jhwalker

I got two Infinity+ (or whatever the final moniker was); i.e., fully loaded Pulse DACs. Both sounded incredible, but they only worked for a couple of years before the USB port (I'm assuming) went out and now they both only play static Had they continued to work, I had no intention of upgrading - I was thrilled with the sound. But reliability is very important to me, so right now, I'm hanging 10 with an iFi xDSD (which also sounds very good) and keeping my eyes open for a serious DAC sometime in the next couple of years.

I love the binaural recordings - lets you get a real "feel" for how the speakers sound in the room. Very well done.

My setup (2014 MacMini > HDMI > Pioneer Elite receiver) "just works" - I know that's not helpful, but just some encouragement that it's certainly possible to get 5.1 (probably higher if you have the speakers / receiver that supports it) surround output from bog-standard equipment and standard software (JRiver, Audirvana, Roon, HQPlayer, etc. - all work with this setup). In this case, I'm using the Pioneer's internal DAC (which sounds just fine) instead of some fancy outboard DAC but that's the "price" I pay for saving several thousand dollars on a standalone multichannel DAC.

I've subscribed to the Digital Concert Hall for several years now and watch concerts on AppleTV (usually - my TV also has the app). Sound quality is great, and it's amazing seeing so many world class artists in "live" (recorded) performances

The newest Sony model has been quite well-received: https://smile.amazon.com/Sony-WH1000XM3-Canceling-Headphones-WH-1000XM3/dp/B07G4MNFS1

Growing up, I was almost exclusively "into" classical music. The Bs were one of the first pop bands I ever heard (or paid any attention to, at least), and I fell in love INSTANTLY. Thirty years later, my musical interests have expanded greatly, but the Bs are still my favorites Thanks for the link!

That's for individual files / folders, not the file system, per se. I guess you COULD compress your boot disk, but I've never seen that be anything but a hassle. I also don't encrypt my boot disk, as my computer is never outside my house, and there's nothing on it anyone would want, in any case

I'm not aware of this option - I know there is a file compression option in Windows, but I don't recall seeing in OS X or macOS, certainly not in many years.

Thanks for prompting - I never paid much attention as I had so much space left but thought I'd check it out. Main culprits: System 39.99GB Documents 6.71GB Applications 6.64GB GarageBand Sound Library 2.49GB I did a little cleanup and was able to get it down to: System 37.32GB Documents 1.50GB Applications 1.50GB GarageBand Sound Library 0.00GB That's about as low as I could go - final usage is about 41GB with latest macOS (Mojave) and 16GB RAM.

Right - my existing Mini has 256GB of flash storage, but only about 60GB used for OS and assorted applications (e.g., iTunes, JRiver MC, Roon, etc.). I could easily have gotten by with a 128 (or even 64!). I saw a write-up on Darko's site today about how a fully-loaded Mini would be over $4k. I guess that's true, but who would ever put in 64GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, and 10Gb Ethernet for a music server? The configuration I'm craving would be the top CPU (i.e., the six-core i7) with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. That'd do me just fine

The iFi xDSD is remarkably good (between the Nano and Micro, by all accounts) and even more portable than the Nano. I like it very much.

Yes, I have no problem with it. Every Mac I've ever had has lasted 5+ years, and I prefer macOS over any other for ease of use, etc. The configuration I want would be about $1,350.

Really looking forward to the new Mac Mini - I currently host Roon, iTunes, and JRiver MC on an older Mini (which works well), but it begins to stutter with HQPlayer at DSD256 and above. I can't recall what @Miska has said in the past - would HQPlayer run better with the 3.6GHz quad core model or the 3.0GHz six core model? i.e., are clock cycles more important than cores, or vice versa?

My name is John Walker. All my life, people have called me "Johnny Walker", and I never really got the joke because I'm not a drinker and came from a family where no one drank. It took me several years into college before I finally understood why people found "Johnny Walker" so entertaining

There are four tiers of membership in the UK: The third tier (the one you're thinking of, I believe) allows you to stream CD quality *except for those items you've already purchased in higher quality* - those you can stream at the quality you purchased them. The fourth tier allows streaming anything at the highest resolution at which it's available. Both provide steep discounts on high resolution downloads.