2012 mac mini vs HDX/NDX feeding into NDAC

Alex,

Sorry I cannot answer your question, as I have no experience of either. I know that there is a difference of opinion amongst form members, and no doubt you will get replies from people who favour one or the other.

What I can say though is that you will definitely need to listen yourself before buying. As you point out, there is a large cost difference and any difference in performance will need to be evaluated in the light of this. Also it depends on your own expectations and goals.

Good luck.

Peter

I prefer the Mac Mini ... can't see the point of buying HDX/NDX/ DAC ... as it is very expensive and for that money you could go for Mac Mini DAC 555PS or even NDS. For me the main carrot of using the Mac is ease of setup and maintenance and that it plays virtually anything ... However, the NDS did sound superb when i heard it at some demonstrations. 

I chose the Mac because it just works and sounds great not because I thought it sounded better than the Naim streamers. 

I guess it depends on how you plan to use the system.  There may not be a lot of difference in sound quality with the same source material but if you have to rip 1000 CDs, you might prefer the HDX!

XLD on the Mac Mini with Samsung external drive will make perfect rips of CDs .. If you use Toast then you can also rip DVDs and BluRay ... 

HDX will also make perfect rips as will UnitiServe ...

lots of options and they all work and sound very good ... You can't really lose. 

Well my new DAC has arrived, replacing the CDX2 in my CDX2/XPS2/Hi/202/200/S400 system.

I've just been listening to some ALAC files and Spotify streaming at 320 on my iPad.

JUST BLOWN AWAY..... Superb, dynamic, detail, control.Very very happy indeed....... :-)

Next step is how to link it to the Mini... Going to try the Toslink first, with the mini on the bottom of the rack, but may use the Toslink via an airport express instead.

Airport express Toslink is quite dreadful in my view ..  Nothing like the quality of the mac mini ... The difference is measurable .. 

I wish Wyred4Sound would jump in with an upgrade solution.  I wonder why it makes sense to Apple to go to the trouble to include Tos, and have it be more or less unusable.  Not the Apple I know.

Nick

Thanks. Saved me £79.

Apple is a schizophrenic company. Some great stuff, real innovation, and some consumer crap built to a tight budget. Trouble is its often hard to see what's what!

I would say don't use the Airport Express for this. Go straight to the MacMini with a good glass optical cable if you can. I have two AE's and one is used to play music in another room for casual/social listening and the other is used for extending the wireless network. Neither of these functions use the optical out.

Using Apple TV optical out via NDS, for quick casual listening from iPhone/iTunes library (ALAC and AIFF) it is fine, the volume control just makes things easier also in the UI, and the iPhone/iTunes library is just quickly convenient, but I say for quick access and listening while I work for example.

I like this small amount of convenience when it suits me, and why not have all options open and available to suit the mood/needs at that time, but it clearly is not the same as full NAS playback through Cat6 direct cables, plus the hires files.

Best

Dan43

get a USB/SPDIF converter and go from there.  I have that connected between my Mac mini and naim DAC. And love it!