I am going to get a 32” monitor, and will be replacing my 14” Macbook Pro M1 Pro with the Mac Mini M5 when it comes out ( in 2026 according to the rumours). Most of the discussions I have seen regarding getting a good display with Cubase are talking about 27” monitor. I have my sights on the ASUS ProArt 32” 6K IPS.
Any comments and advice are greatly appreciated.
JB
I use a 32” monitor (originally with a MacMini, now with a MacStudio). It works great but….I would definitely recommend a curved 32” display.
As far as the M5 MacMini, I wouldn’t expect to see much improvement over the current M4. I would definitely recommend the M4Pro over the M4 for music production though. It has the better performance/efficiency ratio.
32” is a great size to work with. I use a 37” 1440p 21/9 curved Samsung at 60hz which I like a lot, but a curved Cubase is not for everyone.
My favourite subject - Mac Minis! Oh yes. In no particular order…
16GB RAM is not enough. 24GB is the categorical bare minimum for Cubase.
The Mac Mini pro M4 has the highest chance of all Mac models of spinning it’s fans up on heavy load. Very undesirable. Very slow bottlenecking RAM bandwidth for it’s chip. With a non-demanding 1440p screen to keep the GPU cores cool - it’s usable, but start putting 6K screens on it, and that fan will take off.
TB5 outlets are great, but docks, drives and cables are very expensive. Right now I’d rather have a really quick internal drive setup, and be happy with TB4 external drives at 3GB/sec. Others might have different needs.
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So, whatever you buy, a 1TB internal drive is usually a must, in the interests of speed. But you actually can see from my table below that some models run the 512GB drive faster. So, do check any more up to date tables very carefully before deciding.
The Max chips have more RAM bandwidth. The Ultra being even better.
The base model M4 Mini has nearly the best single-core performance of any computer made right now. The M5 chip should certainly see improvements of 20%, and you will notice the difference.
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I believe a base model M5 Mini, with 24GB RAM, and a 1TB drive - this is the early 2026 budget-conscious sweet spot, at probably $1000. I hope it has improved RAM bandwidth over the base M4. 400GB/sec and it’s game on!
But a used M4 Max 14-core with a 512GB drive won’t be much more money by 2026, and the M4 Max Studio with 512GB/1TB is also within reach on the used market.
At some point you must ask yourself if a pre-loved M3 Studio Ultra is within your means. That thing flies internally. With 96GB and 1TB, what a beast!
So, bit garbled, but some thoughts there. I will probably buy a used base M5 Mini with 512GB/1TB/24GB in August 2026 to replace my base M4 Mini. But the M3 Studio Ultra has been nagging at me for some time, and I know it would suit my type of production, which is mainly treated audio tracks. But entirely overkill.
I shelved my 2015 MacBook Pro i7 to go base M4 Mini, and still remain impressed.
It will interest me in Jan 2026, as I am waiting to see where used M4 Studios end up price-wise after the M5 launch. I’m sure I’m not alone.
My final thought is that with specs improving every year, it makes more sense to buy a machine that will just do what you need now, with a little overhead - rather than invest in a long-term monster machine, who’s future golden potential will dwindle in the face of yearly competition from newer models.
Here’s a useful table of internal drive speeds, and you can clearly see that 1TB is a flyer on those Max and Ultra chips.
32" 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. Plenty of space, and you don’t have to squint to see stuff.
(Unless you handle graphics in a pro capacity, I think which brand is more of a personal thing, and I doubt if people have as much experience with many different monitors.)
Everybody’s needs are different, but here’s another viewpoint.
I would say 16GB RAM is fine for most people. Sample-based VIs these days do streaming well enough that you don’t need huge amounts of preload.
Instead of spending the large premium Apple commands for internal storage, I would suggest getting a small internal drive and instead getting a sizable external drive to hold projects and libraries. You’ll get a lot of more storage for your money that way.
The M5 does not have a 20% single core improvement over the M4. It’s less than 15%, which puts it in the range where you’d probably not notice the difference in the size of DAW projects you can run.
Ultra or Max for music production doesn’t make a lot of sense for most people. They provide more horse power than the Pro, but a lot of that horse power is dedicated to processing capability that is irrelevant for music production.
The Ultra makes sense if you want to use multiple screens at high-resolutions, and not have a fan whirring away on your big projects. Plus an internal drive speed of up to 10GB per second is awesome.
But yes Glenn, I agree that most won’t use that horsepower. Certainly not us old-school analogue source boys, that grew up on Ataris synched to Portastudios!
I do, however, use Abbey Road Chambers or Spring Reverb on every source I use, to thicken and widen the individual mono image. I use EQ, Compression, and another Reverb to take stuff back and forth in the stereo field, and a third delayed Reverb panned elsewhere, to make note ends dance around. The Drumkit I use is 64 channels of that, plus whatever Bass, Guitars and Vocals I need. I’d certainly like the possibility of playing with samples, and swathes of synths at the same time if I so wished - all with heavy plugins. So maybe the Ultra is actually right for me?
Ok, but the OP said he will be using a single monitor, so I don’t see how that advice makes sense for him.
Then the M5 base Mini will blow him away, compared to his M1.
The observations are there for other casual readers, as these issues are seldom covered all on the same thread, as I found when researching my own upgrade from my i7 MacBook Pro.
I think anyone handling pro graphics would generally have a retina screen handy for colour reference.
I once had a fantastic NEC Multisync 32” with 1600p native res. Now that was truly a beauty.
For reference, the Asus Proart 32 6K is 218PPI.
Looks a fantastic screen with loads of features like Auto-KVM. But isn’t IPS tech a little long in the tooth when there’s Retina and Oled?
AFAIK the apple studio diplays are still IPS.
M
My NEC Multisync was IPS too. Done right for sure, it was a lovely screen, with it’s 1600p. So I’m not discarding IPS at all. My curved Samsung 21/9 is their Qled tech. Slightly fizzy feel, but nicely sharp where it counts.
I think Retina and Oled would give better blacks, and the Retina is a very good reference for video colour evaluation work.
I have Cubase with a black background here, and spend hours every day in front of my screen. I spent much time developing my monitor-sound to be black-hole quiet, and it’s less fatiguing. I’m sure the same goes for displays. If you can get the darkest blacks, then it’s less tiring on the eyes on long sessions.
Probably a good idea to have any good monitor professionally calibrated, for best results and less-fatigue viewing. 32” - 40” is a lovely size to work with close up, and I would happily pair a Retina 32” with an M5 Mini here.
I work with Quested mids field monitors so I have to be careful with monitor size as if affects my Center imaging . Those large monitors only seem to work if you have nearfields positioned on either side of the monitor….not set back in anyway.
It’s a balancing act for sure over real estate over sound quality.
The first thing that always hits me whewn I go to my mastering engineer is how solid his center image is and I\m pretty sure it’sbecasue he doesn’t have a monitor in the way.
M
Yes Norbury. I’d be surprised if anyone works the way I do. But what I have is a complete Audiophile monitoring system - tweaked to hell to give flat-response down to 40hz. When working, my right ear is almost in the sweet spot. I can turn my chair to the right, and be in the perfect listening position.
For me, it’s about imaging, depth of field, soundstage, point-source, and flat-response accuracy over a range of levels, with black-hole silences and effortless transients. I worked long and hard over the years to get to this point.
Never in my life would I consider working with a huge screen in front, and speakers either side. Add a big desk filled with the latest fashionable control surfaces? Recipe for disaster - unless, and a big unless - you want some Auratones for reference, or perhaps a smaller 8” Tannoy, for non-commital meanderings.
This little collection sits behind, and to the right of my right-hand speaker, as I wanted precisely a DH Labs Mirage 1.5m USB cable to feed my Bryston DAC straight from the Mac Mini. The Bryston BDA-2 DAC was and is a revelation, as I found most soundcard’s audio has a forward presentation. The BDA-2 is more laid-back.
I no longer hear speakers. They cease to exist. What I do have is a massive soundstage that stretches back to infinity, and I can place 3D images anywhere I want in that soundstage.
Most average monitor systems are like the Generation Game - a succession of stuff parading past your window. This is dreadful. I feel people are being short-changed by clinging to the mindless acquisition agenda of the latest desktop fashionista and their pretty, sci-fi workstations.
My stuff and approach is to rip out the window frame, knock the whole bloody wall down, and enjoy everything my huge soundstage has to offer, from the comfort of my seat.
I have the ASUS ProArt 32” 6K PA32QCV monitor– have been using it about a month now. The colors and contrast are brilliant and the resolution outstanding. The native color settings are overall brighter than any calibrated monitor I’ve owned. It’s really a monitor that would suit the most demanding graphic designer but priced (as a 6k monitor) for anyone who would appreciate the high resolution. It comes pre-tested for calibration and will conform through its Display Widget Center app to many different color calibration formats and/or resolutions, including settings to match the color of the MacBook Pro I’m using to drive it (and using as an extended display). If I have any criticism, it’s that ASUS provided indecipherable picture-based assembly instructions and their registration website initially directed me to Asian language webpages with no way to find my way to English instructions. I figured it out just fine, you would, too– full recommendation: don’t hesitate to buy that monitor if it would suit your needs.
Thanks to everyone who responded here. Great input and interesting discussion on what you have encountered.
On the monitor side, I decided to order a 42” LG C5 Oled smart TV. I know it is a TV and not a computer monitor but I see people have been using these as a computer monitor. I know there are pros and cons, but I think the cons aren’t going to be a deal breaker versus the substantially cheaper cost and added screen real estate obtained with the 42”. If it turns out to be glaringly unsuitable, I still can use it as a TV (or return it).
Anyway the computer upgrade will come latter. Of course whether M4 or M5, I will get the PRO chip and at least 1TB storage.
I see myself doing a lot more of unmixing stems with Spectralayers, especially since you now can pull the brass/sax out. I want the runs to be faster. With what i have now, the M1 PRO, they can take 15 minutes. And Clean My Mac is reporting that the CPU is running too hot. I know some of you probably will say it is best to not run that in a DAW. Still it helps me keep the system in check. I definitely am not a super power DAW user. At this point I am just someone who finished Dom’s Cubase course and wanting to step up my game.
You see TV’s in many studios. It’s a good choice especially if you won’t be sitting close to it.
Retina is not a display technology, it’s just a marketing reference to high PPI (which said ProArt would qualify for). Both the Apple Studio Display and the Pro Display XDR are IPS. They are LED-backlit, did you mean that maybe?
