The Mach2 Music Server

An Amazing Music Server, No Matter How You Look At It

The Mach2 Music Server, a modified Mac Mini, provides stunning detail without harshness or a digital sound.  The bass is full and tight.  The soundstage is wide and deep.  Most impressive is the textures and realism in the voices and instruments.  The overall presentation has a realness to it that approaches vinyl.  Of course you get all of the conveniences that Digital Audio provides.  It's the ultimate blend of superb sound quality and a great user experience.


2011 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest

Steven Stone of The Absolute Sound awarded Best Of Show to 4 rooms. Mach2 Music was the Music Server used in 3 of them. Of course, we are thrilled.

See Steven Stone's Best of 2011 RMAF selections

Click here for More RMAF Feedback

Check out our
FREE 30-Minute Online Setup Session
*with a Mach2 Server Purchase or Upgrade to Mach2 Server
Also, see our Additional Support Options


The Mach2 Music - Modified MacMini
There has been a growing movement the last few years towards Digital Audio Servers, and the Mac Mini Computer is one of the best music server platforms.  The Mac Mini is small, quiet, has a low power draw, superior EMI rejection, and the Mac OS X core audio functions are superb.

While the stock Mac Mini provides the basis for an excellent music server, we developed a series of changes that make it sound much, much better.  By upgrading some of the hardware, performing extensive modifications to the operating system setup, and optimizing the music player software, we have drastically improved the soundstage, fine detail, dynamics, and greatly reduced the noise floor.

Our modified Mac Mini is a superb front end which can output to a USB DAC, Firewire DAC, or a Headphone/Mini Toslink Input (i.e. Preamp or Receiver).  While we recommend using a USB or Firewire DAC, we have had terrific results using the Headphone/Mini Toslink output into a preamp. 

At Mach2 Music we offer a turnkey music server system that just needs to be plugged in to your favorite DAC, Preamp, or Receiver, and then turned on.  We provide the hardware, modified operating system, optimization scripts for the common music players.  You simply load your music files onto the hard disk and enjoy.

When paired with a quality DAC, this setup will outperform CD or SACD players at 2-4 times its price.  The sound quality is that good. Some people are even using the Mach2 without a DAC and finding very good results.

To help you get set up and enjoying the music,
We offer a Free 30-minute Online Setup Session.

HARDWARE
We provide a new 2011 Unibody Mac Mini with an ultra fast Sata III 60-GB Solid State Hard Drive and 8-GB of system memory.  We put the original 500GB hard drive into a USB enclosure with a backup image of your music server. Since some people already have Music Storage, the Mach2 base setup doesn’t come with Music Storage. We do offer optional 1TB and 2TB external hard drives that sound great, so you end up with the Music Storage size you want.  Please note that the specific hardware can have an impact on sound quality.  All the parts have been chosen, based on how they affect the sound quality.  We have done extensive A/B testing, and extended testing, to achieve the best combination. 
SOFTWARE
We install music player software, configure the software, and provide optimization scripts for some of the more common and best sounding Music Players including Play.app, iTunes, Pandora.  Scripts can be provided for PureMusic or Amarra on request at no additional charge.
Our custom music player optimization scripts are specially developed to keep the music from being molested by other programs or processes, and to make the most of the computers resources.  The detail, texture, and fullness of the music are noticeably better with these scripts. 
OPERATING SYSTEM
We want the music server applications to have as much of the computers attention as possible.  This greatly affects the sound quality, and after all this is a Dedicated Music Server. So we optimize the Snow Leopard Operating System for playing music by removing anything we can that doesn't support that goal.  Our special combination of modifications removes or turns off numerous non-music related applications and processes.  We strip out almost 1.5GB of unnecessary code. 
TEST & DELIVERY
We test the full setup in our system.  Only after we are satisfied that the complete system is working 100% do we ship the completed Mac Mini and Music Storage Drive to you (insured of course).
MACs are the easiest computers to use.
Once you receive your new Mach2 Music Mac Mini, you will plug it in, copy your music to the external storage drive and direct your favorite music player to your library. Configure your DAC and select it as the music output device. This depends on your equipment but it usually takes only a few minutes.  All that is left after that is to sit back and enjoy... If you are comfortable with computers, a Mac based music server should be a lot of fun. We make things even easier by offering a Free 30-Minute Online Setup Session.
© 2010 Mach2 Music