Probably their Studio display

Logic and Live currently doesn't really utilize full power of M3's

 

Not that well known, perhaps, but every iMac model comes in two versions: one with the original desktop stand and one with the standard WESA mount.

 

I specifically asked about the displays with the overall picture quality (pixel density, colors, nits, etc.) comparable to that of the Apple retina displays. I haven't seen such displays, and I'd like to.

You are trying hard, but I don't really understand what you're trying to say about the magnificent iMac 24" 4.5k display that I'm currently looking at, apart from the increasingly strong impression that you have no actual practical experience with it.

 

Sure, the display is great. But a 24" M3 iMac wouldn't fit in my setup at all and it's barely more powerful in Logic Pro (which is one of the few reasons to use macOS) than my M1 Air with 4 power cores each. My i7 Hackintosh is still faster in Logic Pro.

 

I considered apple stuff at one time and got seriously into researching and spec'ing out a machine - then, I saw the pricing and what you get $ for $ compared to the PC side. Plus there's apple corporate that seems hell bent on manipulating its end users to suit their own purposes even more so than MicroSoft. If you like the apple display you can get one if you have the $$ and (as someone already pointed out) you can run it with a PC. It has to be said that there's really no need for that high end of a monitor just for audio production unless you are doing still photo work and/or video color grading along with everything else. I end up at times doing all three and require dual EIZO 24 inch monitors that have closed loop calibration facilities built-in hooked to PC's and have had no issues working within any of the 3 discipline's mentioned. One thing I did come across about retina displays when doing that research mentioned earlier is that for photo or video work retina's are way too contrasty out of the box to be depended on to give accurate monitor to print results without investing in calibration equipment. Of course if you're doing this kind of work you should have these tools available anyway, but just fyi. If you do get a display of that caliber just for audio you'll definitely have the prettiest looking audio gear interfaces in town.

 

Last edited: Feb 6, 2024

my point was more that since i've become a cough potato i've still written several tracks using only my 14inch mbp

i do however agree with the majority here that having a seperate display and mac mini is just as good as an imac (have had both). both have versions with a total 2 and/or 3 screens. so a mac mini would ,imo, actually look better if you use 2 or 3 displays of the same type. and ofcourse the accessories, the magic mouse and magic keyboard are not included with the mac mini which can be a plus as well.

 

I just bought an iMac M3 with 1TB storage and 24GB RAM. I stick to iMacs because I couldn't find a better screen alternative. There might be screens with a higher DPI, but for me Apple has a better and compact solution of a screen and it helps with my eye problems.

 

I was in the same situation a year ago. Had a lovely Mac mini M1 16/512, but couldn't find anything that would come close to the quality of Apple displays, and my eyes now definitely need high pixel density.

So I sold the Mac mini and bought the iMac M1 8/512 for a negligibly higher price. I basically got this beautiful 24" retina display for pocket change.

 

If I had that much cash to spend, I would blow it on a 16-core Zen 5 with 64GB RAM and a 4TB SSD.

 

Last edited: Jan 11, 2024

Ok, guys sorry for the late response to all of you. After doing many tests and reading on the internet. It seems like going for an M3 iMac from the point that I have a decent Windows laptop, I've realized it is not worth the "upgrade". I mean, don't get me wrong all the iMac users here. I love the fact that the iMac (Not the MacPro) can run easily a relatively big audio project, however, in heavy-duty benchmark tests made by YouTubers by using Ableton, the iMac falls short when compared with the power of the Helios300 which is my current laptop. I was expecting more from Apple but the facts are that they offer an amazing display, and a great OS at the cost of having underperformance when compared with Windows PCs. As for the Display, one of the reasons I have been looking for it is because my current laptop has lots of dead pixels and it is getting worse over time also I wanted to give it a try to Apple but will not be soon, so I have decided to buy the ASUS ProArt PA278CGV which seems to have a great value regarding color for designers and overall specs. It's 2k, not 4.5k retina but hey, It will do the job

 

Good call, you made great and informed decision based on your own expectations and preferences.

 

I've always thought that choosing a PC over a Mac is a fallback, dictated exclusively by a budget issue. if you have the cash to cover the expense, choosing a Mac is always the best option. When you buy a Mac you don't just buy hardware, but also the certification that your workflow will work, no matter what. I also believe that the hackintosh solution should be avoided like the plague. I wasn't aware that the m3 didn't fully exploit Logic's potential, but it will be fixed: it'll just be a matter of time. at the moment I'm upgrading to a Mac mini M2 maxed out ($3k with Samsung screen and accessories). A note about the iMac: it is not dedicated to professional use: better choose a workstation like macmini or macstudio

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2024

For the price of one MAC Pro M3 16" in my country, I could have (64) HP Pro 6300 SFF computers with linux

 

Just for the debate: