Mac Mini As A Streaming Source

I upgraded to an M2 Mac Mini and it works great as a streaming device to my Aqua formula DAC. Roon is quick, much quicker than on the 7-8 year old Mini I was running.

I use a Luna dongle to send video to an iPad so I can run the Mac Mini in headless mode.

I stream from Tidal and Qobuz under Roon. The Mac mini runs my Roon core. 

I’m curious how you would stream from Apple Classical as I thought they only had an iPhone version and not a version for the Mac Mini. If they had a version for the Mac Mini, I would run it.

My dream is that one day the Naxos Music Library will allow themselves to be integrated under Roon but I guess that is unlikely.

The promise of Apple silicon is to be able to run the same apps across all hardware devices, so, I certainly hope that they will produce a version of the Apple Classical app that runs on the Mac Mini. 

I can't connect my iPhone to the USB input on my DAC, as the Mac Mini is already connected to that input. Besides that, it is awkward to have to connect a phone to my stereo to stream music. The same goes for streaming through the Mac Mini. 

I have a Bluetooth keyboard and Magic trackpad that I can use with the headless Mac Mini. Generally speaking, I don't need to do a lot on the Mac Mini when it is in headless mode. The Roon app running on the iPad does everything I need. 

I could connect it to my TV though, I just haven't done it, Thanks for reminding me. 

I think I've been down this road before with you, the HDMI road, lol. My DAC does not have an HDMI input, although it has many other inputs. Look up the Aqua Formula. The thing sounds great, by the way. 

Roon does an excellent job of controlling all my playback so I don't have to struggle with apps running on the Mac Mini. 

I can't believe AirPlay provides good quality playback. I tried to stream from a dedicated streaming app for a radio station over AirPlay to the Mac and it dropped all the time so I gave up. 

I put my ear up against the M2 Mini and I cannot hear the fan at all. I don’t think the processor is under much load when it is streaming audio.

Of course, there is ambient noise in the room. None of us have silent rooms, unless we live in the world’s quietest room which measures -20dB, yes, negative 20dB.

I’m willing to consider that the addition of the Aqua Linq to my Formula may improve the sound quality but I wonder by how much. I could still run my Roon Core on the Mac Mini in another room or run the Roon core on my Mac Studio, which certainly would not be taxed it.

Are there any places that sell the Aqua Linq and allow a return within a short period of time?

That’s the thing, how much are we comfortable spending in order to gain an increase in sound quality?

I spent about $8k the Aqua Formula DAC and love it. It really sounds great. Now, people tell me I should not stream from a Mac Mini but have a dedicated streamer.

Maybe they’re right, I don’t know. I’d like to be able to trial the LinQ streamer.

What do people think about the workaround for Roon using HQPlayer which is used in the LinQ?

I will say that digital audio is such a mess and I’m in tech. I’m amazed it works at all. I’d actually like to spend most of my time listening to music and not messing around configuring a device.

Roon has worked well for me for years. It’s pretty easy to set up, the apps keep getting better, it streams from multiple providers and to multiple devices. It’s pretty cool. 

It is funny to hear so many different takes on streaming digital audio.

I don’t expect anyone to tell me what to and everyone has a different opinion on what to do.
I’ve always operated under the assumption that I should improve my amp, preamp, and speakers first in order to achieve large improvements in sound quality.

Thanks a lot @lalitk and @tk21 !

Funny enough, yesterday, I read a page on how to configure HQPlayer as a zone in Roon. I’m going to do that in order to see what kind of improvement I hear over the Roon engine. 

$299 is pretty cheap compared the cost of the LinQ, lol.

At some point, I will try to audition the LinQ to see how much of a difference it makes in my system. 

First, I need to get my monster amp back from the shop. The sound quality just isn’t the same without Class A.

Well, I think I just wasted $299.

I purchased a copy of HQPlayer for my Mac Mini, set it up, picked CoreAudio output and connected the USB output to my Aqua Formula. 

Well, it fights with the Aqua Formula device I had set up so I disabled that device. Still, no sound. The Aqua Formula supports CoreAudio so I think it should work but perhaps I am mistaken. 

I will head to the Roon forum but any thoughts?
 

I got it to work. I’m still trying to figure out how much of an improvement it provides.

I was tricked by the volume control in HQPlayer when I had set the level to fixed in Roon. The setting of -60 in HQPlayer rendered the system mute. By the way, the developer says not to use greater than -3.0.

@mahler123 So, I’m running HQPlayer now on my M2 Mac Mini. I think there is an improvement in sound quality. I’m still trying different filters and such. It is cheap compared to buying a hardware upsampler. I bought a license for HQPlayer 5.

Installation was easy after I figured out that I had been tricked by the volume control and that the Roon could not set a fixed level in HQPlayer.

Also, I added HQPlayer to Login Items on the Mac Mini so it so installed when the Mac is started. I run headless with the Luna dongle to transmit the screen to my iPad. It works pretty well. I can change options in HQPlayer from the IPad.