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Ok cool, yes PCs too, but you’ve entirely proved my (imperfectly argued) point which is that there is a huge amount of juju around the ‘purity’ of digital sources, usb cables and power supplies when applied upstream of the DAC on playback. I’ve even seen claims that the speed you rip a CD at makes a difference 😂
The most important thing for quality is how music is captured, mixed, processes and laid down in to its final recording. If mastering is done on a computer of some sort, and in most cases it is, then why is a computer unsuitable to perform the very simple task of extracting the data and buffering it to a digital stream?
I’m not doubting @StevePeel’s ears but equally I think I understand reasonably well stuff like clock syncing and jitter. When being mastered, most devices in the studio containing an ADC will have their clocks synchronised, but that’s because you’re dealing with multiple different embedded OSs, ADCs and connection methods (optical, USB etc). On playback however, clock syncing / jitter is rarely the cause of poor audio unless you’re dealing with a very poor quality stream converter or DAC. It’s far more likely to be caused by poor galvanic isolation or software drivers.
TL/DR: perfect streaming with Sub -120dB noise is quite achievable on a (properly functioning) computer, windows or Mac.
Sources: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/04/measurements-laptop-audio-survey-apple.html
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/auralic-leo-gx-dac-clock-review.11001/
freddo-
No-one sets up their studio with any of that stuff in mind.
Have you ever been in a studio whilst it's in use, or conversed with sound engineers?
Noise floor... it's all about reducing the noise floor. You're going to have a lot of channels mixed together each bringing their own background noise. It doesn't matter so much where in the chain you go from analog to digital, that's a lot about trade-offs on control, tooling, sound... but it's noise floor.
The most important thing for quality is how music is captured, mixed, processes and laid down in to its final recording.
Yes... reduce the noise floor, and then compress it out of the final mix. If the noise floor rises into the final listening range of the composition nothing can help you.
Oh, I should include a picture...
Source: https://libremusicproduction.com/answer/noise-floor.htmlAll that hiss and noise, even when not audible on a single channel, combine to create noise that when you have enough it rises into the audible range. This stuff is like magic, if you think of ghost notes where several other notes are combined and give rise to hearing a note that wasn't played... well this happens with noise too, individual samples and channels may have no perceivable noise, and yet combined in certain ways they give rise to notes that don't exist but can be heard... fighting the noise floor is hard. I've been in a studio with PJ Harvey and Flood and saw them spend the whole day just trying to find which sample was causing one minor symptom of raising the noise floor.
The academic and hypothetical purity of any single component is just irrelevant, it may be relevant for reproduction of audio and processing of single signals (games, VOIP, etc)... but it's just totally irrelevant when it comes to recording, production and mastering... because so long as the word clocks are synchronised everything can be lined up just fine.
The battle in a studio, the concern for those who record, is combining their many channels together without increasing the noise floor.
Sheesh, even the links you cited mentioned "reproduction" and "playback"... single source, and nothing to do with music creation, production or mastering.
There are some areas I'll defer to you on, but this one where you specifically stated "most music is produced on a Mac mini / iMac"? Nah, you're talking out of your arse quite loudly.
Velocio
Unsure where you have got this info from.
Ableton on a MacBook Pro is good for a DIY mobile setup. But most studios I know use Pro Tools on Windows workstations racked in another room along with a tonne of storage and a shedload of audio interfaces.
And most music does come from studios.
Why not use a Mac mini or laptop? Word clocks and low noise circuitry, speed and latency, software and driver range (not just the DAW but all the things that drive the audio interfaces).
You can even look up deadmaus on twitch and see him work, there's no Mac mini in sight, or a Mac... It's racks of Windows machines.
Maybe you mean something else by produced, but most music you hear is produced on racks of Windows machines.