Apple's Spring 2022 event

[Philip OKeefe]

Just got a note early this morning that the new Mac Studio has shipped. Apple still says it will be here by the 30th, but the shipping tracking says it will be here on Friday. I'm really looking forward to testing it out, and comparing it to the M1 Mac mini. 

 

I watched teardown videos (Max Tech on YouTube) of both the M1 Max and M1 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio, and it turns out they have socketed SSDs, although it looks like a real PITB to get to them. Definitely not a job for the average consumer.

 

 

There's actually two slots on both models, with only one slot filled from the factory when the Mac Studio is ordered with a smaller-sized ( 2 GB or less?) drive. They look similar to M.2 format SSDs, but the drive size and plug format look like they're a bit different. Still, that's good news overall IMO. It means that SSD failure is not going to brick the machine; they should be able to be replaced if they fail. And it might mean they'll be upgradeable at some point. I could see OWC offering compatible drives eventually, or maybe even your local Apple Store.  

 

In the video above, they go into the noise levels and cooling of the two versions of the Studio. They didn't measure fan noise with an SPL meter or anything like that, but they did use a fan utility to check the fan speed range (1,000-3,500 RPM) and the speed the system runs the fan at when it's at idle and while under a stress-test full load on all CPU and graphics cores. Regardless of load, the fans on both Studios stayed in the 1,300 range, and temps stayed at around 60-70 degrees or below. They appear to be pretty quiet, and they seem to run cool, even under full load. Good thing, too - when he cranked the fan to full in the Mac Studio Ultra teardown video using the fan app, it sounded like a leaf blower. 

 

I'm really hoping it will be a quiet system. The M1 Mac mini is shockingly quiet for such a powerful little computer. If the Studio is within 10 dB of that like Apple claims ("15 dBA @ the operator position" vs. 5 dBA for the mini, IIRC), I'll be happy. I guess I'll find out on Friday. Or next Wednesday. 

 

And Pro Tools Ultimate is now compatible with/supported on macOS Monterey 12.3, which is what my new Mac Studio will have installed from the factory... 

[nursers]

Can't wait to hear what you think of it Phil. I ordered mine last week so still have a while to wait

[KuruPrionz]

On 3/14/2022 at 10:06 PM, Anderton said:

A 2012 Mac laptop makes a pretty cool 2022 Windows 10 laptop

That sort of puts Microsoft 2 decades behind, no?

A bit more extreme than my assessment, so it goes. 😇

[RABid]

On 3/15/2022 at 12:57 AM, Philip OKeefe said:

I've heard really great things about the M1 Air. How big is the screen? I also read that the battery life on them is just incredible. Has that been your experience?

 

The screen is 13 inches. For my again eyes that is small. Really small. Another reason I would like to go back to a 16" Pro. I've been wearing glasses for 59 years. I actually do much of my browsing on a 5 year old 16" MacBook Pro. (Using it right now, actually.) Downloaded the Cherry Audio virtual modular to try on the M1 Air. It runs great, but again the screen size is pretty small for something like that. Battery life on the M1 Air is good, but I do have one issue. I use an external drive which is attached to the back of the screen with velcro. A lot of times I get a "Did not eject your drive before powering down" message when I never actually powered down. I think at some point Apple cuts the power to external devices when the power starts running low and causes the unplugged drive error. Another reason I'm starting to be willing to pay up for a large drive in the next notebook.

[Anderton]

21 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

That sort of puts Microsoft 2 decades behind, no?

A bit more extreme than my assessment, so it goes. 😇

 

No, it just means Microsoft doesn't have a lot of incentive to sell you new hardware, because their software will run on just about anything. They want you to subscribe to Office, run games on hot PCs, and if you're a business, use Azure cloud services instead of Amazon.

 

My 2012 laptop works just fine as a Mac, and runs Studio One, Logic, and remains a great live performance machine for Ableton Live. It's Apple that wants me to stop using it, and upgrade to a faster machine. But until I can out-type a microprocessor, which will probably be never, and the programs that run on my 2012 Mac stop running, there's no reason to get a new laptop unless the old one dies in the line of duty while travelling.

 

However, there are plenty of reasons to get a new Mac desktop. A mini doesn't really cut it, that last thing I want is an all-in-one iMac, the Intel Power Mac is way too expensive (and is obsolescence just waiting to happen), and my current Mac tower has basically joined my dual G5 in boat-anchor land. The Studio looks ideal, is priced right, and seems to realize that ports are, y'know, kind of a good idea.

[ElmerJFudd]

The other motivation is new versions of Logic and Final Cut with new features and long overdue bug fixes will get a line in the sand of Big Sur, then Monterey or better and eventually Apple Silicon.  Yes our old macs are fine running the OS and software that was written for them.  Don’t update and you won’t need to upgrade.  😂

[RABid]

Apple is definately not the green company it was 20 years ago. They would love for all of their customers to buy a new phone every year and download all of those addictive pay to win games they keep recommending on the app store. I would like to find a good condition iPad version 2 with original OS so I can go back to playing those games I love that no longer work on the newer iPad OS.

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, RABid said:

Apple is definately not the green company it was 20 years ago.

Unless you're talking "green" as in "greenback."

[ElmerJFudd]

On the other hand I just installed Big Sur on my 2013 MacBook Pro at 9 going on 10 years of use.  If nothing fails I’ll keep using it beyond. Though, Big Sur is the last OS version that will run on it without hacking trickery.  It’s a metal design, comparatively little use of plastic, highly recyclable, and Apple has recycling program with no shipping cost to users. 
 

Apple accepts trade ins and sells refurbished products.  Apple products retain value in the second hand market and many devices will pass through  two or three owners before being retired.  They have built enormous solar fields to offset their massive use of electricity.  
 

But yeah, the endless computing upgrade cycle is hardly a green endeavor. Apple has a history of bricking Phones before the end of their life span.  OS cut off points for older hardware at times seem arbitrary, built in obsolescence. Their brick and motor locations are resource heavy.  Their spaceship office in CA as well. 😂. 
 

 

[analogika]

4 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

On the other hand I just installed Big Sur on my 2013 MacBook Pro at 9 going on 10 years of use.  If nothing fails I’ll keep using it beyond. Though, Big Sur is the last OS version that will run on it without hacking trickery.  It’s a metal design, comparatively little use of plastic, highly recyclable, and Apple has recycling program with no shipping cost to users. 
 

Apple accepts trade ins and sells refurbished products.  Apple products retain value in the second hand market and many devices will pass through  two or three owners before being retired.  They have built enormous solar fields to offset their massive use of electricity.  
 

But yeah, the endless computing upgrade cycle is hardly a green endeavor. Apple has a history of bricking Phones before the end If their life span.  OS cut off points for older hardware at times seem arbitrary, built in obsolescence. Their brick and motor locations are resource heavy.  Their space ship office in CA as well. 😂. 
 

 

The last (and only) iPhone Apple „bricked“ before the end of its lifespan was the iPhone 4S. And that was largely remedied with a point-update. 
 

There was major coverage of Apple allegedly „crippling“ their phones from the 6s onward a few years ago when the battery got weak, but that was actually a measure to EXTEND the life of the phone — which would otherwise just randomly switch off when the failing battery couldn’t sustain load (the way literally all other manufacturers‘ phones did at the time). So they throttled the CPU to avoid power spikes to ensure reliable operation until the battery was replaced. They just didn’t tell users that this was happening, though the phone would warn that the battery was failing. 
 

I guess the negative shill press had its intended effect, and people still to this day repeat it, eh? 
 

In reality, there isn’t a single smartphone manufacturer on the market who supports their phones as long as Apple does (my daughter‘s 6s was SIX YEARS OLD when she finally decided to replace it rather than replace the battery again), and it still ran the very latest OS — and well, at that. 
 

As for Macs — between five and, what, eight years of latest OS support, and security updates beyond that certainly isn’t bad, and about as good as it’s ever been on the Apple yard. There were a few machines from the late 80s, like the IIcx that got supported from System 6 all the way to the end of 7.6, which was about eight years. 
 

Monterey came out in late 2021 and support Mac Pros from 2013…

[Anderton]

I'm still using an iPhone 7, it works fine. So do my 2012 MacBook Pros. My only real disappointment is that there's no technical reason why my desktop couldn't be updated to full 64-bit operation, so it could never go past Lion. I would have been happy to take my computer to an Apple store, pay $200 (of which Apple would have kept $100), and keep it going for a few more years. Or buy an upgrade kit from a third party.

 

19 minutes ago, analogika said:

There was major coverage of Apple allegedly „crippling“ their phones from the 6s onward a few years ago when the battery got weak, but that was actually a measure to EXTEND the life of the phone — which would otherwise just randomly switch off when the failing battery couldn’t sustain load (the way literally all other manufacturers‘ phones did at the time). So they throttled the CPU to avoid power spikes to ensure reliable operation until the battery was replaced. They just didn’t tell users that this was happening, though the phone would warn that the battery was failing. 
 

I guess the negative shill press had its intended effect, and people still to this day repeat it, eh? 

 

I think the negativity came from how easy it is to replace batteries and extend memory in other phones, and an opaque marketing message from Apple about why there were doing what they were doing. So users encountered problems they had never encountered before, and didn't know why.

 

I have two lines, so I use a cheap Android and an iPhone. I have to say that as of now, the Android gets more use because I upgraded it with enough memory to store my music library, and the battery can go for days without charging. But that ratio will probably change when I update my iPhone soon, so I have a better camera...just like I bounce back and forth between Windows and Mac.

[RABid]

I upgraded from iPhone 6 last year and the camera was the biggest reason. Have to say I have hardly touched my Canon and Sony cameras since getting the newer phone. I have to say the photography has really improved.

[Anderton]

Yeah, I saw a technology trends-type newsletter about how no one uses digital cameras anymore. Uh...well actually, more people are using digital cameras than ever before. The difference is now they include phones as a bonus

[KenElevenShadows]

On 3/22/2022 at 9:08 PM, Philip OKeefe said:

 

 

I'm really hoping it will be a quiet system. The M1 Mac mini is shockingly quiet for such a powerful little computer. If the Studio is within 10 dB of that like Apple claims ("15 dBA @ the operator position" vs. 5 dBA for the mini, IIRC), I'll be happy. I guess I'll find out on Friday. Or next Wednesday. 

 

I write for Photofocus.com. The editor received his Mac Studio and reports that it's whisper-quiet. I don't know that he was comparing it to the Mac Mini, but he did feel it was super quiet. He also loves the machine so far and said it's a dream for photography and video editing.

[Anderton]

Frankly, there's no reason why desktop computers have to be loud anymore. Ordinary laptops, yes...small size, less opportunity to dissipate heat. But I can record vocals sitting next to my PC, and no, I don't need to fix it with Clarity Vx

[Philip OKeefe]

Now they're saying it will be here on Monday. A different group of theys are saying it will be raining here on Monday, so I will have to watch for the delivery truck. I don't want it sitting out in the rain.  The Mac Studio, that is. It won't bother me as much if the delivery truck is sitting out in the rain.  

 

I don't use my phone a lot. I'm still poking along on an iPhone 6s. I may have to think about getting one of the new iPhone SEs eventually. I do tend to use my iPads a lot. I have an old iPad mini 2 (that I mainly use to run Arturia iSpark) and a newer iPad mini 5. I like the smaller size of the iPad minis. They're easy to take with you. 

 

My 2012 MacBook Pro has been a really good computer. 2.3 GHz quad i7 with 16 GB of RAM. I pulled the optical drive out and put in a second SSD. For now, it's just fine for my general mobile computing needs, but I'll probably upgrade to an Apple Silicon laptop eventually, too. They're just so efficient in terms of power use and battery life... I think that will ultimately be what moves me in that direction. 

 

Since all my astronomy software is PC-based, and my dedicated laptop for that is old and slow, I'll probably start using the MBP to run Windows and use it for astronomy once I upgrade to an Apple Silicon (main) laptop. But one thing at a time - the Mac Studio still hasn't arrived yet...  🍎

 

[Philip OKeefe]

3 hours ago, KenElevenShadows said:

 

I write for Photofocus.com. The editor received his Mac Studio and reports that it's whisper-quiet. I don't know that he was comparing it to the Mac Mini, but he did feel it was super quiet. He also loves the machine so far and said it's a dream for photography and video editing.

 

Thanks, Ken! I've heard a few more reports and almost all are saying that the Mac Studios are very quiet, and it's nice to hear your editor's experience confirms that.

 

In my experience, the M1 Mac mini is basically silent. I literally have to put my head down next to it to ever hear anything from it. It seems that's another nice benefit of the lower power requirements of Apple silicon - the cooling requirements are a lot easier to deal with while still keeping things quiet. 

 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

As we’ve seen from use in iPhones, iPads, current Mac Mini, iMacs, etc. the Apple silicon requires less power, runs cooler, and can dissipate heat even in compact, slim, fanless designs.  I’ve no doubt these new models are quiet.  

[KenElevenShadows]

12 hours ago, Philip OKeefe said:

 

Thanks, Ken! I've heard a few more reports and almost all are saying that the Mac Studios are very quiet, and it's nice to hear your editor's experience confirms that.

 

In my experience, the M1 Mac mini is basically silent. I literally have to put my head down next to it to ever hear anything from it. It seems that's another nice benefit of the lower power requirements of Apple silicon - the cooling requirements are a lot easier to deal with while still keeping things quiet. 

 

 

 

He writes that it's "incredibly quiet", and elsewhere says, "Not to mention, I never heard the fan come on once. My Drobo 5D3 is louder than this machine, and that’s saying something, given that my old MacBook Pro constantly was running its fans." This is with the M1 Ultra, although I doubt there's much difference. 

 

I may get one of these in the future, but for now, my main computer is a mid-2017 iMac 27" and it shows no signs of slowing down. Works super great. And my Pro Tools rig still keeps chugging (Mac Pro 1,1 with SSD and an old version of Pro Tools).

[Anderton]

13 hours ago, Philip OKeefe said:

I'll probably upgrade to an Apple Silicon laptop eventually, too. They're just so efficient in terms of power use and battery life... I think that will ultimately be what moves me in that direction. 

 

What would move me in that direction is if I start doing a lot of transoceanic travel again, which pretty much ended with covid. The extra battery life and lighter weight would make it a no-brainer.

[Philip OKeefe]

Well, it's here. I now have most of my stuff loaded into it. It's a beast. Sessions from the M1 Mac mini are running at about half the multicore CPU percentage on the M1 Max Mac Studio, which is what I expected. It does make sense - the single core performance is basically the same across the entire M1 line, and since the M1 Max has twice the performance cores of the M1, that explains the improvement in terms of multicore CPU percentage scores. 

 

Yes, it's very quiet, but unlike the M1 Mac mini, it is actually audible - barely - without having to lean down right next to it. But it's not loud at all, and the fans have never ramped up from that baseline, even when I loaded a moderately large Pro Tools session and ran it on loop for a half hour. 

 

I tried to measure both machines with an SPL meter, but they're both below the noise floor of the room, which is around 30 dBA SPL, so while I can hear it, I can't measure it. Anyone have an anechoic chamber I can borrow for a few minutes?  

 

I seriously doubt fan noise is going to be an issue for the vast majority of users, but when I have some time, the real test will be setting up some mics in the control room and seeing what I hear through them. Stay tuned.

 

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, Philip OKeefe said:

Stay tuned.

 

I definitely am! Not gonna spend $2K until Uncle Phil gives it the thumbs-up.

[Philip OKeefe]

I've been slowly getting everything installed on the Mac Studio. I'm almost done. It benchmarks exactly the same as the various Mac Studio test videos on YouTube for Cinebench and Geekbench 5. "Disk" speed is screaming-fast on these things too - several times faster than my external SSDs. I still want to do more testing, but so far, I'm really impressed with this computer.  

[Anderton]

10 hours ago, Philip OKeefe said:

"Disk" speed is screaming-fast on these things too - several times faster than my external SSDs. 

 

I've noticed that on my Windows machines, too. I guess going through a port, even Thunderbolt, puts some kind of bump in the data road.

[Philip OKeefe]

Okay, with Dave's blessing, I went ahead and started a Mac Studio M1 Max review thread in the MPN GearLab forum. Here's the link.