2. digital
  3. 126272-68724

Advice on best upgrade path for a Mac Mini setup

Hi all,

My beloved PWT transport was shipped out for service last week, so in the mean time I decided to experiment with the Mac Mini which usually resides in my 2nd system. It was no surprise that it doesn't even come close to the PWT, but it sounds OK, and now i'm curious as of what I can achieve with it without spending another $2K.

It's a stock Mac Mini about 2 years old with an SSD drive.
I'm using it to stream TIDAL Hi-Fi.
I have it hooked up to a Schiit Wyrd USB re-generator via a Pangea silver USB 2 cable, which in turn is feeding my DSD via a WireWorld Starlight 7 USB 2 cable.
My thinking was that the Mac-to-Schiit path will be less critical in terms of cables, as it gets regenerated anyway, but I'm open to listen and learn...
That "Wyrd Schiit" re-generator did make quite a noticeable positive impact when I hooked it up in my 2nd system.

My question is - what will be the best bang-for-the-buck upgrades? 

I guess the switching power supply is a weak link so I looked at Mojo Audio stuff and those prices seem unreasonable - they want more for their power supply than what I paid for my PWT (including its superb power supply).
Any other recommended power supply upgrade kits?
I'm good with DIY and can probably do the upgrade myself.

Perhaps go with much better cables? Better isolation? Better re-generator?
What did you guys try that proved to really do the "magic" for similar setups?
Perhaps it is a 'losing battle' and it will never sound nearly as good as my PWT without spending $2K in upgrades?

Thanks for your advice!

Ami

128x128ami

Showing 11 responses by jond

jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@ghosthouse yes it plays ALAC this is cut and pasted from the Auralic website:

The Tesla platform has a calculation ability of 25,000 MIPS, more than enough to decode a vast spectrum of audio formats, including AAC, AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WV and WMA.
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@ghosthouse  I am using an Auralic Aries Mini streaming files from a Synology NAS no computer needed except an ipad or iphone for remote control. The Aries Mini is around $500 and I think I paid between $5-600 for my NAS that price including two 4TB drives, so say $1000-1200 total. And there are certainly other devices out there similar to the Aries, Sonos and Bluesound Node come to mind.
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@ghosthouse yes it decodes all those files from a NAS.
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
rbstehno is correct, ideally you want your NAS drive or music server elsewhere, my NAS drive is in my office and I listen in my listening room. And that's interesting info on the Lumin app I may have to check that out. One thing about the Lightning DS app for me at least I thought it sounded better on Ipad then Iphone.  I didn't have an Ipad when I got the Aries originally but I was able to pick up an Ipad Mini for around $200 very cost effective and I just use it as a remote control.
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@sbank do you output the Sonore to a DAC? Looks like the output is USB only. I had my DAC, Yamamoto YDA-1, before I had a streamer so needed something with an RCA spdif output. I've added the Sbooster power supply to the Aries, $370 from Acoustic Sounds. That combo Sbooster/Aries/Yammie DAC sounds great to me and just as importantly has been glitch free.
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@sbank Great looking room and system thanks for sharing and love the title! That's some badass looking power supply you have for the microRendu, similarly the Sbooster dwarfs the little Aries 10x5x3 and 4 pounds where the Aries is like two cd's stacked.
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@ghosthouse  congrats! Setup was very easy should not take long at all plus Auralic has a good support staff who answered a few questions I had quickly. It sounds fine with the stock power supply, one thing I would recommend run it on the 5ghz band, that's what I do and have not had a single dropout since setting it up. I can't remember how long it took to import and index my library but I feel like it was much quicker than Sonos which I had before the Aries. Happy listening!
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@ghosthouse there are only two wireless bands available to everyone 3.4ghz and 5ghz the 3.4 is the "legacy" network so to speak and carries much more traffic. Not all devices are 5ghz compatible but the Aries is as is your iphone. When you look for your 5ghz network it will be the same name as your regular network with the number 5 after, my network is called JamNet, so it's JamNet5, pretty simple.
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@sbank Spencer I have not compared ethernet to wifi, my modem is in my office it would be about a 30 foot run of cable to wire up the Aries which to me sort of defeats the purpose of its functionality. My Synology NAS is hardwired to the modem/router via ethernet. I am very pleased with the sound quality via wifi it compares very well to cd's through my same DAC both my ripped files, flacs, and Tidal.
Cheers,
Jon
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@ghosthouse Glad to hear it's working out for you and glad to help! Not sure about the album art I am a moron when it comes to metadata and all that stuff but I would say between 80-90% of  my albums have are on the DS app. On the subject of power supply upgrade, I run my Aries out to a Yamamoto YDA-1 DAC and I do feel the power supply upgrade on the Aries made a difference. I am using the Sbooster and not the official Aries Linear supply. Cheers!
jond's avatar
jond
5,660 posts
 
@ghosthouse Thanks for the heads up on the CA review, it's quite well done and informative.
More to discover