Is this article relevant to the discussion? The author found that connecting an external monitor injected a lot of noise into the audio from the Macbook's headphone out.
https://www.sereneaudio.com/blog/how-good-is-macbooks-audio
https://www.sereneaudio.com/blog/how-good-is-macbooks-audio
I might be wrong but to imbed the metadata you will need to convert since as i understand, meta data in a WAV is separate.
dave
I've used a 2010 MacBook Pro "forever" as my music server. The earlier MacBook Pros had optical out (TOSLINK) via the headphone jack. I forget exactly when they got rid of that feature. My M2 Pro MBP has a headphone jack but no TOSLINK.
Have a look at Everymac for the specs: https://everymac.com/
I use Apple Lossless for the file format. I'm considering re-ripping my CD collection to FLAC as that's more widely supported.
I'll finally retire the 2010 because Tidal now requires a more modern operating system than the 2010 can support. I'll replace it with a RPi 5 running Moode.
Tom
Have a look at Everymac for the specs: https://everymac.com/
I use Apple Lossless for the file format. I'm considering re-ripping my CD collection to FLAC as that's more widely supported.
I'll finally retire the 2010 because Tidal now requires a more modern operating system than the 2010 can support. I'll replace it with a RPi 5 running Moode.
Tom
ALAC is FLAC rewritten with fewer bugs. IWhere i started i reripped all my CDs into AIFF.
Tom, ALAC to FLAC makes no sense to me.
dave
My desire for ALAC->FLAC was driven by a desire to get MP3s out in the end as my old car supported that format. That need has evaporated as the car was totalled in a side impact collision with me in it. My new (to me) car can suck the data directly from my phone, so maybe I'll just do that instead.
If Moode supports ALAC then I'll just stick with ALAC.
Tom
If Moode supports ALAC then I'll just stick with ALAC.
Tom
I hope you are alright. My similar expereince with losing a car that way was me smashing the front of my car into the back wheel of a semi-trailer cab when it turned right into a small road from the left-hand lane. About half-way between Red Deer and Calgary on the #2. His fault. He lost the rim. I lost the car, my kitten ran away, and i had charliehorses in bth arms and legs for most of the Xmas visit to the perantal units.
Can’t you easily convert anythng to MP3?
dave
I would wondering what it is you did wrong. All this talk of mac dacs being unsuitable for excellent playback is just a load of bull. I think I've outgrown this forum.
Well, I hoped that my description and recommendations would give you some ideas. I'm not saying PC's or laptops are always bad, but that I've seen a number of situations in which they needed help. I also offered up suggestions on how to test a system to see if any of my concerns apply. I'm neither being an alarmist nor am I being an absolutist. I've encountered situations where USB audio was suboptimal and offered effective solutions on how to fix those issues. In addition to my own personal experiences with USB creating audible hum I've also seen credible reports of USB audio causing excess jitter due to ground loops and HDMI causing issues as well.
Several notes:
Older Macs will not do continuity, so screen sharing that way is a no-go.
MacOs only go back so far for software support. So I did this:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...ka-music-server-costs-and-sq/#comment-1282612
ALAC, FLAC is all the same these days
I purchased a 4TB USB SSD from Microcenter for $230, and the price has dropped since then.
So storage is NOT a problem. Well, unless you collect Dobly ATMOS TrueHD files!!
I have spent the last five years fussing over Software and Sound Quality. To date, the winner is as follows:
Two Raspberry Pi's (or a $19,000USD Antipodes K50)
The server runs PiCorePlayer OS and LMS. The Pi 5 has a 4TB SSD NVME bottom board and a linear Power supply. The Second Pi runs PiCorePlayer with only Squeezelite. I only have the older Pi2AES, but it does sound great, fed by a 15V LPS.
I can get close with Minimserver on the Pi 5 and Audioliniux OS. The Pi3 runs the latest version of Ropieee with UPnP turned on.
Do not attach displays or anything else to the Pi.
I have trouble with Moode and Volumio handling a 60k-plus track library. I have not tried Moode on the Pi 5 yet! I know there have been problems with DAC HATs and stuff on the Pi 5. I have not researched it lately.
I played a little with Audirvana for Linux, and it was not ready for prime time a couple of months ago.
NOTE: most of these combinations sound pretty good until you start comparing them. I dare not count the hours of messing around.
rjf
PS I have some iancanda stuff in the post will be here next week.
PS now off the research Pi5 and Moode with HATs
Older Macs will not do continuity, so screen sharing that way is a no-go.
MacOs only go back so far for software support. So I did this:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...ka-music-server-costs-and-sq/#comment-1282612
ALAC, FLAC is all the same these days
I purchased a 4TB USB SSD from Microcenter for $230, and the price has dropped since then.
So storage is NOT a problem. Well, unless you collect Dobly ATMOS TrueHD files!!
I have spent the last five years fussing over Software and Sound Quality. To date, the winner is as follows:
Two Raspberry Pi's (or a $19,000USD Antipodes K50)
The server runs PiCorePlayer OS and LMS. The Pi 5 has a 4TB SSD NVME bottom board and a linear Power supply. The Second Pi runs PiCorePlayer with only Squeezelite. I only have the older Pi2AES, but it does sound great, fed by a 15V LPS.
I can get close with Minimserver on the Pi 5 and Audioliniux OS. The Pi3 runs the latest version of Ropieee with UPnP turned on.
Do not attach displays or anything else to the Pi.
I have trouble with Moode and Volumio handling a 60k-plus track library. I have not tried Moode on the Pi 5 yet! I know there have been problems with DAC HATs and stuff on the Pi 5. I have not researched it lately.
I played a little with Audirvana for Linux, and it was not ready for prime time a couple of months ago.
NOTE: most of these combinations sound pretty good until you start comparing them. I dare not count the hours of messing around.
rjf
PS I have some iancanda stuff in the post will be here next week.
PS now off the research Pi5 and Moode with HATs
Screen sharing does not need continuity, I have used my 2012, 2015, and M2 Air to screen share into my 2012 MacMini music server.
I willn ote, given erik's comments, that early USB connectivity was not nearly as good as they are today. DACs as well.
dave
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Here is some background for my starting this thread. My 2021 Dell Inspiron 7400 started shutting down randomly about 1-1/2 years ago. I tried suggested online fixes and even sent it to a Dell repair specialist, who could not duplicate or repair the problem. For my most recent repair attempt I went to Microsoft Windows Support a searched "random shutdown" and found 50 pages of correspondence from people with random shutdown issues going back many years and several versions of Windows.
Microsoft Info
No offense to Windows users, Windows is all I've had for around 28 years and I've been happy with it up to now. It's just not worth it to me to try another. It will be less frustration to learn a new operating system than go through the shutdown dilemma again.
As long as I can play my local audio files and stream to a DAC, I'm good. From everything I read a Macbook Air will do a great job. After all, it is music server for the Ultra Jeff Fritz Reference System where the Shunyata cables cost more than all the audio equipment I have ever owned (yeah, I looked).
Microsoft Info
No offense to Windows users, Windows is all I've had for around 28 years and I've been happy with it up to now. It's just not worth it to me to try another. It will be less frustration to learn a new operating system than go through the shutdown dilemma again.
As long as I can play my local audio files and stream to a DAC, I'm good. From everything I read a Macbook Air will do a great job. After all, it is music server for the Ultra Jeff Fritz Reference System where the Shunyata cables cost more than all the audio equipment I have ever owned (yeah, I looked).
That random shutdown problem sounds familiar. It sounds like a hardware problem, not a problem with Windows (software).
I have a cheapie Dell Celeron laptop I bought in 2013. I noticed the fan got a bit noisy and it ran pretty hot after some time under load. Within about a year it started shutting down randomly. I looked around on the web and saw that others with the same model had experienced the same issue (apparently caused by Dell overclocking the CPU a bit) and had sent their laptops in to Dell, who swapped out the motherboards. The mobo swap apparently fixed it (as well it should have!). I sent mine in, and that did fix it. That old beater is still in use as my music tagging, editing, format conversion, etc. PC. It's so old, it can't run Windows 11. It's running Win10.
I bought a $300 hewlett-packard Ryzen 3 laptop (running Win11)) a couple of years ago, and it's been a very good workhorse. No issues to complain about.
Personally, I've had bad luck with Dell computers in the 21st century. HP computers have been better for me. Before the Dell laptop, I always built my own desktops, but I'm too lazy these days, and the convenience of a laptop is nice.
There are plenty of reasons to get a Mac, and I'm not going to try to talk you out of getting one. But I just wanted to make it clear that random shutdowns are not a Windows issue. If your Mac is broken, macOS won't run right either. But a working Macbook Air will do a great job, I'm sure. I've had the pleasure of using an old 2012 Macbook Air at work, and it's really nice. Good, solid hardware. It feels good to use it. Definitely a big step up from my cheapie $300 Windows laptops.
PS - My music player is a Raspberry Pi 4 running Moode, with a Topping D10 DAC (nothing fancy at all). The music files are stored on two salvaged-from-laptops 2.5" 500GB hard drives in external enclosures. The USB devices are all connected to a powered USB hub, which connects to a USB port on the Pi. I use the Pi headless. I did try to connect the Pi to my TV through HDMI but the ground loop was horrible. I haven't bothered to try to fix that, just use my phone to control Moode. The only thing that's failed in the Pi is the uSD card. I got a cheap one from Walmart and that eventually failed. It wasn't a big deal to get another uSD card and flash it with the latest Moode image, but it's an annoyance when that happens. Next time I'll get a better quality one and hope it lasts longer. It's a total PITA to come home, power up the stereo, and not be able to access your music player. Makes me want to spin some vinyl...
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Am I the only one using AirPlay?
It’s lossless and isolated, what’s not to like?
https://www.belkin.com/uk/audio-adapter-with-airplay-2/P-AUZ002.html
Brian
It’s lossless and isolated, what’s not to like?
https://www.belkin.com/uk/audio-adapter-with-airplay-2/P-AUZ002.html
Brian
Thanks for the information Rangon. Being able to stay with Windows would make it much easier (and cheaper). I've had good luck with Lenovo so I may check into their laptops again. My current dependable digital music source is a Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 and it is great with Universal Audio Player Pro.
My pleasure, RickH.
Computers are a pain. The little Raspberry Pi things are a pain. Even Macs break. I do think that users who are not careful about what they install into their computers will run into trouble quicker in Windows than on a Mac, fwiw.
There's been talk for years about the superior audio quality from Mac computers. That could be true. I don't know. I like the idea of a little single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi running an OS that's been stripped down to nothing but what's essential for playing music with 'bit-perfect' accuracy. Seven years ago, I read on this site that Moode 'sounded better' than other Pi player OSs, so I went with it. I found that it does sound good (to me), and I like its look and feel. But Moode can't be used for anything other than playing music. That's its whole point.
Putting together a Pi player is pretty cheap. Canakit sells a Raspberry 5 complete kit for $140, to which you could add your favorite USB DAC. Install the latest Moode on the uSD card, connect your music storage drives, and you're off. There are some new things to learn during the installation process (you'll need to format the uSD card using the Raspberry Pi Imager app), but it's all very well worked out these days.
However, if you need a multi-purpose computer that also serves as your music player, then a Raspberry Pi would not be the thing. A laptop also makes a nice control surface for the music player. You don't have to deal with a web interface and any connection issues that might come up.
Computers are a pain. The little Raspberry Pi things are a pain. Even Macs break. I do think that users who are not careful about what they install into their computers will run into trouble quicker in Windows than on a Mac, fwiw.
There's been talk for years about the superior audio quality from Mac computers. That could be true. I don't know. I like the idea of a little single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi running an OS that's been stripped down to nothing but what's essential for playing music with 'bit-perfect' accuracy. Seven years ago, I read on this site that Moode 'sounded better' than other Pi player OSs, so I went with it. I found that it does sound good (to me), and I like its look and feel. But Moode can't be used for anything other than playing music. That's its whole point.
Putting together a Pi player is pretty cheap. Canakit sells a Raspberry 5 complete kit for $140, to which you could add your favorite USB DAC. Install the latest Moode on the uSD card, connect your music storage drives, and you're off. There are some new things to learn during the installation process (you'll need to format the uSD card using the Raspberry Pi Imager app), but it's all very well worked out these days.
However, if you need a multi-purpose computer that also serves as your music player, then a Raspberry Pi would not be the thing. A laptop also makes a nice control surface for the music player. You don't have to deal with a web interface and any connection issues that might come up.
Sorry I got your name wrong above Rongon, too late for me to edit. Another thought about Windows considering your post above. I have a budget Dell Inspiron 14" that cost $635 new. I wanted certaiin features, such as a high-resolution screen, so maybe there were compromises elsewhere. I retired from a government job where Dell business laptops were provided to everyone in my department for some fairly critical work. To my knowledge there was never a random shutdown problem. So maybe the problem is not Windows or even Dell, but a budget laptop.
Thank your post which got me to think differently. If I spend up to the amount for a Windows laptop that a Macbook would cost, maybe I would not have budget Windows laptop problems. Like my finally getting a Google Pixel and being happy with it instead of being frustrated but budget phones. I really need to quit cheaping out. Lesson learned!
Thank your post which got me to think differently. If I spend up to the amount for a Windows laptop that a Macbook would cost, maybe I would not have budget Windows laptop problems. Like my finally getting a Google Pixel and being happy with it instead of being frustrated but budget phones. I really need to quit cheaping out. Lesson learned!