M1 Pro 14" vs M1 Air for a portable music production setup

[keyman_sam]

I'm so torn between the two configs. Being that this is a long term investment, I don't mind shelling out the extra $$ for M1 Pro. The comparison is between the following:
M1 Air - 16GB/2TB/8-core
M1 Pro - 16GB/2TB/10-core

I have a Mac mini which serves me wonderfully as the main music machine. I'm simply getting something for when I do travel. In all likelihood it might replace the Mac mini though it's still chomping down everything I throw at it (except for Unify). Lugging around the Mac mini around has been a pain point for me for the few times I do travel.

I love the portability of the M1 Air, and the M1 Pro looks very chunky. But I'm not sure if that'd bother me over the dongle usage. I'm not a frequent traveller so most of the time the laptop will stay at home. I'm planning on ditching the
A. External SSD for my Mac mini (2 TB should help here)
B. Sound card (use built-in headphones jack)
C. Possibly midi controller (and get a wireless midi controller instead)

I do use multiple displays with the Mac mini. I'd have to sacrifice on that.
But I just love the tapered design and the lightweightness of the air. Arggh..first world problems. Please help me decide.

[Serhii Kot]

I replaced my m1 mac mini with m1 air(16gb, 1tb). I love it. Performance is the same. It’s so light, best laptop I ever own. I thought I will buy a new macbook when they came out, but I don’t see the reason.

[Johnny!]

You'd want the higher screen resolution and higher ohmage of the audio out from the 14". It's not that chunky in real life too

[keyman_sam]

I replaced my m1 mac mini with m1 air(16gb, 1tb). I love it. Performance is the same. It’s so light, best laptop I ever own. I thought I will buy a new macbook when they came out, but I don’t see the reason.

Yeah the M1 Pro reportedly gets 70% more for audio production, but I don't know if that's necessary for the stuff I do. As long as my Air is faster than my i7 Mac mini I think I should be good.

I really like the portability aspect of the Air. The lack of ports do make me wonder if connecting the USB sound card via a hub would be okay.

[Serhii Kot]

No problem using a good USB or thunderbolt hub with my audio interfaces (Audient iD4 and Audient iD44). I am using the Elgato thunderbolt dock now. But has zero problems while connecting my USB interface to the built-in hub in my monitor.

[sQeetz]

If I didn't already have the 13" Macbook Pro M1, I would opt for the 14" one for the screen alone... and the full size function keys. The Touchbar, I thought would be nice, but it actually sucks balls pretty bad...
That's what I would get if I didn't already own one of the M-series.
Since I have one, I'll wait until M3 maybe M4. I'm pretty fine with the one I have right now.

[btfnk]

The M1 Pro 10 core you get in the 14" is the same CPU as in all the M1 Max machines, it's a beast and much more powerful than the cpu in the M1 Air. Definitely worth it.

[Bombadil]

More than 2 x the price. Its performance better top the Air.

[Synthack]

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[Synthack]

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[antic604]

The M1 Pro 10 core you get in the 14" is the same CPU as in all the M1 Max machines, it's a beast and much more powerful than the cpu in the M1 Air. Definitely worth it.

2.5-3x the price for 1.6-1.7x more performance doesn't sound like a great deal. Unless other additional features compensate that price gap for you.

[chagzuki]

I've been using an Air with 8gb RAM for several months. Generally, it has worked very well, but I do think the RAM is a bottleneck, and whilst the system copes admirably I think that the 16gb model would have kept me going for several years. I don't think CPU is particularly an issue. The newer machines look nice, but for the price the Air is great. Ports are a consideration though.

[chagzuki]

It's funny, I'm looking at my post above from less than 2 months ago and it seems since then I've been bumping up against the limits of the Air a lot more, frequently in fact. Now I'm looking at the prices for the Pro, particularly the 16 inch, and wondering if it makes any sense at this moment to get one. The higher end M2 won't be out for a long time, I assume, but I'm curious to see what the benchmarks will be for the low end M2 supposedly showcased in the upcoming march event.

[machinesworking]

It's funny, I'm looking at my post above from less than 2 months ago and it seems since then I've been bumping up against the limits of the Air a lot more, frequently in fact. Now I'm looking at the prices for the Pro, particularly the 16 inch, and wondering if it makes any sense at this moment to get one. The higher end M2 won't be out for a long time, I assume, but I'm curious to see what the benchmarks will be for the low end M2 supposedly showcased in the upcoming march event.

I don't think the next event is going to have low end machines, or at least that's not the focus.
The email I just received from Apple on the event is literally titled "Peek performance."

So yeah, best to wait. I really love the Air I've got, my only concern is video oriented, I'm currently more than maxing it out using two external 27" 1080p monitors and Display Link software to get that second monitor, and I would love to exchange the non touch screen LCD one for a 32-34" 2 or 4K one. Also I'm wanting to do some video work soon, so I might be selling this Air to get even the projected M1 Pro/Max Mini that might come out. Then wait for the next gen Air.

[cel4145]

In case this helps, in 2021, Apple updated the Pros to have a better much better built-in headphone amplifier
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212856

So now the Pros work well with 95% of headphones.