I am looking for some advice on reasonable minimum specs for a MacBook laptop to run Audirvana on. My plan would be to use the USB out to a USB DAC and listen directly. This would be instead of using UPnP and remote, which I just couldn’t get to work without problems. I would be thinking of a MacBook so I can have easy access to the interface without using the remote.
I would be buying a used MacBook for this. There are tons of used MacBooks on local marketplaces, and I would be looking to get the most recent and best specs I could afford - but am after a steer over what would be reasonably minimum specs on a MacBook for this.
I did search the threads to see if this has been asked, but couldn’t see it had. Apologies if I have missed it.
There seems to be a consensus that newer MacBooks sound better via USB output than older ones. If funds allow I would go for a Macbook with Apple M1 or M2 chips.
If you are looking for an older one, these are the minimum requirements:
OS X 10.13 (High Sierra) or later
4GB RAM, recommended: 8GB RAM
I’m running Audirvana Studio on both of my MacBooks. A base model M1 MacBook Pro (8 gb of RAM, 256 gb SSD) and a 2017 MacBook Air (8 gb of RAM, 256 gb SSD).
Now I’m not into DSD stuff but both handle my local music, Qobuz and Tidal without issues. And each is connected to a USB sound card. The Pro to an Audiotrak Prodigy Cube 24/96 and the Air to a Terratec 7.1 Aureon USB.
Have listened via a Macbook Pro (admittedly quite old, 2012 version) with 16Gb Ram, and also a Win 10 NUC with 32Gb Ram. In all honesty I couldn’t tell the difference between the two.
I’d have to say I prefer the NUC. No moving parts as is housed in a passive case, so no ambient fan noise.
To be honest. Both my 2017 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro have a fan, but I have never heard them being used for normal stuff. Only when trying to play some heavy games on the Air did I hear its fan. My M1 I have never heard so far.
My Windows gaming laptop on the other hand… Its fan always seems to be running.
I think the higher than usual fan noise was probably due to the age of the Macbook.
Who know’s how much dust it’s acccumulated over the years.
In all honesty I’m not really sure why I purchased it, as one of the first things I did was install Windows on it as a dual-boot
My experience with computers for audio is as follows:
Regardless of the computer, I never thought it was good using Windows 10, I didn’t try it with Windows 11.
With the configuration that Audirvana requires, any Apple computer from 2012.
It was also very good using Windows Server with optimization programs, but it is more complicated to install and is not supported by Audirvana.
Today I’m using a 2018 Mac mini with an I5 and 8GB of Ram and it works perfect for DSD128.
Thank you @tmthylance, @OffRode ( ) and @bitracer.
Have often thought of removing the back as the battery lasts approx 15 minutes, so could do with replacing it.
Even though you can run Windows on a Intel Mac, the API’s may not be optimized for all tasks… The smartest way to use an Apple computer is to use macOS… the overhead of the virtualization software on top of the macOS taxes the CPU operational state…
It’s not a good idea to use compressed air to blow dust off the keyboard or vents or internal components… this forces debris into the switches, etc… It’s better to get a very inexpensive mini vac to vacuum the dust out…
The computer architecture environment is a ‘noisy’ place… no matter if it is optimized for digital-audio playback or not… To mitigate noise in a computer topology is not simple to do and requires special attention to mitigate ‘noise’… Generally ‘noise’ that affects the performance of I/O buses is attributed to power-supply quality and management and component layout on the platform topology… This concept can be extrapolated in the DAC topology as well…
It may be true that new Apple computers are optimized for high-resolution digital-audio and video I/O data flow, and more attention is being paid to factors negatively affecting that data…
Agree,
another point may be that newer computers have more CPU power than older ones.
From the reports on different forums like AS and WBF computers with more powerful CPUs seem to sound better than these with less powerful ones. As you mentioned the synergy between computer and DAC plays a role as well.
It’s more likely that the topology is better optimized… We already know that M series architecture includes dedicated processing for both audio and video and supporting RAM built into the chip design topology… shorter signal path-lengths reduce latency and this reduces the potentials for intrinsic jitter to influence the data… Lower power-demand reduces potentials for gate interrupts, etc, due to insufficient power supplies and RF and EMF can be reduced, primarily due to the vertical integration of sub-systems in the FPGA architecture…
