mac mini audirvana

Where is your mini located?  Are you running other things in addition to Audirvana?  Mine sits switched on 24/7 with Audirvana running in the background and I have never heard the fan come on, to be honest I didn't know it had a fan!

its in exactly the same place as it was before… a metre away from the dacv1 only the software has chained from apple remote to audirvana

thanks

I believe the fan on a Mac Mini runs all the time. What you're hearing is a step up in speed as the unit increases in temperature because of intensive activity, eg playing music. If you believe it's acting incorrectly - ie the fan is on too much - you can reset the Mac's SMC. If you Google 'reset SMC on Mac Mini' you'll find out how.

sjw posted:

I've recently started using audirvana on my mac mini and noticed the fan running (It goes off after a while) - I've never heard it before using remote or in fact running anything!

any ideas please?

sjw, you should be able to login remotely onto the mini via ssh (from another computer on the LAN of from a tablet device running an ssh app) and monitor the processes running on the mini and their requirements in terms of CPU load and, therefore, heat generation. For instance, running "top" from the command line. Comparing the outcome of "top" while running audirvana and while running remote, should give you a clear indication of the processes that are likely responsible for the increased CPU load, heating and fan activity.

On a fanless, low-power fit-PC3 running MinimServer, MPD and upmpdcli I hardly see CPU loads above 5-10%. I am not a mac mini expert and I do not know the CPU requirement of audirvana. But if you are not using audirvana for transcoding or for computing fancy music visualizations, I would expect CPU loads below 10% and no or very low fan activity. 

Building on @NBPF's suggestions, if you do not like using Terminal, use Activity Monitor (allso within Utilities in OS X) to see what the Mini is doing when on and off music duties.

I would also do a hardware test on the mini (Google something like Mac mini hardware test).

I've used Audirvana since 2013 and upgraded both Audirvana and Mac OS to pretty much the latest versions (v2.5 and 10.11.4) on the same late 2012 Mini.  I also play DSD files since the V1 firmware update.  

Even when playing DSD128 files, processor usage on my late 2012 Mini is about 7%. I have tailored my a mini for audio using 'Audio Circles' guidelines (no hardware tweak or mods) and selecting the 'extreme' setting in Audirvana preferences' 'system optimisation'.

I don't ever here the fan, my mini is left on from 7am to 11pm. 

Sometimes, an Audirvana or OS X update causes temporary software bugs. It may be that this the issue, as Audirvana has had a number of releases very recently to add its own DSD features. If I recall OS X has had an update in the last 4 weeks or so. Not sure which versions you are using.

HTH

Jude

thank you all

I have reset the Smc as suggested and seems better already

sound quality from audirvana is great though i think the remote app needs work - the selection for album artist etc is just tiny!

will monitor and look at other options if that fails!

cheers

Only just picked this up - and glad to learn that it may be resolved. I can only ever hear the fan on my MM when music is off and I put my ear closer than 2-3 feet away.

I agree re the app., but it's still very new and no doubt will improve. With app. or controlling via VNC, what I find frustrating is a lack of sorting by location (i.e folder), which I have used as a primary library sorting process for genres, given that the genre metadata on at least half my 1000+ albums is either missing or incorrect. Damian said he would add that, though it is a while now (but meanwhile other things have improved)

fan noise gone

music quality stunning!

sjw posted:

fan noise gone

music quality stunning!

Great. Enjoy! Best, nbpf