I know this is going to sound bizarre and will easily be dismissed by many. I’m 69 years old and have been playing with HiFi since the mid 1960’s. I entered college as a Music Major but eventually switched to Engineering. I mention this only because I want people to understand that I know what real, un-amplified music sounds like. I was around it daily for years. We were required to attend student and faculty recitals every week, plus all the performing each of us did with various groups.
When solid-state amplifiers first came out, they were cold and sterile. When digital audio came out, it added insult to injury with sound that was hard and edgy. Of course things improved as the years went by, but never to the degree I would have liked. I always marveled how old systems made of tubes and vinyl could trounce modern equipment.
After my retirement in 2010, I started experimenting with a computer driven audio system. After spending many thousands of dollars on DAC’s, USB to SPDIF Converters, and Streaming devices or Services, I remained unimpressed. That was the case until recently when I stumbled upon the Holy Grail of digital audio. This adventure goes back a long way, so prepare for an epistle to explain this story step by step.
About 7 years ago I was at a friend’s home listening to his HiFi made up primarily of Audio Note equipment. He had just bought a new MacBook Pro. This was his first foray into using a computer instead of a Compact Disc or Vinyl as a front end. We got his machine setup and listened for a while. I was very familiar with the sound of his system but was genuinely impressed at how well it sounded with his computer. It was much better than how I recall my own system sounding with a computer. In fact, this was the first and only time I’d heard ANYTHING digital that remotely reminded me of analog equipment.
His new laptop used an i5 processor while my older MacBook Pro used an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I brought along my MacBook for this visit and decided to connect it up in place of his computer. Just as I suspected, his laptop sounded more natural and musical. My machine on the other hand sounded artificial, with what I so often describe as that "DIGITAL" Character.
My friend and I made numerous back and forth comparisons by swapping our two computers into his system. We used the same playback software and music recordings. There were zero changes made to the rest of the hardware in the system. Both of us were certain of the difference in sound quality and it was dependent on the computer in use. With his machine there was a greater sense of pitch definition and timing. The decay of notes was more complete and satisfying. It was just more like real music and far more engaging. Musicians no longer sounded like amateurs but true artists conveying deep emotion.
I felt certain the new computer hardware had to be responsible for this difference, but I also made note of the fact that his new machine was running the latest Mac OS at the time, Mountain Lion (10.8), and mine was still running Snow Leopard (10.6). Could that make any difference? Surely not! However the impact on the sound was so important that I wanted to leave nothing to chance.
Being an engineer with 30+ years of MRB experience in aerospace, I took the approach of trying the simplest thing first to duplicate the results I’d heard. In this case it was also the cheapest approach. When I returned home, I immediately went to Apple‘s website where I purchased and downloaded a copy of Mac OS 10.8. As suspected, it did not give me the improvements I'd heard at my friend’s home. That was no surprise to me and only a minor financial loss of $20.
After this failed to work, I went out and purchased a new MacBook Pro just like my friend's, only to be disappointed once again. I didn’t know what to make of it. Was his computer using some other unique chipset for audio processing? I didn’t have a clue. I was hoping to get a System Report from his machine and make a comparison to mine, but my friend was out of town.
While I was undertaking these efforts, my friend was on a trip to Alaska where he lost his computer in a hunting lodge fire. He and his companions were fortunate to escape with their lives. This event left me no means to investigate further. I just decided it was some freak situation and impossible to figure out.
A few months ago, I came across a discussion forum from back in 2014 where someone claimed that Mac OS 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 sound better than any other operating system, including other releases of 10.8. This person described a realism they heard and their remarks reminded me of my impression years earlier at my friend’s home, when using his now incinerated MacBook Pro.
This piqued my interest, so I decided to perform some online research and found that when Apple issued Mac OS 10.8, they also released a series of minor updates very quickly. Many were within weeks of the initial release. I thought perhaps this could account for why there was a discrepancy between what I heard at my friend’s home and when I downloaded OS 10.8 from Apple. I dug back into my hard drive archives to find the installer copy that I bought from Apple and downloaded seven years earlier. It turned out to be 10.8.5. So if this person was correct about 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 having the magic, then it might explain why I was never able to duplicate what I’d heard at my friend’s home.
However, this still seemed like a long shot to me. Usually these kinds of updates are minor bug fixes. Besides, I’ve never heard a major new release of an operating system make much if any difference in the sound of things. Certainly minor updates would be even less likely to change things one way or the other.
Furthermore, why has no one else reported this Sound Quality difference? If it's so significant, it should be a topic of discussion on forums everywhere concerning audio. The only reason which might explain the lack of notoriety is the brief period these particular versions of 10.8 were available. It could be as simple as very few people with our level of scrutiny over Sound Quality, ever had the opportunity to compare these minor software releases. Seven years ago computer audio was truly in its infancy. Fewer people were trying it and these unique versions of the Mac OS were available for only a very brief period.
I wanted to investigate further but unfortunately, Apple does not make 10.8.0 available for download. They only let you download the updates to 10.8.2, 10.8.3, 10.8.4 which apparently only modify existing installations of 10.8.0. Such was the case back 7 years ago when I first looked into this. The full installer for 10.8.5 is available for download free of charge, which was the final release of Mountain Lion. Of course we know this version does not fit the criteria laid out.
After much searching, I finally managed to locate a copy of 10.8.0. I installed it on my 2012 Mac Mini and then performed the update to 10.8.2. At Last Success! It sounds great and consistent with what I heard years ago. The same is true for 10.8.3. We were not imagining things and this is truly a game changer!
What Apple did in these updates, I have no idea. Nothing in the release notes jumps out at you that might be a clue. Some software guru could possibly dig into the bowels of the beast, do a postmortem and figure out what they changed. If you have such abilities, I encourage you to try.
I thought about trying to switch the audio drivers between versions to see if that makes a difference. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem to matter what method you use to get the signal into the DAC (USB, Toslink or Wireless Streaming), it all sounds good. Since the improvement is not specific to any one piece of hardware, then it’s likely the result of a lower level driver or something built into the kernel at its core level, not a Kernel Extension.
All I know is this; if you are not listening to 10.8.2 or 10.8.3, then you have no idea what digital audio is capable of doing. I have made careful comparisons. There is no doubt about this. If you still own or can find an older Mac that will run Mountain Lion, you owe it to yourself to try it. Older machines can be had very cheaply nowadays. Mac tracker is a free downloadable program that can tell you which OS any particular machine is capable of running. Mac OS 10.8.0 can be found on eBay.
I removed 10.8.3 from my internal hard drive and presently have it installed on a fast 32GB SD Card for convenience. Cost of the SD card is about $11 and has a read speed of 100MB/s. It works great and allows me to keep a more current OS on the internal drives for other activity or experimentation. I noticed no particular difference in Sound Quality with 10.8.x installed on the SD Card or the Internal Drive.
My biggest regret is that I did not pursue this with more diligence and vigor almost 7 years ago. There has been a lot of musical enjoyment lost during that time. The only other regret I might have would be if my words here are not able to persuade others to try this. I know it sounds like lunacy to downgrade to an OS or Machine that is years out of date and no longer supported. Of course you are free to dismiss this as insane ravings or exaggerations, but you will be doing yourself a HUGE DISSERVICE. My only hope is that I can be of help to your musical enjoyment. I have no other motive.
Let the criticisms begin>>>>>>
When solid-state amplifiers first came out, they were cold and sterile. When digital audio came out, it added insult to injury with sound that was hard and edgy. Of course things improved as the years went by, but never to the degree I would have liked. I always marveled how old systems made of tubes and vinyl could trounce modern equipment.
After my retirement in 2010, I started experimenting with a computer driven audio system. After spending many thousands of dollars on DAC’s, USB to SPDIF Converters, and Streaming devices or Services, I remained unimpressed. That was the case until recently when I stumbled upon the Holy Grail of digital audio. This adventure goes back a long way, so prepare for an epistle to explain this story step by step.
About 7 years ago I was at a friend’s home listening to his HiFi made up primarily of Audio Note equipment. He had just bought a new MacBook Pro. This was his first foray into using a computer instead of a Compact Disc or Vinyl as a front end. We got his machine setup and listened for a while. I was very familiar with the sound of his system but was genuinely impressed at how well it sounded with his computer. It was much better than how I recall my own system sounding with a computer. In fact, this was the first and only time I’d heard ANYTHING digital that remotely reminded me of analog equipment.
His new laptop used an i5 processor while my older MacBook Pro used an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I brought along my MacBook for this visit and decided to connect it up in place of his computer. Just as I suspected, his laptop sounded more natural and musical. My machine on the other hand sounded artificial, with what I so often describe as that "DIGITAL" Character.
My friend and I made numerous back and forth comparisons by swapping our two computers into his system. We used the same playback software and music recordings. There were zero changes made to the rest of the hardware in the system. Both of us were certain of the difference in sound quality and it was dependent on the computer in use. With his machine there was a greater sense of pitch definition and timing. The decay of notes was more complete and satisfying. It was just more like real music and far more engaging. Musicians no longer sounded like amateurs but true artists conveying deep emotion.
I felt certain the new computer hardware had to be responsible for this difference, but I also made note of the fact that his new machine was running the latest Mac OS at the time, Mountain Lion (10.8), and mine was still running Snow Leopard (10.6). Could that make any difference? Surely not! However the impact on the sound was so important that I wanted to leave nothing to chance.
Being an engineer with 30+ years of MRB experience in aerospace, I took the approach of trying the simplest thing first to duplicate the results I’d heard. In this case it was also the cheapest approach. When I returned home, I immediately went to Apple‘s website where I purchased and downloaded a copy of Mac OS 10.8. As suspected, it did not give me the improvements I'd heard at my friend’s home. That was no surprise to me and only a minor financial loss of $20.
After this failed to work, I went out and purchased a new MacBook Pro just like my friend's, only to be disappointed once again. I didn’t know what to make of it. Was his computer using some other unique chipset for audio processing? I didn’t have a clue. I was hoping to get a System Report from his machine and make a comparison to mine, but my friend was out of town.
While I was undertaking these efforts, my friend was on a trip to Alaska where he lost his computer in a hunting lodge fire. He and his companions were fortunate to escape with their lives. This event left me no means to investigate further. I just decided it was some freak situation and impossible to figure out.
A few months ago, I came across a discussion forum from back in 2014 where someone claimed that Mac OS 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 sound better than any other operating system, including other releases of 10.8. This person described a realism they heard and their remarks reminded me of my impression years earlier at my friend’s home, when using his now incinerated MacBook Pro.
This piqued my interest, so I decided to perform some online research and found that when Apple issued Mac OS 10.8, they also released a series of minor updates very quickly. Many were within weeks of the initial release. I thought perhaps this could account for why there was a discrepancy between what I heard at my friend’s home and when I downloaded OS 10.8 from Apple. I dug back into my hard drive archives to find the installer copy that I bought from Apple and downloaded seven years earlier. It turned out to be 10.8.5. So if this person was correct about 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 having the magic, then it might explain why I was never able to duplicate what I’d heard at my friend’s home.
However, this still seemed like a long shot to me. Usually these kinds of updates are minor bug fixes. Besides, I’ve never heard a major new release of an operating system make much if any difference in the sound of things. Certainly minor updates would be even less likely to change things one way or the other.
Furthermore, why has no one else reported this Sound Quality difference? If it's so significant, it should be a topic of discussion on forums everywhere concerning audio. The only reason which might explain the lack of notoriety is the brief period these particular versions of 10.8 were available. It could be as simple as very few people with our level of scrutiny over Sound Quality, ever had the opportunity to compare these minor software releases. Seven years ago computer audio was truly in its infancy. Fewer people were trying it and these unique versions of the Mac OS were available for only a very brief period.
I wanted to investigate further but unfortunately, Apple does not make 10.8.0 available for download. They only let you download the updates to 10.8.2, 10.8.3, 10.8.4 which apparently only modify existing installations of 10.8.0. Such was the case back 7 years ago when I first looked into this. The full installer for 10.8.5 is available for download free of charge, which was the final release of Mountain Lion. Of course we know this version does not fit the criteria laid out.
After much searching, I finally managed to locate a copy of 10.8.0. I installed it on my 2012 Mac Mini and then performed the update to 10.8.2. At Last Success! It sounds great and consistent with what I heard years ago. The same is true for 10.8.3. We were not imagining things and this is truly a game changer!
What Apple did in these updates, I have no idea. Nothing in the release notes jumps out at you that might be a clue. Some software guru could possibly dig into the bowels of the beast, do a postmortem and figure out what they changed. If you have such abilities, I encourage you to try.
I thought about trying to switch the audio drivers between versions to see if that makes a difference. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem to matter what method you use to get the signal into the DAC (USB, Toslink or Wireless Streaming), it all sounds good. Since the improvement is not specific to any one piece of hardware, then it’s likely the result of a lower level driver or something built into the kernel at its core level, not a Kernel Extension.
All I know is this; if you are not listening to 10.8.2 or 10.8.3, then you have no idea what digital audio is capable of doing. I have made careful comparisons. There is no doubt about this. If you still own or can find an older Mac that will run Mountain Lion, you owe it to yourself to try it. Older machines can be had very cheaply nowadays. Mac tracker is a free downloadable program that can tell you which OS any particular machine is capable of running. Mac OS 10.8.0 can be found on eBay.
I removed 10.8.3 from my internal hard drive and presently have it installed on a fast 32GB SD Card for convenience. Cost of the SD card is about $11 and has a read speed of 100MB/s. It works great and allows me to keep a more current OS on the internal drives for other activity or experimentation. I noticed no particular difference in Sound Quality with 10.8.x installed on the SD Card or the Internal Drive.
My biggest regret is that I did not pursue this with more diligence and vigor almost 7 years ago. There has been a lot of musical enjoyment lost during that time. The only other regret I might have would be if my words here are not able to persuade others to try this. I know it sounds like lunacy to downgrade to an OS or Machine that is years out of date and no longer supported. Of course you are free to dismiss this as insane ravings or exaggerations, but you will be doing yourself a HUGE DISSERVICE. My only hope is that I can be of help to your musical enjoyment. I have no other motive.
Let the criticisms begin>>>>>>