[clarktrent]

I'm looking to save up for the soon to be announced line of updated Macs and I'm interested in two particular models, the iMac and Mac Mini. I've been hearing for years the the Mac mini provides superior sound quality even with an external DAC because there is less noise than a laptop or an AIO like the iMac because the lack of a built in display. How true is this statement?
 
While I do see a lot of Mac Minis at Hi-Fi events, it producing less noise than an iMac with an external DAC doesn't really make much sense as the audio itself isn't coming from an external source. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

You might need to rephrase to make clear what is your question and what statement of facts your saying.
"Mac mini provides superior sound quality even with a external DAC", not sure that that statement really means?
 
I'm guessing you have been getting weird statements of facts from sources that may not know what they are talking about.

 

[clarktrent]

  You might need to rephrase to make clear what is your question and what statement of facts your saying.
"Mac mini provides superior sound quality even with a external DAC", not sure that that statement really means?
 
I'm guessing you have been getting weird statements of facts from sources that may not know what they are talking about.

Sorry for the confusion, but yes, I have heard from many people that all in ones and laptops sound worse than desktops because built in displays create more interference even when using an external DAC. 
It would make sense if all they were talking about the internal DAC but otherwise it doesn't make sense. I just wanted to confirm that it wasn't true before making a huge investment.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  I'm looking to save up for the soon to be announced line of updated Macs and I'm interested in two particular models, the iMac and Mac Mini. I've been hearing for years the the Mac mini provides superior sound quality even with an external DAC because there is less noise than a laptop or an AIO like the iMac because the lack of a built in display. How true is this statement?
 
While I do see a lot of Mac Minis at Hi-Fi events, it producing less noise than an iMac with an external DAC doesn't really make much sense as the audio itself isn't coming from an external source. 

 

It has more to do with having a small form factor and price than any issue with the iMac's design. One can more easily retire a Mac Mini from the office (some even bought one used and cheap) and move it to a dedicated audio room, where a small box set up to run headless (ie, iPad as interface, no monitor, no mice, no keyboard after initial set up) is a lot less intrusive.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Sorry for the confusion, but yes, I have heard from many people that all in ones and laptops sound worse than desktops because built in displays create more interference even when using an external DAC. 
It would make sense if all they were talking about the internal DAC but otherwise it doesn't make sense. I just wanted to confirm that it wasn't true before making a huge investment.

 
With a computer, usually electrical noise/interference is picked up by the analog part of the audio hardware (inside the computer).
When using a digital connection (USB, optical, coaxial) to an external DAC, the audio signal is carried out of the computer, before the digital audio signal is converted to an analog audio signal.
So really an external DAC will almost always help reduce noise.
 
A ground loop can cause a noise issue, a signal travels up the computer's power cord, into the computer, then out a USB or coaxial connection (both pass an electrical signal), into a DAC, then travels down the DAC's power cord to the AC plug, next to where the computer power cord is plugged in (like both computer and DAC use the same power strip.surge protector).
Using a DAC with an optical input (signal passed using light) will fix a ground loop issue or plugging the computer and DAC into separate wall sockets or separate surge protectors, will solve a ground loop noise issue.

 

[Headzone]

When my audio drivers crashed, I could hear the fan of my laptop spinning through the firewire interface. (sounded like someone mic'd up the internals of the laptop.) Also some people think that digital audio receivers have sound differences.
 
I would imagine most macs to be noise free.

 

[obobskivich]

I'm looking to save up for the soon to be announced line of updated Macs and I'm interested in two particular models, the iMac and Mac Mini. I've been hearing for years the the Mac mini provides superior sound quality even with an external DAC because there is less noise than a laptop or an AIO like the iMac because the lack of a built in display. How true is this statement?

While I do see a lot of Mac Minis at Hi-Fi events, it producing less noise than an iMac with an external DAC doesn't really make much sense as the audio itself isn't coming from an external source. 

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: No, you're making too generalized of a statement (or are being told too generalized of a statement) - there is no "universal iMac" or "universal laptop" - there are literally thousands of different designs, with different components, builds, etc that constitute "all laptops and AIOs" so you can't generalize like that.

Even longer answer: You need to separate AIOs and laptops in the discussion. Laptops can run from battery power, or AC bricks, and its not uncommon on many models for folks to report background noise when running on the AC brick, but "dead silence" from battery operation (I've owned one such machine, a Compaq, and I forget the rest of the model - it was years ago; running on its AC brick there was a very slight hiss/hum on the analog outputs, but running on battery it was dead silent). Beyond that, PurpleAngel is right that with an external audio interface (e.g. FireWire, USB, etc) or DAC (S/PDIF, ADAT, etc) you're bypassing all of the internal analog audio circuitry, which *may* pick up noise or be problematic (audibly) in a computer (*in any computer* although in more recent times this is becoming, IME, the minority of systems). There's also a lot of hyperbole and blatant BS that goes on with audio gear and audio review magazines, and its gotten worse since computers have come into the equation, one of the biggest myths is "more expensive is MOAR BETTAR!" and its not at all surprising when you find articles where folks take "cheap gear" (e.g. a Mac Mini) and it doesn't kill their dog, burn their house down, etc but actually provides audibly transparent performance (or near audibly transparent performance) and of course they're going to rant and rave about how magical it is "for the price."

I would say buy whatever computer that ultimately fulfills your needs/requirements as a computer, try out the built-in audio, and if there are issues with its performance, there's a cavalcade of devices that range from quite affordable to hilariously priced that can bypass the onboard audio. Given that you're specifically (exclusively?) looking at Apple, I would also provide the standard disclaimer that you should wait at least a month after whatever their "new hotness" launches for all of the bugs, problems, etc to be meticulously documented and complained about by Apple diehards, and hope that at least some of them are fixed/resolved (and before anyone accuses me of being biased against Apple - the same reasoning applies to new releases of Windows, except I would say wait a year instead of a month).