M4 Mac Mini for Roon

[Chauncey79]

Hi Everyone!

Anyone buying the new Apple M4 Mac Mini to use for Roon? Trying to decide what build specs. It seems that with how fast Apple is updating these computers should I just go lowest spec and get a new one every 2 years versus doing some mid or high end version. I feel like a mid or high end version gets crushed by the new spec computer 2 years later. My older mac mini seems to be doing fine. I mainly stream TIDAL and don't have a lot of hard drive based music right now. With Thunderbolt 4 ports I'm thinking of getting the smallest hard drive and getting a SanDisk 4TB Extreme Pro SSD for music.

Thank you for any comments or suggestions!

 

[mtemur]

Stream Qobuz.

 

[Ron A.]

I had a M1 Mac mini that was dedicated for Roon only. I had 16 GB of memory which is equivalent to the base M4 you relooking at. At no time was the M1 mini under powered, whether upsampling or playing DSD files. You can go with the base M4 and attach your SSD for music, it will be more than sufficient.

 

[PLF]

I have a dedicated M2 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM which worked fine with latest Roon.

However, I have now just switched to Audirvana Studio. The sound quality is remarkably better than Roon. No contest on my system. And Audirvana is cheaper, too.

Although I have Qobuz (and both Roon and Audirvana work with Qobuz), the vast majority of my listening is from my local drives and that is my basis for comparison.

My streamer and network switch are Aavik and Ansuz. The DAC is a MSB Select II.

 

[ecwl]

My 2013 desktop PC that runs Roon server is still on windows 10. With it phasing out next year, I debated between the new M4 Mac mini vs Roon Nucleus One. I ended up getting Roon Nucleus One a few days ago and it works great for my needs. I already use an M1 Pro MacBook Pro for most of my work so I didn’t feel like I need to replicate another setup with the M4 Mac Mini. On one hand, it’s not the best bang for the buck given how powerful the M4 chip is. But I’m happy with my decision.

I’m actually unclear on why OP wants to upgrade to an M4 Mac mini in the first place. Sounds like keeping the old Mac mini is the best way to go, no? Unless the M4 will be used in other ways. In which case, the other computing needs should dictate which M4 model to get. Otherwise, I concur with everybody else that base model M4 is more than enough for Roon.

 

[Chauncey79]

I ended up doing the entry level $600 M4 mac mini and seems to be running great. I added that 4TB Sandisk SSD USB-C drive and ripped all my SACD to DSF files stored on the 4TB. My older mac mini had an intel processor so I'm going to install windows and use it exclusively for application that can't run on a mac. ecwl I think I just wanted to upgrade! Apple has me locked in. I actually got three M4 mac minis for my network rack. One runs Photos software from Apple, Amazon and Google to backup originals to my synology and also used to rip SACDs last task might be to run handbrake to convert 4K Makemkv files to other formats. Third mini I use to rip 4K Blu-rays for now and any other tasks. I really wanted to keep the Roon mac mini just for roon with very limited other applications running on it.

 

[Juiced]

Hi @Chauncey79

I recommend you try Audirvana on your M4 Mini Mac.
There's a 30-day trial.

I find it to sound much better than roon on a Mac.

 

[jasond]

Hi @Chauncey79

I recommend you try Audirvana on your M4 Mini Mac.
There's a 30-day trial.

I find it to sound much better than roon on a Mac.

Interesting! So many reports of people reporting Roon‘s sound quality is inferior to many other software players. Also HQPlayer offers many options.
Is Roon providing an optimized build for M4 at all?

 

[msimanyi]

I have a dedicated M2 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM which worked fine with latest Roon.

However, I have now just switched to Audirvana Studio. The sound quality is remarkably better than Roon. No contest on my system. And Audirvana is cheaper, too.

Although I have Qobuz (and both Roon and Audirvana work with Qobuz), the vast majority of my listening is from my local drives and that is my basis for comparison.

My streamer and network switch are Aavik and Ansuz. The DAC is a MSB Select II.

Out of curiosity, what cable(s) do you use to connect your Mini to your DAC?

I'm trying a bit of an experiment with an M4 Mac Mini, and I need to get the output from the Mac into my Lampizator DAC, but I'm just not sure how to deal with the USB-C output on the Mac Mini. I'm pretty sure the USB input on all these DACs should be the same - type B, but there don't seem to be any high quality USB-C to USB-B cables.

 

[PLF]

Out of curiosity, what cable(s) do you use to connect your Mini to your DAC?

I'm trying a bit of an experiment with an M4 Mac Mini, and I need to get the output from the Mac into my Lampizator DAC, but I'm just not sure how to deal with the USB-C output on the Mac Mini. I'm pretty sure the USB input on all these DACs should be the same - type B, but there don't seem to be any high quality USB-C to USB-B cables.

I am not connecting the Mac to the DAC directly.

I am using an Aavik S-280 streamer and an Ansuz D2 switch. So the sequence is Mac Mini M2 -> Aavik S-280 -> MSB Select 2.

All cables are Ansuz D2.

The cable from the Mac Mini M2 is an ethernet cable going to Ansuz D2 switch.

Audiophile switch makes a difference. And in my experience, Audirvana considerably bests Roon, plus it is cheaper.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Out of curiosity, what cable(s) do you use to connect your Mini to your DAC?

I'm trying a bit of an experiment with an M4 Mac Mini, and I need to get the output from the Mac into my Lampizator DAC, but I'm just not sure how to deal with the USB-C output on the Mac Mini. I'm pretty sure the USB input on all these DACs should be the same - type B, but there don't seem to be any high quality USB-C to USB-B cables.

I use USB to USB C adapter to plug regular USB audio cable into my Mac Mini M2 to connect to the external DAC.

 

[msimanyi]

I am not connecting the Mac to the DAC directly.

I am using an Aavik S-280 streamer and an Ansuz D2 switch. So the sequence is Mac Mini M2 -> Aavik S-280 -> MSB Select 2.

All cables are Ansuz D2.

The cable from the Mac Mini M2 is an ethernet cable going to Ansuz D2 switch.

Audiophile switch makes a difference. And in my experience, Audirvana considerably bests Roon, plus it is cheaper.

Thank you for responding. It appears the M2 Mac Minis have USB-A ports, which the M4 Mac Minis are lacking.

I may well conduct this experiment on the M2 Studio I have, just due to the USB-A ports on it...

 

[AudioLibertarian]

In my case the regular USB A ports did not allow the data connection, as I use two head USB cable , (one head for the power and one for the data). So I had to use the USB A to USB C adapter ($4 from Amazon) to use the USB C slot and it has worked fine so far for two years.

 

[ssfas]

I have a M1 16gb and it happily runs Roon Server in multiple zones and HQ Player up to DSD256.

Roon have a habit of over specifying the processing requirements to meets its full potential (multi-room with EQ), which hardly anyone does.

 

[Elberoth]

Personally, I would go with Intel NUC 13 or 14-gen - simply 'cos how much more stable Roon ROCK OS is compared to iOS or Windows. Plus, it never needs a monitor / keyboard / mouse. Basicly works as an appliance.

 

[msimanyi]

That doesn’t work so well in a Bacch for Mac configuration…