Is Mac Mini a Viable Alternative to New Mac Pro?
- Thread starter robgb
- Start date
I've stumbled over this because I've watched a couple of videos by this guy in the past and I think he really knows what he's talking about regarding Mac hardware, because he's been repairing apple products all day long for many many years. I haven't watched the full video, but I hope it's useful to some of you:
I watched about 8 minutes total out of the 20+, which means he's very good (because I don't normally watch videos like this - I went to elementary school and learned to read, and it's much faster). He makes the point about USB 2 early on, after which I watched what I watched just because he's articulate and entertaining. 
However, a guy I'm quoting without his permission wrote this:
"Louis has some great content on his channel and occasionally he does like to rant.
He does component level repair on Macs. So a lot of his ranting stems from the Right To Repair movement.
He has been sued by Apple in the past and is often used as an expert witness regarding Right to Repair cases.
I wonder how many people in the Mac world are actually using USB 2 interfaces to begin with.
I do know a few. At least one person has an M-Audio M-Track. She just recently got a 2018 MBP that has the T2 chip.
I helped her set it up and so far she has had no complaints about audio problems.
I realize that is anecdotal, but certainly evidence that the problem is not universal.
Makes me wonder how much drivers play a role in this issue.'
However, a guy I'm quoting without his permission wrote this:
"Louis has some great content on his channel and occasionally he does like to rant.
He does component level repair on Macs. So a lot of his ranting stems from the Right To Repair movement.
He has been sued by Apple in the past and is often used as an expert witness regarding Right to Repair cases.
I wonder how many people in the Mac world are actually using USB 2 interfaces to begin with.
I do know a few. At least one person has an M-Audio M-Track. She just recently got a 2018 MBP that has the T2 chip.
I helped her set it up and so far she has had no complaints about audio problems.
I realize that is anecdotal, but certainly evidence that the problem is not universal.
Makes me wonder how much drivers play a role in this issue.'
Dewdman42
Senior Member
There actually aren't very many USB3 audio interfaces because the industry determined that most people would not benefit from it. USB3 provides more bandwidth but not necessarily faster speed. So in other words, you can have more channels of audio going too a USB audio device, but latency will not be any lower. Most people only need stereo or a maybe 8 channels at the most of audio i/o in their home studios, so moving to USB3 as a standard for audio devices never really made any sense and most of the industry did not. Might as well make them USB2 for greater compatibility.
USB3 is great for hard drives or other things that need higher bandwidth, or if you're a high level user trying to stream a lot more channels of audio in/out of your computer. But those kinds of high level users are probably using PCI, Thunderbolt3, etc. to stream more channels at low latency...like RME, MOTU, etc..
I don't know what the specs are for USB4 but if the speed is the same, there will be no advantage for most users as far as audio devices are concerned.
USB3 is great for hard drives or other things that need higher bandwidth, or if you're a high level user trying to stream a lot more channels of audio in/out of your computer. But those kinds of high level users are probably using PCI, Thunderbolt3, etc. to stream more channels at low latency...like RME, MOTU, etc..
I don't know what the specs are for USB4 but if the speed is the same, there will be no advantage for most users as far as audio devices are concerned.
John Zuker
Member
Like some of you on these forums, I work on a mid 2010 Mac Pro with most of of the trimmings. That'll be a 10 year run, in 6 months. That's a pretty good run. Still works well for the most part, but my biggest pull towards getting a new Mac is being able to pair it with one of the newer UA Thunderbolt 3 interfaces which will give me a nice sonic upgrade, as well as access to their brilliant plug-ins. I'm guessing that I'll be able to go on another long run again if I get a new Mac Pro. Not sure if I'll get that longevity (or enough power) with anything less. I'd rather get overkilled than underserved in a few years.
edhamilton
Active Member
Louis was also an audio engineer and studio tech at Avatar in NYC for many years.
Wunderhorn
Senior Member
This!
(I like reading too)He has a valid point, though I wonder how many people are affected by this particular issue. All the RME Babyface users (it's USB 2.0) - does it happen there? I don't know. But on a general level it is something Apple should be listening too.
But then similar things happen all over the place and from what I can see this carelessness is more happening the bigger the company gets (E.g. Adobe). It happens when the connection between user and developer is not happening anymore in some form. When a support team sits in in some far corner of the world and the development team never gets to hear about the reported issues the link is broken and quality products cannot be made.
