Edited: Changed 2008 to 2010
The 2010 MacMini power supply is recognized as being very good and very quiet. It’s one reason the 2010 Mini became popular among audiophiles.
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My 2012 Mac Mini/Roon Core resides upstairs. Installing Devolo HomePlugs upstairs/downstairs provides the Ethernet link to my Meridian 210 downstairs without issue.
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Hi Chris -
It doesn’t require IT or electronics knowledge to put a Raspberry Pi Model 4 into the lovely and stylish aluminum Flirc case: it literally takes two minutes, one for each step (stick the blue tack pad on and put the board into the top of the case so that all the holes line up; put the bottom of the case in place and secure the four screws).
Using RoPieee is equally easy, and there is a super friendly PowerPoint online with the four or five installation steps you need to follow laid out like a recipe for making a sandwich. All the complicated stuff has been automated by the author so you don’t have to: download this, copy that, insert the SD Card, switch on, go to the new device webpage and finish the setup to use your wifi… it’s at that level. Check out the threads in that part of the forum as others have advised… but if it seems like more than an easy how-to, skip to another because you really don’t need to know how it works to get it going and doing what you want. Everything you need to do is laid out on the RoPieee website.
I have done this a couple of times in the past few weeks for a bedroom system and for an RME DAC I’m now using as a headphone station. It’s amazingly easy and you will be pleased with your accomplishment when you have it running.
You will have an even smaller, low clutter footprint than you have now: the $100 Pi4+Flirc acting as a wifi Roon USB bridge to your DAC will have only a power cord and the USB cable; if your old Mac mini is working via wifi, so will the Pi and no need to add an Ethernet cable. You will be buying low cost but brand new components, fully supported by an amazing community led by spockfish (Harry ten Berge).
You still need your Core and your library storage, of course, but that could go wherever you want… on your Mac Pro or wherever you like. That part doesn’t need to perplex you and can be left as-is until you have your new wifi Roon endpoint in place and feeding your USB DAC.
My goal here was to be reassuring and illustrate what lies ahead if you choose this path, in words that are clear and easy and non-threatening. I hope it didn’t come across as condescending or preachy, and I apologize if I hit a wrong note. Nothing wrong with hunting down a new or old mini and executing your current plan… but if you get this inexpensive plan going once, I lay even odds you’ll think of a second place where a small, silent, wifi-capable Roon USB bridge could make your life cooler and more fun. I also bet it will take less than half the time and energy to assemble and launch the second system!
Best wishes for success on whichever path you dare.
Regards alan
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I have one for sale on eBay for $99. I built to sell to someone who doesn’t want to fool with the DIY aspect.
Was your 2008 too slow to use as a Roon Core? Just beginning to explore options. I am wondering if I am better off running Roon Core on an I5 NUC Hackintosh. Wondering whether the Linux version is necessary or if I can do the Hackintosh on it. I bought it at the end of last year, but haven’t set it up yet.
Edited: Changed 2008 to 2010
The 2010 Mini was not within recommended Roon hardware specs. I had very intermittent audio drop outs and the graphics had artifacts.
Most of the time…98% of the time…Roon ran well.
There was no 2008 Mac mini …2007 and 2009 models…neither of these would run roon well and the 2007 not at all as it maxed out with OS X 10.7.5 which room won’t operate on now
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You’re right. My fault. Apologies for any confusion it may have caused.
I was using a MacMini (4,1 Mid 2010) with OS 10.13.6.
Thank you for the correction. I have gone back as far as I was allowed in the thread and made the appropriate changes.
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I think Andy is right, you’re confusing your internet download speed with your Wi-Fi speed. The 6.8Mbps is the speed of your internet connection which has nothing to do with the speed of your Wi-Fi. As part of this discussion has been about using Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet, that is the speed that counts. You need a Wi-Fi speed of around 10 Mbps for 24/192 files, faster for higher resolutions.
Was this over the WiFi or the LAN as if it’s your speed over WiFi it could still be your WiFi that’s the slowest part of the link. What speed internet service do you subscribe to…is it cable or Fibre or ads or maybe 3g broadband
I suspect internet speed. Coincidentally 6.8Mbps was what I used to get from BT copper ADSL before Virgin kindly installed fibre all the way to my house…
I guess we’re semi-rural!
Hi Dave,
I have no problem streaming 24/96 Tidal Masters over WiFi on my Mac and iPod Touch. Maybe Qobuz goes higher resolution than that but I’m not planning on getting it any time soon.
If I did the speed test over WiFi, then isn’t 6.8Mbps my WiFi internet speed?
We went through a really bad period for a month about a year ago when we were getting like 1Mbps! We really are in the middle nowhere out here (like literally, the nearest road to my house is named Nowhere Lane) 
But since then it’s been fine and I can stream Tidal Masters without any issues.
Over WiFi. Sorry, no idea what service we have but if I had to guess, maybe 3g? All I know is, Enough is as good as a feast. There’s nothing I currently want to do that speed is stopping me from doing.
The speed test is an end-to-end test, so will effectively report the slowest leg; it’s usually the internet connection. The speed between devices within your home is the WiFi speed. If you open a network connection window (sorry - no idea where that would be on a Mac) it will likely tell your connection speed to your router.
6.8Mbps does sound like a pretty typical UK rural broadband speed, especially as you mention it dropping to 1Mbps in the past! Is it a BT line?
If you are sticking with Tidal streaming you should be fine. Tidal Masters stream at the mqa packed size, at most 48kHz/24bit. It’s unfolded within your system. Qobuz hi res would be much more demanding of internet speed.
If the endpoint is connected via your home network (ie not directly to the Roon core computer by (say) usb) RAAT (the Roon Ready protocol) especially will be more demanding of your WiFi speed because the Roon core will unpack streams so the endpoint doesn’t need to. You will notice that when streaming Tidal Masters if you have the core decoder enabled. There are some variations depending on mqa support with your DAC and how Roon is configured.
If none of this makes sense, the Roon knowledge base probably explains it better…
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@Chris_I one of the things roon does (especially if you have a local library of music on HDD ro NAS etc) is go out to the internet and gather metadata and doing so puts a heavy demand on not only the core machine but also the network/internet connection so a slow network will become saturated easily.
Wifi is a lower capability network than LAN (wired) and if you are using wifi for everything its going to be like your “nowhere Lane” trying to deal with town traffic on a school day drop off morning.
Having dialup based broadband 3/4G modem connection is not going to help this situation for a new library. I know this first hand as in Oz my parents have a 3/4G dialup connection. Speeds to the internet are glacial. I can’t use Roon when I go there.
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Chris, It’s easy to remove the AC voltage power requirement and power your MAC mini with 12VDC as it was designed to work with Automobile voltage.
I have NO FAN in my MAC Mini it’s perfectly quiet and I have a 1TB SSD and a 1TB HDD for back up all run on 12VDC!
I take the USB output and run it to my AudioByte Hydra DDC as a bridge to furnish an AES signal to my Yggy. I just had it updated to Analog 2 and Unison USB but I like the way it sounds with AES input.
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That’s interesting, thanks Larry!
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Dear interested Buddy,
I have been reading this thread with a lot of attention and interest and I appreciate how helpful everybody is.
You might have some advice for my situation with my Macmini (2014). Ram 8GB. This is according to those who should know, the mini year that doesn’t allow the ram to be enlarged. I bought this in the pre roon era. I played audirvana,media center,quobuz. When roon came I added this to my mini. And all was as it should be. I have a PS Audio Dac and amplifier, synology Ds 416 Nas. I clicked audirvana, google roon and all went well. But…After some time, the beach ball appeared and everything froze. Some time later a pop up began to appear saying that the mini’s memory was exhausted and advised me to stop roon. Some time later this advice came when I wasn’t even playing roon, and then the mini started forced stopping google or roon or whatever. This got worse. I could hardly inspect my mail or whatever or it stopped all I was doing.
I am a nitwit as far as ict is concerned, and therefore I decided to buy a mini with more ram. I haven’t bought it yet, and here comes may need of advice. Is it possible to copy my mini to the new mini. Does it also copy roon audirvana firefox and the rest without crying for help, which I can hardly give. So with a few clicks from one mini to the other without much ado? I really feel like buying a new Mac mini instead of turning to other solutions that will overstep my capacity.
See what you think of this, if you have time to do so.
Thanks a lot Gommie (The Netherlands)
I ran a 2012 mac mini headless for three years and thought it was okay…until i got a Roon Nuc. No comparison, wish now that i had switched sooner.
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