I do not like mac mini as a streamer it just doesn’t sounds good. Tried it. It’s now my Roon core.
I know you said you are not interested in streaming music from internet but a network player such as Lumin U1 Mini or Auralic Aries G1 will sound better than the mac mini or the laptop. Just connect your hard drive to the back of these units and you’re set. Used these can be picked up at a reasonable price.
Better music player alternative to Mac Air / laptop
I am currently using Apple Macbook Air and/or Ms. Window based laptop as the hardware player, and pairing either “Foobar 2000” or “VLC” with the Mac/laptop for music playing. I prefer Mac Air to laptop because it has no fan. I collect lawful 16/24 bits, 44.1/88.2 khz flac and good recordings from Youtube and store them in a solid state drive as the source.
Although I felt the noise floor from this combination is quite dark and satisfactory, I am open to a possibly “cleaner” music player alternative/device (with display preferrably) than my current Apple Mac/laptop that the audiophiles continuously claim to be “dirty.” The “player” may include both hardware and software because the software I am currently using may not be able to run on the new device. I heard Mac Mini is a good choice so please share your experience if you had it. I do not stream and I do not intend to invest in the streamer in the near future. Thank you.