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RE: "2.6GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz)"

I could be wrong but I think Mac OS X is suitable up to DSD 128. If I'm not mistaken what oldmkvi has is a DAC with proprietary Mac OS driver able to get his DAC beyond DSD 128. There are pluses and minuses to this approach. The plus is obvious if you want greater than DSD 128. The minus is that you're at the mercy of the DAC company to provide updated drivers as Mac OS is updated possibly not supporting older drivers. The other potential problem is attaching this DAC to a Linux based streamer. Does Exa make a Linux driver? Does the streamer manufacturer support that driver or do they allow the end-user to install the driver?

The other challenge with your Mac, or any laptop w/o nVidia graphics, is that you will not be able to use CUDA GPU offload which HQPlayer supports. That doesn't mean you cannot use HQPlayer, it just means your CPU utilization will higher than that of a PC/Mac with nVidia graphics and HQPlayer GPU offload enabled. No big deal unless you do some heavy duty sample rate conversion that taxes the CPU.

Let us know if you are able to get beyond DSD 128. I'd be real curious about this as my knowledge about the above is not 100% but I have my suspicions. What DAC will you be using?

Mercman (Steve) has lots of experience with this on PC and Mac.




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