I think that hardware/software can and does make a significant sonic difference IF you have a nice Audio system.
In general Macs, PCs, and Linux systems have different hardware and software, so I think this will be fun discussion.
Over the years, I have worked on Macs (the original Mac with a single floppy and no hard drive), PCs since 1986, and Linux/Unix system (Intel Factory for one). Yep, I'm an IT guy and am not a fanboy of any platform. They all have their pluses and minus's.
My first music server was a PC Laptop. I thought that a battery powered solution would be best. Then dbaudiolabs suggested I try a MacMini. A friend had just set one up and he brought it over. It killed my Lenovo laptop that I had set up for bit-perfect output. I was shocked. It wasn't even close.
I'm not saying a MacMini will crush all PCs, but it killed my Lenovo laptop with bit perfect output, and the MacMini wasn't optimized. It was stock at the time.
Since then, I have learned a lot about the MacMini setup and even discovered a few set up tricks I haven't seen anyone else use. My current MacMini setup sounds so much better than the stock one.
The MacMini setup principles can be used on the other Hardware/OS platforms. Given that all the platforms can be setup well, I think a discussion about platforms themselves will be interesting, AS LONG AS IT IS BASED ON REAL A/B EXPERIENCES, and NOT THEORY. Theory doesn't always pan out like we expect.
In general Macs, PCs, and Linux systems have different hardware and software, so I think this will be fun discussion.
Over the years, I have worked on Macs (the original Mac with a single floppy and no hard drive), PCs since 1986, and Linux/Unix system (Intel Factory for one). Yep, I'm an IT guy and am not a fanboy of any platform. They all have their pluses and minus's.
My first music server was a PC Laptop. I thought that a battery powered solution would be best. Then dbaudiolabs suggested I try a MacMini. A friend had just set one up and he brought it over. It killed my Lenovo laptop that I had set up for bit-perfect output. I was shocked. It wasn't even close.
I'm not saying a MacMini will crush all PCs, but it killed my Lenovo laptop with bit perfect output, and the MacMini wasn't optimized. It was stock at the time.
Since then, I have learned a lot about the MacMini setup and even discovered a few set up tricks I haven't seen anyone else use. My current MacMini setup sounds so much better than the stock one.
The MacMini setup principles can be used on the other Hardware/OS platforms. Given that all the platforms can be setup well, I think a discussion about platforms themselves will be interesting, AS LONG AS IT IS BASED ON REAL A/B EXPERIENCES, and NOT THEORY. Theory doesn't always pan out like we expect.