Streamer vs. new mac mini for 2 channel system

I have just upgraded my MacMini 2012 model which was a dedicated music server having Roon core for my Bricasti DAC M12 with a Roon Nucleus Plus and the performance gain was very noticeable. It was not like a day and night difference but good enough for me to replace the MacMini.
My MacMini was a dedicated music server having Roon core. It had dual SSD drives, one drive dedicated to the OS and the other one had the music files. It had just one user application installed, Roon, and it was configured to stay on forever to ensure no interruption to music. I was using the ethernet route to talk to Bricasti DAC which is also an excellent Roon endpoint. The MacMini was placed in a different room to provide further noise isolation. Additionally I had Etherregen, an audiophile switch from Uptone Audio to filter out all network related noise from getting into Bricasti. I couldn’t be happier with the performance of my digital system and thought that I would have to spend a lot of money buying dedicated music servers like Antipodes or Innuos to beat this performance. However out of curiosity I tried a moderately priced Roon Nucleus Plus unit to compare its performance with MacMini and found it to be quite good. Compared to Nucleus Plus the MacMini sounded thin and edgy revealing the noise issue that most audiophiles attribute it to noisy computer processing environment.
My Nucleus Plus uses a dedicated Linear Power supply Keces P8 which in turn uses a moderately good power cable Nordost Heimdall II to connect to a Nordost distribution box. So there is a difference between MacMini and Nucleus Plus in the way they are powered. Whether a better power supply to the Nucleus Plus compared to the MacMini or Nucleus Plus being a purpose built component or both brings the performance improvement, I don’t know. Further I am not using the USB interface to connect to Bricasti DAC in either case and I have Etherregen in the chain to filter out any Network noise. So, in theory, there shouldn’t have been any performance difference between these two components but there is and I can’t explain the difference. What I can say for sure is that if I didn’t try Nucleus Plus I wouldn’t be dissatisfied with the performance of MacMini at all.
Thanks

@tvad-  You can try Keces P8 Linear Power supply or Uptone Audio JS-2 Linear Power Supply. Either one would work but the stock MacMini 2012 model needs an internal power supply upgrade to be able to use the 12V Linear Power Supply input. The Uptone Audio MacMini DC conversion kit would be an easy way to upgrade the internal power supply of a MaxMini 2012 model. Here is the link.
https://uptoneaudio.com/products/mac-mini-dc-conversion-linear-fan-controller-kit-mmk
I don't know how to upgrade the internal power supply of a newer version of a MacMini but there are vendors in the market who could do that for you.
Thanks.

That is very correct @sns. That is also why I didn't move in the direction of upgrading my MacMini. Instead I got a purpose built music server Roon Nucleus Plus to replace the MacMini. However the MacMini performance in the way I was using was not bad at all and if I didn't compare it with the Roon Nucleus I wouldn't feel the need for an immediate upgrade.
Thanks.

Recently I have done some testing with LPS (Keces P8) connecting it to Nucleus Plus, audiophile switch Etherregen and I have mixed results. It worked very well with Nuclues Plus but not so much with the audiophile switch Etherregen. But I am still not a 100% sure that a LPS wouldn’t work well with Etherregen. This is due to the fact that I used a dual output LPS to power Etherregen and Nucleus Plus and it is possible that Keces LPS design is less than optimal to eliminate noise in this dual power supply mode. I intend to test this combination with a single 12V output LPS and confirm the result. 
Powering router with a LPS is an interesting combination that I haven’t tested it. Given that I have Etherregen in between router and my Bricasti DAC the upstream noise at the router level shouldn’t matter but you don’t know unless you test it. It is there in my list of items to try with a lower priority…Thanks