The only way to substantially improve sound is to get a better DAC. Any upstream changes are just band aids because any noise or distortion or jitter or other issues are ALL coming from your DAC. If the DAC is well designed it will be well isolated from any contamination from digital incoming signals, clock timing and power supply noise.
Think about it - the DAC design goal is high fidelity of the source signal
- so a well designed DAC should remove all extraneous noise or contamination that is not the audio signal. A poorly designed DAC will be sensitive to which input is used and possibly even the type of cable.
Blaming mac mini or cabling or power supply for DAC inadequacies is misplaced logic. The DAC has a job to do and a key design requirement: to accurately reproduce the source signal without any extraneous factors influencing the sound.
Part of the problem of multifunction devices is that the complexity multiplies the possibility for errors in design of hardware or firmware and signal contamination from shared power supply. A dedicated device has simpler goals and is likely to perform better.
FWIW - Mac/PC and pro tools is how most music is produced these days...so a computer core running roon and feeding a dedicated DAC is an excellent way to enjoy multiple digital formats.
You should not be "overloading" your ethernet unless you have multiple devices that are gaming and streaming HD video simultaneously - two channel audio is not a bandwidth hog.
For example, my wifi speed and download speed from my internet provider are both around 150 Mbps and two channel audio uses only 1% of this bandwidth.
Think about it - the DAC design goal is high fidelity of the source signal
- so a well designed DAC should remove all extraneous noise or contamination that is not the audio signal. A poorly designed DAC will be sensitive to which input is used and possibly even the type of cable.
Blaming mac mini or cabling or power supply for DAC inadequacies is misplaced logic. The DAC has a job to do and a key design requirement: to accurately reproduce the source signal without any extraneous factors influencing the sound.
Part of the problem of multifunction devices is that the complexity multiplies the possibility for errors in design of hardware or firmware and signal contamination from shared power supply. A dedicated device has simpler goals and is likely to perform better.
FWIW - Mac/PC and pro tools is how most music is produced these days...so a computer core running roon and feeding a dedicated DAC is an excellent way to enjoy multiple digital formats.
You should not be "overloading" your ethernet unless you have multiple devices that are gaming and streaming HD video simultaneously - two channel audio is not a bandwidth hog.
For example, my wifi speed and download speed from my internet provider are both around 150 Mbps and two channel audio uses only 1% of this bandwidth.