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Comment by eddieh | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this article is FUD. Nearly every professional audio interface for Mac, iPhone, or iPad has a 1/4" stereo headphone output for real studio monitor headphones. No pro is concerned that they lost the 1/8" output for bargain headphones on their iPhone.

Any iMac or MacBook Pro from the last 5 years is sufficient for any pro audio workflow. A Mac Pro is still sufficient and is way overkill. A lot of people can be pretty productive on an iPad too. New Macs are coming, Apple isn't abandoning the Mac.

I just updated to macOS Sierra and all my pro audio equipment has either kept working as is or the manufacturer released a driver update within days of the macOS Sierra release.

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If the article were just about the headphone jack, maybe you'd have a point. Maybe not, though. For one thing "pro audio workflow" isn't the limits of concern here. 1/4" mono ain't exactly a dream interface from an audio engineering POV (ground? what ground?), but it's sure a popular one and a lot of musicians don't know/care. If iOS devices are now instruments, just because producers/sound guys might spend hundreds on their headphones (and I have) doesn't mean there aren't going to be would-be performers using what came with the device. Or that there shouldn't be.

But the article is not just about the headphone jack, there's an additional half-dozen considerations that you haven't said anything to address other than "works for me." I can assure you that this is not everyone's experience.

> Any iMac or MacBook Pro from the last 5 years is sufficient for any pro audio workflow.

Just a few days ago, Pro Tools popped up the annoying "A CPU Overload Has Occurred" dialog box while I was working on a mix. Mid-2015 rMBP, 2.5 GHz.

It was a pretty simple session, too - nothing that breaks any rules, like reverbs on inserts. 12 or so tracks and three stereo effects (on their own busses).

I'm amazed every day at how much capability my MBP puts into my hands, but it is not without limitations. To say it's sufficient for any pro audio workflow is a bit of a stretch.

The problem with the ultrathin MBP, like all ultrabooks, is that it is not designed for sustained CPU use. It overheats quickly and the CPU will be throttled. You will be better off with a proper mobile workstation like the Lenovo Thinkpad P50 or P70 with Xeon CPUs and better cooling.

We should be boycotting Lenovo for their absolutely abhorrent business practices, not promoting them.

I use them only as an example I'm familiar with. What abhorrent business practices are you referring to? I find Apple's 0.005% European corporate tax arrangements abhorrent personally.

EDIT: the HP ZBook Studio G3 also looks quite good

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfish

“On February 20, 2015, Microsoft released an update for Windows Defender which removes Superfish.”

Microsoft has to uninstall the malware that Lenovo had put on the computers it had sold. Lenovo did not remove it on its own. Let that sink in.

Lenovo didn't really understand what they were bundling with their cheapest zero margin machines. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Fine. Dell. HP. Etc. All offer workstation class laptops.

Agreed, which is my main complaint: the older (non-retina) MBP was better at sustained CPU usage (at least in my experience - this is 100% anecdotal and non-scientific). Apple used to produce a machine that was suited for the things I do, but the rMBP doesn't feel as capable as the thicker, older vanilla MBP.

It makes me consider buying a Mac Mini or Mac Pro for audio work, but I can't justify the cost right now, since audio is mainly a hobby and my MBP works fine for most of what I do (multi-track recording live events with Dante).

I was drawn to the MBP when I switched in 2009 because of the build quality, the OS, and its ability to handle professional workflows, but it seems that they're abandoning that use case. My favorite machine of all time is still my '09 Core 2 Duo MBP.

The extra portability is nice, but if I wanted portability over power, I would have bought an Air (or I suppose a Macbook now).

Right. You can get a Dell Precision 15 7000 (which yes, weighs 6lb versus 4.5lb) that isn't comparable to the rMBP 15, but beats it up:

* CPU up to i7 6920, or Xeon E3-1575M v5

* memory up to 64GB, ECC or non-

* Thunderbolt 3

* up to 2 x NVMe SSD

* 4K display

Nice. Those specs would make a great mobile DAW.

The state of Apple may be okay for you personally, but the rest of the Pro market is famously neurotic about maximum power and maximum stability. A video editing shop isn't content with rendering on three year old hardware, or having frequent updates and bugs to mess with their workflow. The article's not just sewing FUD.

You'd be surprised how many people play live with 1/8" jacks. It's also a useful backup when someone spills beer on your RME Fireface.

You're right, I would be surprised.

>Any iMac or MacBook Pro from the last 5 years is sufficient for any pro audio workflow.

Pro audio workflows can include more than a hundred tracks, all running demanding plugins.

A MacBook Pro can be good enough for bedroom studios and simple mixes without many tracks, but no one is going to record and mix a film score on one.

Depends just how many plugins you want to run Apples lack of grunt at the high end is going to hurt pros (Ie Air 1 or Abby Road)

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