Set up my Mac Mini audio rig today! Any mainenance stuff I should know about?

When you get to Roon, there is no indication if it's an MQA file or not, so I'll have to go back into the Tidal app and find the specific non-MQA version and add that to the playlist.

Yes the MQA ID is still one of the issues with MQA and ROON, I understand that they are working on that along with being able to do the first MQA unfold in software.

Since you use Roon, do you find yourself making playlists in Tidal and using Roon just as a playback device, or are you primarily listening to your own files, or do you use Roon playlists?

I have just gotten comfortable enough with ROON that I am now making playlists in it. I have some from TIDAL that pulled over but they were just some things I was playing with.

I have 6500 albums in ROON, I think about 500 of those are TIDAL and the rest are my files.
 
^


Thanks for the reply, quick question where on Volumio does one store their library? Most of all my music is CD ripped ALAC files, as a matter of fact I just picked up the 7 CD Frank Zappa "Roxy Box" and I need to rip them soon.
Volumio can access music on a USB drive, NAS and the internal HDD it is running on.
 
OK I took your advice and did a direct comparison of the MQA file and the regular lossless file.

No scientific measurements here but the MQA file of "I Don't Care Anymore" sounded inferior to the uncompressed FLAC version of the file.

The MQA sounded "dead" in comparison. It lost a lot of the overtones of the drums, etc. Don't know if this is the case for other MQA songs on Tidal but I definitely noticed the difference.
FLAC is compressed to about 1/10 the file size of AIFF which is uncompressed.
 
Ughhh! I can't get Volumio to reliably reboot after shutting down in headless mode on the mini's internal hard drive. Very frustrating. After letting it run for a few days, I shut it down 3 or 4 times on the bench and all is well. Time to move it into the living room system cabinet me thinks, so I disconnect the Ethernet cable and power cables to the wifi adapter just to tidy up the cable slack, plug it back in exactly as before and it won't boot. Not from the HDD or off a USB stick holding down the option key. It boots part way and then just hangs, dead in the water. So I'm reinstalling El Cap and will give it another go running it from a bootable USB stick with an external USB HDD for my library. This experience is making it hard to not to do the luddite backslide and just use the Yamaha BDP to play CD's.
 
FLAC is compressed to about 1/10 the file size of AIFF which is uncompressed.

Apple have done a very bad job if AIFF is ten times the size of FLAC; they must be adding a whole bunch of unnecessary padding data. Assuming we're talking equivalent sample rates & resolutions (e.g. 44.1k/16bit in both cases).

FLAC compression is very lightweight (since it is lossless). You're lucky to get a 50% reduction in file size over the uncompressed WAV.
 
Apple have done a very bad job if AIFF is ten times the size of FLAC; they must be adding a whole bunch of unnecessary padding data. Assuming we're talking equivalent sample rates & resolutions (e.g. 44.1k/16bit in both cases).

FLAC compression is very lightweight (since it is lossless). You're lucky to get a 50% reduction in file size over the uncompressed WAV.
Not sure about crazy compression, but a lossless FLAC is still lossless/bitperfect. So nothing is actually lost except for drive space.

Sorry, I was talking out of the wrong orifice. I checked a couple of albums I downloaded in AIFF and converted to FLAC and the reduction in file size is around 40%. In my defense yesterday was my birthday and I was enjoying the bottle of Johnnie Walker I got :oops::confused:
 
Sorry, I was talking out of the wrong orifice. I checked a couple of albums I downloaded in AIFF and converted to FLAC and the reduction in file size is around 40%. In my defense yesterday was my birthday and I was enjoying the bottle of Johnnie Walker I got :oops::confused:

LOL. Cheers! :D
 
I've decided to give Adrivana a shot. Does the A+ Remote provide access to Preferences allowing you to switch between playback devices. I was thinking I could use the mini's optical output via an HDMI converter to feed my AVR for shared listening and display, use my Schiit-pile (Bifrost & Lyr) for ortho headphone time and my MF V90-AMP's internal DAC for my Stax's.
 
I've decided to give Adrivana a shot. Does the A+ Remote provide access to Preferences allowing you to switch between playback devices. I was thinking I could use the mini's optical output via an HDMI converter to feed my AVR for shared listening and display, use my Schiit-pile (Bifrost & Lyr) for ortho headphone time and my MF V90-AMP's internal DAC for my Stax's.

Not sure as I only have 1 system. But I don't think it does multi-room etc. As for sound quality, I believe most think A+ is better because of the Izotope SRC setting/tweaking and upsampling. Checkout this long detailed thread on it. https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/15051-izotope-src/

Depending on your hardware, settings effect it differently, but you can basically build DAC profiles via software.

My settings:
Steepness: 3
Filter Length: 1,150,000
Cut-Off: 1.2
Anti-Aliasing: 100
Pre-ring: 0.36
 
My Mac Mini is set up to sleep after 60 minutes of inactivity, and to wake for network access. The Remote App on the iPad or iPhone wakes it reliably enough, provided that all software on iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, and AirPort Express is up to date. I’m happy enough with ALAC files on ITunes, at least for the moment. Aside from updating software, dusting, and creating backups, the HDD source and streaming arm of the system requires essentially no maintenance.
 
I think I'm there or at least a lot closer to having the mini running Audirvana functionally and aesthetically integrated into the living room system.

The cabinet with most of the equipment out of sight. Only the non-remote controlled devices are exposed. Everything inside works behind remotely via IR repeater or wifi. The Sys switches sources, vinyl or Bifrost for the Lyr HP amp.
IMG_0506.JPG

Yamaha AVR & BDP, cable DVR and a spare Sony TA N55 ES amp inside. The tube phono stage will be added when it's back from the hospital. There's an Emotiva XPS-1 stashed behind the left drawer which feeds the AVR and the Sys keeping the vinyl signal path to the headphone amps all analog.
IMG_0505.JPG

Headphone and record paraphernalia drawer. Probably could use some dividers.
fullsizeoutput_72a.jpeg

This was originally a drawer for a Dual CS-5000 which has since been bumped to TT #3 and is doing bedroom duty. Here we have the mini, its ps, a mini-display port/optical audio to HDMI adapter to an AVR input, Stax Earspeaker 230V adapter and a Musical Fidelity V90 AMP to feed the Stax. There's a Roku 4 stashed under this drawer. The V90s internal USB DAC is fed from one of the mini's dedicated USB ports. The other feeds the Bifrost DAC. Vinyl input for the V90 (Stax) is analog from the output of the Lyr which adds some tubiness.
IMG_0504.JPG

And behind it all is a crap ton of cabling.
IMG_0502.JPG

The AVR doesn't have preouts for the 5 channels so I'll probably upgrade it to one with pre-outs so I can run some better amplification for the mains. I have 2 lines of component video cable run thru the walls, attic, and mantle so I can put those amps up front with the sub, someday :)

Adirvana as now seen from my listening chair. Tomorrow I’ll update the Harmony One remote program so my wife can listen to the mini as well.
8487FE5D-35A6-477A-B591-A269EF25B490.jpeg
 
Last edited:
9 days in and I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking with Audrivana. No problems, great sound and if I want to go down the extended tags for jazz/classical and the filtering rabbit holes I can.
 
Back
Top Bottom