East Coast Building.
He is at Princeton.
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Princeton NJ
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When looking north, to the right a ways.
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Road trip! Iām sure @RonP would enjoy the visit.
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I finally modded my Bacch4mac audiophile edition Macintosh M-1 to ditch the internal SMPS in favor of 12V LPS supplied by HDPLEX300. Quick Summary SMPS=Distortion+ Noise+ Harsh edge+Masking+ Lost Details
Here is the card you need.
Though I got the conversion kit before Bacch4mac arrived. I have been dragging my feet thinking maybe it would not be worth the trouble. I am happy to report I was so wrong. From the get go it has opened everything up. More soundstage larger space between vocals and instruments. Just pure listening joy. My M-1 had a Shunyata 14 gauge NR AC cord previous which was better than stock cord. It is back on my Apple TV
Below are some mod details. You have to totally disassemble the mini M-1
Hereās a video to disassemble.
Note there is not enough room for the teradak LPS card unless you pull the SMPS card. The video is wrong inthe SMPS has at third middle screw screwed to the Mini chassis Also it doesnāt easily push out. The A/C connector has a plastic plate piece with some slots were it wedges to the Mini case. Anyhow I broke its wires pulling it with pliers since it would not slide. So no going back to AC power and no loss this is for Audio. Also label fans screws though A as the T-6 fan threads threads are different diameter. I will never get those two hours of struggle back trying to attach fan with SMPS screws.
As for acceptable LPS to run the a Mini M-1. They teradak on ebay say you need 13 Amps. They sell one sized for it as a Rcore LLPS. My LPS is the HDPLEX300 rated for 10 Amps and shuts off with 13. So far it runs great much much much better sound than the M-1s SMPS. I expect it will improve with more hours on the Tersdak DC board and Ghent Gotham 5 layer shielded cable. I suppose on could find more with a better DC power cord. The Gotham was 150.
For 2 meters A Mundorf silver gold cable 650. Maybe in cards next if a DC cable tuning ring doesnāt push it further.
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Iāve read positive things about that mod from Roon user who use a Mini for their Core.
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I am not using Mini as a core just a Roon End Point and Bacch DSP processor. My Roon Core is still the tweaked SGC i5 sonic transporter or as Al tells me its Sonic Destroyser I just added a 3/4 ā Wide AB7050HF Tuning Ring at the XLR end of the Gotham Powe cable. A thank you @Duncan_Taylor tweak after I turned him on to tuning rings . It is OMG crazy good. It is like a frickin live wire now!! Toe tapping and GD slamming monster bass with sll of that gained image depth from The LPS.
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I had similar sound quality improvements when I installed the TeraDak power module and a TeraDak R-Core LPS on my Mac M1 Mini. I am also using a DC power cable from Ghent. Glad you also saw significant improvements.
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Great to hear you made a nice improvement. Like I said some weeks ago the standard Mac is not optimal for audio. Yes ofcourse Bacch4mac will give a MAJOR improvement to a mediocre source like a Mac Mini. Thatās why Iām so curious if we can manage to combine it with a dedicated audio streamer. You see, clean power is everything, even in digital!
Mundorf SG on DC cable is a great choice! The AC power of your LPS will also have a big impact as well as the 5x20 fuse. SR purple will bring a massive improvement since itās gonna effect your source (mac).
In the future replacing the Babyface with a decent DDC like Audio GD di20 or Mutec would also reduce allot of trouble coming from the Mac.
But I was hoping to invest in a dedicated audio streamer and hoping I can reroute somehow the output of the Bacch over the Ethernet to my streamer. Because ultimately itās all about reducing noise in the system.
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I run the AM M-1 fuse in the LPS powering the mini.
Last night my router switch cable modem died after an internet outage. My daughter was visiting so I wanted to Demo music. I hooked the M1 Mini up to wifi cellphone to stream from Qobuzhotspot since my roon was deadwithout ethernet.
I was amazed how well the mini does. My Daughter was gobsmacked and all she could say is this thing. Is completely next level. She streamed at least 3 hours.
I bought latest Netgear modem router shows up within the hour. . I will run it without AB7050HF RF and EMi absorber on chips. If it is not better or as good as previous router in SQ. I power it with another channel of HDPlLEX300
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Darrell, itās great to hear you are still finding new ways to optimize the quality of your streaming. @Nicktube knows a thing or twoā¦ itās all about removing noise.
Iāve been so busy lately I havenāt done anything DIY in a while. But I know that optimizing my modem is going to be a project target at some point. Are you adhering the AB7050RF directly to chips inside? You may have told me about it before, and apologies if so. Is there any concern about capacitive coupling since the absorber contains metals?
I might have mentioned it, but I found the Mac mini (as Roon core) really pics up Ethernet noise. So running it on Wi-Fi gave me a big SQ bump.
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Hi Duncan, if I recall correctly I posted photos of my original router absorber mods in this tweak thread. P20 & P15 Regenerator Performance Tweaks and Digital Stream Enhancements, plus BHK Preamp
But yes I only installed directly on chips. Avoiding capacitors or step up transformers. The absorber changes capacitor inductance so I avoid getting close. Ionly use absorber on lids above toroidal transformers My Docsis3.1 Netgear Nighthawk A6 Modem router switch arrived today Unfortunately Spectrum my ISP has to hard code a connection. So it is entered on a programmer ticket. So tonight still running off A cellphone wifi hotspot. I can say it doesnāt compete SQ wise with the wired and tweaked ethernet of the previous Nighthawk . I am getting glare and digital edge the Mac M-1 Mini wifi is not up to the task. It is a whole different animal with audiophile ethernet cords by inakustik. I have lost a bunch of 3D space around images with eifi.
I hope I can get the modem running in a couple days before my Daughter leaves and new router absorber install s performed. I have got a whisper elite doing router switch lps power cord duties.
I did get my new Netgear Docsis 3.1 router going. It turns out old Netgear Tweaked Docsis 3.0 router still works too Issue was on ISP side.
I found out after a couple days of listening I still desire the Ab7050HF Absorber mods. Good news is the new router disassembly is same as previous . So a tweak job for weekend is in store.
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Me now putting my hands to make the same modification to a Mac Mini 2018.
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Currently the BACCH4Mac version has an advantage over the BACCH SP hardware. This is because every year the Mac Mini gets new and better processors, our built a few years ago boxes donāt. But a solutionās on the way. Whew. If I was doing BACCH4Mac Iād have a new mini with an M2.
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Question: How could a better processor improve sound between a Mac mini 2018, M1 or M2?
A better, more powerful processor allows more advanced code to be used. Processes can be improved, features added.
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From that point of view, youāre right.
Gosh thanks.
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