk object" is a bank of capacitors. It replaces the long thin black strip that ends in a C8 connector. It looks like with the C8 connector out, the 12V connector slides into one half of the figure-8 hole. Probably need some black electrical tape to cover the other half of the hole to seal it off. Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Given the price of the huge LPS, I suppose it is still cheap. But be careful! I guess that if it had a reasonable (for ChiFi) instruction pamphlet, it would be dearer? Re installation - is it similar to their previous LPS upgrades? Link to comment
MikePid Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 TeraDak might not be a premium brand, but they have been around for a while and I have seen good reviews from some respected audiophiles over the past few years. I will try my PH-SR4T later to compare. In the meantime, the TeraDak LPS is plugged in and idling to burn in. I couldn't find anything to load it with, but I suspect it will be mostly idling anyway with the MMM1. The kit is US$30 less than buying the LPS and MMM1 module separately, so you're getting a hefty LPS for only US$240 with the kit. Hard to find any LPS at that price. As long as it adds some SQ improvement, it will be worth it for me. Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Have you seen this - looks rather daunting! Don't know how relevant it will be? Link to comment
MikePid Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 There are 2 things that make the MMM1 kit simpler: 1. There are fewer parts inside the MMM1 2. The kit doesn't touch the fan circuit The video link I posted yesterday should be good enough for instructions. I might post photos if I get a chance like in that post once I get the right Torx R screwdrivers. Not sure whether to post them here or on a new thread though. There won't need to be as many photos. Link to comment
Schafheide Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Great - my eyes and fingers are not as steady as they used to be! Link to comment
Schafheide Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 Thank you for the heads up. My smallest Torx blade with hole in the middle is #2, which is too big. What set did you order? Link to comment
MikePid Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 I installed TG-Pro for temperature monitoring and fan control on my MMM1. I haven't had a chance to play with it much yet, but the fan is on steady at 1700rpm (+/-10rpm) regardless of whether the MMM1 is idle or maxed out all day long doing 44k>DSD256/ECv2/xla! Temps occasionally peak at 75C on some performance cores but overall CPU average is usually around 60C when running HQPlayer at max. Also, the temps drop back to room temperature within a minute or so after the music stops. Also, there are a bunch of "power manager dies" which hover around 60C, so it will be interesting to see what happens to these after the LPS mod. I'm curious to find out what happens if I shut off the fan, and whether that improves SQ, although until I get the LPS installed on it it might not be noticeable. Apple is able to make some laptops work without a fan. Also, if the fan is needed, whether using TG-Pro to fix the fan speed to minimize the +/-10rpm PWM fluctuations of the fan control improves SQ; probably not, but worth a try later (assuming TG-Pro is able to lock in the fan speed better than MacOS). Or maybe replacing the fan with one driven off a separate power supply, or else setting up a fixed-speed fan control (and turning off Mac's fan control) to eliminate the PWM fan control like UpTone's MMK did on earlier models? Also I will need to look into whether the fan needs to kick in more during boot up (although that is such a short interval, and usually the CPUs will start at room temperature anyway). However a reboot only happens after power failures or a MacOS update, so not very often. Anxiously waiting to get my iFixit Torx security screwdrivers so I can take my MMM1 apart to install the LPS kit... Link to comment
MikePid Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 I just a couple of start-up tests of MMM1 for temps and fans. A reboot took about 15 seconds, and TG-Pro showed all CPU temps stayed under 40C. Power-up took about 25 seconds (!) including reconnecting Screen Sharing, and auto-starting HQPlayer and TG-Pro, and again no temps hit 40C. Maybe there was more intense CPU usage before TG-Pro auto-started, but in that short time I can't imagine it having much effect on temps. So maybe there is hope for an easy audiophile MMM1 fan control alternative? In the MMK, UpTone said the PWM fan control was noisy, electrically, which is why they designed their own linear fan controller for the earlier Mac minis. But I'm thinking that setting the fan at a fixed speed should be an adequate solution if the MMM1 is just used for HQPlayer. (Maybe fan control is needed if the MMM1 is being used for GPU-intensive stuff like 4K video editing or gaming, or when Jussi enables the GPU for poly-sinc-guass-xxxxxla and ext9?) As an extra precaution, TG-Pro can be set to send an email if the temps go above some threshold. MacOS likely would throttle the CPUs anyway if they get too hot, and you'll notice that because you'll hear drop-outs while listening to your music. Any electrical hackers out there who could provide some guidance? I'm thinking: - Level 1: use the existing MMM1's power to the fan, and insert a potentiometer to allow the fan speed to be set, then use TG-Pro to disable MMM1's fan control to hopefully kill any PWM signal to the fan (and also check that the manual fan speed is set enough to keep the temps down). - Level 2: as above, but with a small external power supply (probably could even be SMPS or ifi iPower plug). Link to comment
MikePid Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Well, I got the iFixit toolkit today, opened up the MMM1, disconnected the Apple PSU (but left it physically installed), then connected the TeraDak kit, and that took all of 5 minutes. But I couldn't get the MMM1 to boot. I took it apart and realized that the connector did not seat with one of the pins and bent it away. So I straightened it back and also the connector, and tried again. Nope. (TeraDak's connector is made of softer plastic than the Apple one.) I checked that there is 12V coming out of the DC cable. I have sent an email to KamAudio for help. Fortunately, the Apple PSU was able to boot it again. See photos of the open-heart surgery. Link to comment
Schafheide Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 When you say that your temps are at 40C. Which ones? The little indicators at the top of the screen say 72C with fan at its lowest. Sorry for the bent pin mishap. I must be extra careful. Let's hope it is an easy fix! Link to comment
MikePid Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 The 40C was only after power up. I was trying to see if there was a heavy CPU demand for that, like on intel CPUs, but there wasn’t. Both my 2012 15” and my work 2019 16” MacBook Pros kick the fans on when powering up. I’m working with TG-Pro support to see if there is a way to turn off the fan if temps are low, but so far they don’t think so. Link to comment
Schafheide Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Maybe the female receptacle inside that problem hole in the plastic connector is damaged now? Link to comment
MikePid Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 Success! Not sure what I did, but the TeraDak LPS mod is working now on my MMM1. Holy $#!+, I don't even need to do an A/B. One of those proverbial veils has been lifted, maybe 2 of them. Much more dynamics and clarity. On one of my tough test tracks (Nils Lofgren's Bass and Drums Intro), I jumped because I almost thought the transients fried my speakers. Percussion is amazing. Vocals have better presence. Overall more space and detail and more to listen to. Ooohh, and the bass! I didn't think my speakers had it in them to do that. MMM1-arvellous. I'll let it burn in for a a couple of days and do some ear-conditioning, then switch back to compare before permanently installing it. BTW, I had forgotten to connect the fan cable, and after a few minutes, the music had a drop-out, and I noticed that the temps were up into yellow zone, so I guess the fan is needed. jamesg11 1 Link to comment
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