Sweet spot for a new Mac Pro

M4 Macbook Pros are predicted to be released this fall. September or October.

Suggest waiting a month. Right now is a really bad time to buy unless you can get a good discount.

In the US, M3 MacBook Pros have been offered with $500 discounts. $2900 models on sale for $2400.

Sure! I'd say if you can swing it, go for the 36GB RAM. It'll help with heavy video editing and music software. But if you're on a budget, the M3 Pro with 18GB RAM should still do well.

I've been using macs for 30 years now. The latest mac laptops will last a minimum of 5 years, 7 is very realistic and 10 is not uncalled for, but software updates, etc., tend to outdate it by that time.

For example, Macs look more like iPads in how they are built these days - "system on a board" - I have a 10 year old iPad still going strong, but won't run a lot of stuff because it can only run the OS up to a certain older version. Hardware is still fine.

My wife uses her MBP 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week and 5 years is very doable on hers. She wore the keypads on one MBP before we finally decided to replace it.

I think you have little to worry about....

How about the MacBook Air 15" ? - up to 24 gig of ram

As to longevity; I still run a mid 2010 17" when required. Have replaced battery, CD drive ( both died ultimately) put in an OWC SSD also max 8 gigs of RAM. It's not a killer speed wise but 24 tracks are no worries; it just keeps going on projects that belie it's age.

Cheers, Ross

Macbook pro M1 max, i wouldn't spend a dime on a newer model unless you're processing 12k video, check out the attachment, i believe there are almost 240 plugin instances using liquid sonics, Fab filter stuff at maximum over sampling and maxed out linear phase mode, these things are unreal, and now you can get a M1 for a song

On this machine I edit multi streams of black magic raw 4K and 6k at 5:1 all day with no problems in resolve, same with pro res👍

5 years is far too long of an expected life expectancy. Get apple care for 3 years and anything after that, just trade it in if it breaks. It’s a write off. Do not get the super expensive MacBooks. Get a solid one with increased ram and at least 1-2tb internal storage, use external disks, and be prepared to buy a new one if it breaks to use if AppleCare fixes it. If getting a desktop, get a pimped out Mac mini, not an iMac or Mac Studio or Mac Pro. Overkill for audio but often a studio can be gotten for an equivalent pimped out mini wihr more stuff so just get that and don’t you dare pimp it out unless you need a ton of ram for sample libraries.

Right now the best Mac speed wise for audio production is logic on the m4 iPad Pro but it only has logic and auv3 plugins

Apple has some charging intelligence built into the mac so leaving it plugged in all the time won't harm the battery. The battery life is measured based on charging cycles which is tracked somewhere in the os or hardware. It is mostly a non concern. If you do run it on the battery, try to run it down as much as possible before plugging it back in. Typically, the computer won't be allowed to recharge the battery if the the charge is 80% or higher when plugged back in. 

Yeah the 14 is really all about mobility, since you said it’s just going to move around the house the 16 is better for video. You really want as much memory as you can afford since you can’t upgrade memory or internal HD, this is what has kept me from buying Apple Silicon even used they know the smaller memory is useless so they Kill you in the price of 32GB plus!
For video you’re probably going to find a bigger monitor to be a great long term investment, but you don’t need one to get going.
Everybody I know who is running Resolve Devinci on Apple Silicon is a happy camper, just remember if you want the full blown version, the best way to buy it is with one of the controllers.

I don't know, I'm no battery ninja, but I've seen the OS hold my MBP at 80% while on power for extended periods of time. But I think my point was, as well as yours, "it's a non issue." 

Here is the blurb from Apple's website about battery management:

Automatic battery health management.
To reduce battery aging, built-in software and hardware systems are included to manage charging patterns and battery temperature.
Optimized Battery Charging and Optimized Charge Limit adapt to your daily usage and preserve your battery lifespan over time. Optimized Battery Charging is available on all platforms as of iOS 13, watchOS 7, and macOS Big Sur. Based on your daily charging routine, it may automatically defer charging to 100% until shortly before you need to use the battery. Apple Watch Ultra can further reduce time spent at high states of charge by learning when to charge to an Optimized Charge Limit and when to allow for a full charge.
Charging may pause temporarily while in extreme temperature conditions, and will resume once the battery’s temperature returns to its normal operating range. Starting in iOS 16, you may see a notification appear on the lock screen when charging has paused for this reason. Starting in iOS 16 and watchOS 9, paused charging information is also available in Settings > Battery.

Source: A large hollow space above my shoulders.

I wouldn't say must have unless the computer is mission critical, and even then, you may not need it, but it would be there. My experience is that the flat rate repair is around $600 - did that once for an MBP with a logic board failure after 5 years and another time for a bloated battery, which was mostly covered at around 3+ years.  

You can find pricing for AppleCare here: www.apple.com/support/products/mac/

For me personally, its a toss-up. If the machine makes me money, absolutely. If it doesn't, then from my own personal experience, I myself would not because of cost, but I am willing to take the chance, which I perceive as low risk. 

One nice thing about AppleCare is that you have a year from the original date of purchase in order to buy it, and it can be extended beyond the original three-year mark now, and you can also pay for it on a monthly basis if you don't like the up-front cost. To me it's worth every penny.