Intel, which is in a bit of economic trouble right now, has decided to drop the NUC (according to PCWorld) which I know many are using as music servers.
Intel hope their partners will pick up the slack building SFFs (small form-factor computers) so this shouldn’t be a problem really. But still interesting.
I run four Raspberry Pi based music streamers…….
they work, pulling files from the Synology NAS to the nDAC (digital), Numerik (digital), Meridian 101 (analogue) and Denon Micro System (analogue).
Sure, but with a fragmented market it is harder to evaluate the audio quality of different software. With Roon Rock you can just lookup which NUC-models Roon test on and be sure it works. Same with Audio Linux or …
Which hat are you using?
We use a PI into our SU to get Tidal Connect. Sounds very decent.
We tried the PI into nDAC last year.
Raspberry will probably become the new NUC … lots of software available and the MagnaHiFi streamer (which use the RP 4 Compute Module rather than the full Pi) is one of the best I’ve heard (strings sound super) with some suitably expensive power supplies.
Will be interesting to see how this maps out in relation to Roon ROCK which depends on Intel NUC integration for SQA.
I’ve tended to standardise on IQAudio digi HATs and DAC HATs. But I’m not sure whether IQAudio are still going.
The main system is Allo USBridgeSignature/DigiOneSignature/Shanti at around seven hundred quid. This feeds the nDAC in my office system. But again, Allo seem to have gone quiet recently.
So hardware-wise, I’m not sure I’d know these days where to place “the readies”………
Software on all the systems is MoOde Audio. They are still going strong 
That’s similar (without the USBRidge) to what I’ve had for several years and was swearing by it. Unfortunately (for my wallet 
) the ND5 XS2 walked all over the Allo as a digital transport into the nDAC 
Apologies for the off-topic!
I would hope so, at three times the price! 
Were you using your nDAC with the Allo?
That’s true! It just came as a big shock to me, as I wasn’t expecting any big difference among different digital transports, once you’ve reached a decent level such as the Allo. But then again it is said that nDAC is quite sensitive to the quality of the streamer.
Indeed, I was/am using the nDAC with both Allo and ND5XS2, so I could compare the transports very easily side by side. Whatever changes happen in my system, the nDAC is not going anywhere 
.
Have you got a PSU on the nDAC? I have an olive XPS that I borrowed from the CDX. I thought it gave a worthwhile improvement.
Not so far. At some point in the past (with Allo as the source and the Dynaudio C1 Platinum as speakers) I had demoed a 555PS DR from my dealer and I couldn’t hear a single difference to be honest ! Mind you, at the same time I could hear difference of a PowerLine into my SN2, so I was not completely deaf hopefully .
I imagine that with my current configuration (PMC twenty5.21i) I would be able to distinguish any improvements much more readily. Does my wallet want to hear them though? But I will probably give it a try again once my speakers are run-in sufficiently.
Hopefully by the time I need to replace my NUC Roon will have got another partner to support ROCK……
Shame the NUC was a great product for me.
I have two Intel i5 NUCs that I am using to run a dual PC setup with JPLAY Femto into a Naim Audio nDAC/Naim Audio XPS. The setup sounds fine to my ears.
I have run rock on number of intel platforms with no issue, beyond finding something suitable I don’t think its insurmountable for them. Its crazy paying them the price they want for a glorified nuc anyway.
I guess it’s just that assurance that they’ve validated and tested their software against those specific NUC’s and hardware configurations. Once that goes away, it makes it somewhat harder for Roon to provide that same consistency with releases.
Putting the Nucleus to one side (it’s overpriced), many people new to Roon would feel most comfortable starting with a set of known quantities including the server hardware.
I’d not be surprised if they make the local server functionality more lightweight in the future and push more of the feature set in to an online equivalent, that works around any hardware compatibility overheads, where it gets interesting is if there’s a lot of signal processing going on in particular the MUSE features, perhaps they’ll develop an orchestration hub that can be added to a generic library on a network share.
Looks like the lead partner is Asus, according to this Intel press release:
Intel and ASUS agree to term sheet to manufacture, sell and support 10th to 13th Gen NUC systems product line and to develop future innovative NUC systems product designs
There’s a story and discussion on Are Technica.
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