I am looking at buying a Mac Mini to run Audirvana and access headless. I have been looking at similar forum posts, and am hoping to clarify two things:
Can I access the sound and DAC settings on the Mac Audirvana app via headless means? I found out I could not accomplish this using my NUC PC via the iPad remote app. For the MAC, I see there are options for using a second MAC or apps and dongles like the Luna to access the MAC headless. However if I end up with the same issue not being able to access sound device settings there’s little point in trying.
Is running Audirvana headless any good in terms of the general experience?
Thanks for this. So does your older MAC Mini have a screen? I would be hoping to just use my existing iPad without purchasing a second Mac with screen. I see there’s an app with a dongle called Lumia for this purpose. So I would need either this or a second Mac with screen (e.g. an old MacBook) it sounds like.
Running a headless Mac Mini Audirvana Studio system here - the Mac Mini is connected by HDMI to a Panasonic TV but is not used for any TV content. It is used with Screen Sharing from either a MacBook Pro or from an office iMac.
I’m not really interested in HD analysis while I;m listening to music but will switch on the TV and look at HD analysis for interest on the big screen. All metadata is done via Screen Sharing.
I use a headless 2018 MacMini running Audirvana Studio, and for any settings which need to be adjusted l use either Screen Sharing via my iMac, or my iPad using this app….
It all works well, though l must admit the headless MacMini is purely for audio feedback! I don’t use it for anything else
i use VNC Viewer to control My MacMini headless with my iMac with Screen Sharing,
but on my iPhone, i use VNC Viewer to control any mac when i’m not in front of them in the house.
it works to do anything remotely on a Mac… iPhone or iPad version.
Mac Mini M1 headless connected via HDMI to an Anthem AVM70 (5.1.2 setup)
Audirvana Studio to play DSF / HD FLAC in multichannel and stereo (stored in Synology NAS)
Control via iPad / iPhone
When I’m in my studio:
Mac Studio Ultra (+ RME ADI-2 DAC FS) with normal access to Audirvana Studio
same library and files from NAS
I’ve first to clean my Audirvana library (full of duped tracks, don’t know if caused by 3.5 migration), currently on my Mac Studio, and then understand how to share the same library across the 2 Macs… (I know only one Mac at a time can play Audirvana files - no problem).
Many thanks to all who replied so quickly today - I really appreciate it. I think in terms of what I have learned from these, it would mainly seem feasible if I was using a second Mac, and so this is going to mount up, expense-wise. This being the case, I may just revert to the other plan of remote/UPnP to Pi devices. It’s just not as reliable I think.
Remote/UPnP to Pi… I’m afraid in the circle I would lose some of my SACD multichannel formats… that is my main reason to have a Mac Mini connected to my Anthem pre-amplifier…
I hope I’ll find a way to wake-on-lan my Mac mini, with Audirvana Studio in auto-start, and then control it from Audirvana mobile, headless.
I’ll have then to find how to remote shutdown the Mac (but I think it will be easy) and… done
