Mac Mini Audio Output via HDMI

Question

Mac Mini Audio Output via HDMI

I am currently using Roon to organize and listen to my music collection. I have begun ripping my CD's in ALAC as well as purchasing several releases in ALAC HD. I am trying to listen to my music in as high of a bitrate as possible. I am looking at buying a new Mac Mini to use solely as my music server. I would like to connect the Mini directly into my Marantz SR8015 via HDMI. The Marantz is capable of handling HD audio sources. I asked this question on the Roon board and received conflicting answers. Will the Mini play music via HDMI at the bitrate it is encoded at rather than downsampling the track? Thank you

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on May 16, 2021 4:58 PM

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Answer 1

hcsitas

Level 6

12,758 points

May 16, 2021 9:24 PM in response to Robert Chatfield

Down sample to Stereo is likely. I’d buy the latest Apple TV 4K in addition to the mini for playback since it now includes support for Atmos. Use a third-party app on Apple TV like File Explorer for that and have it fetch content from the mini to feed to the Marantz. Good luck!

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Answer 2

May 17, 2021 8:51 AM in response to hcsitas

Is there any way to use the Mini to pass through audio without downsampling? I believe the highest resolution files that I have are a few live shows in 24bit 96khz. Not sure if there was a way to use either the USB output or the stereo mini plug? Not sure why I am spending so much time dwelling on this. Just hoping to play the music in the original format with as few "turns" as possible. Yes, I know my old ears would never be able to hear any difference. I did the "science experiment" with my fiancee and played the same song in three varying degrees of quality and she actually thought the lossy version sounded the best.

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Answer 3

hcsitas

Level 6

12,758 points

May 17, 2021 9:09 AM in response to Robert Chatfield

Ha, ha. But it should be mentioned that high quality playback equipment doesn’t always equate to the best listening experience, especially if the original recording was mono/stereo or otherwise limited in mic placement (as would be the case with live concerts, for example).

As to USB direct connect, your Marantz doesn’t support it - “It is not possible to use this unit by connecting the unit’s USB port to a PC via a USB cable.”

With HDMI and USB ruled out, you’ll need to go the plain vanilla USB DAC way (or audiophile Apple TV way as mentioned earlier).

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Answer 4

May 17, 2021 11:53 AM in response to hcsitas

I may be wrong, but I was under the understanding that Apple TV currently downsampled music as well. If the rumors of hi def Apple Music is true do you think they will reduce this limitation on Apple TV.

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Answer 5

May 17, 2021 12:38 PM in response to hcsitas

Yes, all of the reading I’ve been doing trying to figure this out has fried me. I was thinking about using AirPlay 2 for playback which if not wrong again, does downsample files?

Ive never looked into adding my music library to Apple Music as I have 75,000 tracks or so. I will have to look at that as a possibility.

I really appreciate all your help

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Answer 6

May 17, 2021 1:03 PM in response to hcsitas

All of those are lower quality multichannel with the exception

of Dolby Atmos. No support for True Audio or DTS Master

Audio. Also, zero mention of supported bit depth/sample rates

for ALAC, FLAC, WAV, or AIFF (though AIFF is generally assumed

CD format, i.e. 16 bit/44.1 kHz) and zero mention of any direct PCM formats

at any bit depth or sampling rate.

Apple TV is strictly consumer grade in terms of audio.

BTW, my MacMini 2011 only supported up to 48 kHz/24 bit

PCM when running macOS. Now with Win10 20H2 it gives

the full 24 bit/ 192 kHz on HDMI.

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Answer 7

hcsitas

Level 6

12,758 points

May 17, 2021 1:17 PM in response to woodmeister50

They don’t mention bit depth and sample rates, true, but they do mention Dolby 5:1, 7:1 etc. Playback quality depends on the content and whether it’s streamed from a pay service over the net or fetched native uncompressed over the local net. As for Windows, sure, if that fits your needs, why not.

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Answer 8

hcsitas

Level 6

12,758 points

May 17, 2021 12:03 PM in response to Robert Chatfield

You’re mistaken, both Apple TV and TV 4K support a wide range of audio. The only difference between TV and TV 4K is the addition of Dolby 7:1 and Atmos.

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