You are right, maybe I can create a bootable Mavericks disc someday and just compare it to HS. Could be worth it.
And for Roon: I quit Roon and the use of Bridge II about a year ago. I was deeply frustrated with SQ and the ongoing troubles with FW-updates on Bridge II (which seem to be solved in the meantime). And Roon itself is rumored to be sounding better and better over the last updates. But I think for now I wil stick to A+ and I am very curious about the UI of the upcoming A+ v3.5 and hope the SQ will be equally good (or even better).
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Roger Copy… 
It is straight forward: the Mac Mini feeds the Matrix via USB, and the Matrix feeds the DS on I2S. It is all about listening to Music from the internal SSD. No streaming service integrated. Only ripped or downloaded aiff-files.
interesting.
I would get tired of my ripped-CD, Hi-Res downloads and vinyl library quite quickly. I need the discovery factor that Roon provides. I love it, and I think it sounds great, but then my system is pretty modest.
Is anyone of you familiar with the fact that you (might) need a HDMI simulator plug in your Mac Mini when you use it headless…?
never needed one.
Sometimes it complains if there’s no mouse/keyboard attached and looks for a BT one. But no problems on the video side.
You?
Yes. My Mac Mini’s video output gets REAL SLOOOWWW without at least a HDMI dummy plug in it. It is a know issue and you can get several plugs that solve that. It seems to be a hardware thing in where the hardware doesn’t “see” a monitor and therefor goes into a “different” operating mode of some kind. You notice that if you remote console it and the mous lags real slow.
So… I stuck a plug in it et voila… Problem went away…
interesting.
I use Apple Remote Desktop and no issues. Mini is wired ethernet, but my MacBook Pro controlling it is wireless. Never seen any lag.
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Former OSX versions seem to need a dummy plug. HS does not need it. Runs flawless without it.
That must be it then…
I haven’t done any of the OSX Optimizing commands at this point, but I am testing HQPlayer on the Mini. Took a while to get the setup figured out, but it’s acting as an endpoint for Roon now, and working seamlessly. The Roon Core I left as is, and I installed HQPlayer on the Roon Bridge Mac Mini, which then feeds the Topping D50 DAC into my Audiolab 8000A Integrated.
Roon makes it simple to transfer the stream between zones, so I can A/B it pretty easily. And here’s what I found: There is a DEFINITE SQ improvement with HQPlayer. I was stunned, frankly. Details in the music that were “noticeable if you listen for it” when listening without HQPlayer became PROMINENT with it – in the very best way possible.
I’m only a day into the 30-day trial, but I’m pretty sure I’ll buy it. (Not sure why they need it to have an irritating 30-minute limit if the trial expires in 30 days anyway, but maybe it just gets people to buy it sooner!)
Anyway, thanks for the tip @ronaldwanders. Seriously enjoying it. 
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Much obliged… Wait till you strip your Mac and remove the Core and the other stuff… Did you have all the sampling stuff on or off…?
P.S. I think they want you to buy it faster… LOL
“sampling stuff” on HQPlayer? Not sure. Everything is default for now, but I’ll muck with it. Any recommendations?
And when you say “remove the core”… what core? There’s CoreAudio, Roon Core, etc…
HQPlayer does a lot of tricks in up sampling before sending it out to your DAC. I use HQPlayer on my multi-million dollar Totaldac NOS DAC so obviously I am not going to let HQPlayer up sample anything. But that’s my opinion and my DAC. Whatever works for you. I do however recognize your surprise in quality.
I have, like a said before, my Mac Mini solely for playing music. NOT for Roon Core, email, Spotlight, Safari and what not. So if you strip all that (with that script I mentioned) you have another WOW moment…
I’ll have a look at the HQPlayer’s upsampling settings when I’m back home. I do see in Roon that the icon is BLUE vs PURPLE, and I can see that some upsampling is occurring.
So, yeah, I do use Roon to drive the GUI and control the library and streaming. So, the music files reside on the Roon Core mini (the OS is on one SSD, and the music is on a second SSD within the same mini), and the stream is sent via ethernet to the second mini (acting as Roon Bridge).
None of them run email or web browsers or anything. (Well, I do have a browser installed for ease of downloading files, but it doesn’t run while listening to music.)
HQPlayer runs on the Bridge Mini, and I can run it without Roon if I so choose. But that’s only for files I already possess, not streaming obviously. And it’s tougher to A/B the sound quality without Roon involved.
Aha… That’s great… You are good to go…!
Now be careful: I am not saying that you need to disable the up sampling. HQPlayer is one of the best “upsamplers” ever…
About the blue vs purple: My up sampling is totally disabled and that little star is still blue, so Roon assumes it is an “enhanced” player… Here is mine…
Cool, thanks!
The main thing, at least for me, is that I thought it sounded good before… BUT I CAN HEAR IT’S THAT MUCH BETTER NOW.
This can be an insidious drug. I know that. We keep reaching for some high that may or may not never come. But it’s pretty damned amusing seeing where we can go.
But at this point I’m not spending a crap ton of money on this stuff. The mini’s I already had (I retired them as servers at work); my speakers + subwoofer were <$1000. My Audiolab Integrated was $300. DAC was <$200.
Add in Roon and HQPlayer, and it’s still less than one house payment.
So it’s a cheap drug, at least for now. 
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I changed the root password to a simple three character one-typed su in terminal and get “Sorry.” Is there more?
I am running 10.13.6. Is the optimization similar to the one created by Mojo Audio?
How do you run the MacMini headless after the optimization-with an I-Pad/Screens? I had Bill Ernst optimize my MacMini and no longer have bluetooth, screen saver or energy saver in the system preferences. I am looking to get rid of the wired mouse/keyboard and possibly run Roon.
Thanks, Mark.
Sorry Mark, High Sierra is not my cup of tea…
Thanks, Mark.