DAC source options

[snowpix]

Hello everyone,

I recently changed to a new DAC. I want to stream from my Mac with USB cable. The seller recommended playing files from a notebook running on battery power because it is supposedly freer of noise than a Mac running on AC power. Do you agree with this?

Since I want to use a Mac as a streamer, should I care about the fan? I mean, could a fanless MacBook Air be a better choice than other Macs in terms of lower noise?

Thank you

 

[ry_]

Simply not true nor a concern.

 

[TurtlePaul]

The power for the Mac doesn’t matter unless you get a ground loop, which is highly unlikely.

Most modern Macs shouldn’t have to engage their fan to play audio.

 

[Pauli]

I mean, could a fanless MacBook Air be a better choice than other Macs in terms of lower noise?

It depends ...

If A) under normal working conditions your setup would result in an audibly running fan and if B) you’d prefer not to hear any fan – then it might be better to have a fan-less Mac.

 

[amper42]

You will need to buy an Intel Mac from 2019 or earlier to get fan noise on a Mac. All current models are dead quiet. Especially while playing audio. Its uses very little CPU power. You might hear a little fan if you are compressing 4K video at the same time as playing audio but that never happens in real life use.

In my experience, playing music through a DAC via USB on Mac makes absolutely no difference if its on battery power or an AC outlet. You can try it yourself and never hear a difference. Where do these convoluted claims come from?

 

[AdrianusG]

Hi,

Any well designed DAC will simply filter out this so called noise

 

[Roland68]

Hello everyone,

I recently changed to a new DAC. I want to stream from my Mac with USB cable. The seller recommended playing files from a notebook running on battery power because it is supposedly freer of noise than a Mac running on AC power. Do you agree with this?

Since I want to use a Mac as a streamer, should I care about the fan? I mean, could a fanless MacBook Air be a better choice than other Macs in terms of lower noise?

Thank you

Under no circumstances should you go without a fan. If the fan becomes audible at all, it is only under load—and even then, it remains very quiet.
In devices without a fan, processing power is throttled—and guess what suffers first...

Time and again, the same old myths surface regarding power supply noise in Macs.
First of all, Mac power supplies generate extremely low noise levels; and secondly, people who make such claims apparently fail to realize that batteries produce noise as well—sometimes even more.

 

[voodooless]

If you don’t hear any noise, there isn’t any..

 

[MatrixS2000]

Hello everyone,

I recently changed to a new DAC. I want to stream from my Mac with USB cable. The seller recommended playing files from a notebook running on battery power because it is supposedly freer of noise than a Mac running on AC power. Do you agree with this?

Since I want to use a Mac as a streamer, should I care about the fan? I mean, could a fanless MacBook Air be a better choice than other Macs in terms of lower noise?

Thank you

I use a mac mini m4 and an older 2012 mac mini as streamers - both work well as streamers. You don’t need to worry about the fans, you will only hear them when they spin up under load. Audio streaming will not load either mini, so it not a concern.