Search the Community

This thread is intended to differ from the M1 one by: Ooh, broadening the scope to all Macs Otoh, narrowing the focus on if a particular Mac Plays fine/Does not with regards to desirable settings My goal, and I guess it will be of interest to others, is to make an informed decision about the replacement (or not) of my MM1 8 Go RAM. With that machine I can, using convolution and, including Mch downfold to Stereo, ouput : • @ 256 SDM all PCM sources with rates up to 192 (384 untested) with 7EC Super and its 512 variant with satisfying filters ie Sinc MG/a or gauss hires lp Guess 512 and 1024 are desirable but no real frustration there • @384 PCM all PCM sources with rates up to 192 (384 untested ) with Sinc Long filter. That is frustrating and far from 1.5 M May (my DAC) capability that proves superior to lower rates with filters I could up that far. Yet with 1x sources it sounds good (I prefer SDM route and hires lp or Sinc MG with higher rates) • @128 SDM 64 SDM sources, (above and Mch : NO) with 7EC Light And source file has to be in a RAM disk and it’s not occasional glitches free That is very frustrating….. Plus I have RAM swapping almost all the time : I wonder if I would be so eager to churn a 16 Go RAM MM1… And you, what can you play with your Mac ?

I have been playing music with a Mac Mini w/SSD -> Amarra -> Weiss Dac2 (Firewire) combo since 2009. All very old hardware and software now, but this setup still plays my local music files fine. Lately I have subscribed to Apple Music which won't run on such an old Mac, and I chose to stream it through an Apple TV 4K via toslink to the Weiss Dac2. The sound is decent, but not comparable to playing from the local files. I am looking for suggestions on an update/upgrade path to my old system. I mainly listen to streaming now because of the ability to discover new music, so I'd like to see what your thoughts are on these options: Wattson Audio Emerson Digital Pros: tiny footprint; good UI on the app; I can still keep the Dac2 with AES/EBU digital interface Cons: can't play DSD; can't link with Apple Music except with Airplay (therefore no Apple Hi-Res Lossless files?) Mac Studio Pros: as I understood so far, can link Apple Music to HQPlayer for upsampling via CoreAudio? Cons: don't know if there are options to link to the Dac2 which only has Firewire 400, AES/EBU and Toslink digital All of these are completely new to me and I don't really know anything more than dropping their names and acronyms (e.g. I don't think I'd really fully know what Roon, or Roon Core, Roon Block, etc. etc.! are until I actually use it; between a streamer and a computer (saw "NAA" but no chance to figure out what it does yet...) which provides better audio quality if in the same price range). Would appreciate some suggested directions. Thank you!