Hi Thomas, a question. Do you connect your Roon Rock NUC to your last switch or is it on an earlier switch.
For me this has proven to be a clear benefit both with my current MBP running core and earlier NAS running minim upnp server.
JimDog, not sure but my experience above would imply an other factor to consider.
What do you all think?
Have you tried connecting your NUC (Rock server) direct to the etherRegen switch?
No. That wouldn’t make sense.
The Roon Server is noisy, like all computers by the way, and would compromise the isolation provided by the EtherRegen
It might make sense if you consider the server as part of your audio setup and thus needs to be protected from the rest of your network, if that make sense?
I was evaluating it at the time against a Naim Uniti Core and Melco N100.
I’d say my main critera being establishing features and ease of use against price point. I wasn’t focussed on an analytical comparison of sonic capabilities in all honesty as many have/would be.
I found the Zen Mini a good allrounder for the price. I expect it would probably struggle if you pushed it enabling the more advanced features in Roon.
Relative to the Innuos, upgrading the Mac Mini with bigger/better SSD drives was cost effective, buying a used one and doing similar would still be a cost efficient option in my opinion.
To my mind the emergence of more expensive audiophile NAS/server devices (both UPnP and Roon) has encouraged people to put them on their rack, because they come in fancy aluminium cases that make them look like HiFi components. My experience is that they work at least as well, if not better, if they are kept away from the HiFi, which is what Roon recommend for hardware running their Core, as Thomas says.
If you’re using the same box via a direct USB or SPDIF connection to a DAC, it’s a different matter, but we’re talking here about network connections.
That, at least, is my experience. Others appear to disagree, which is fine as long as they have made accurate assessments of how these things affect the sound. Not an easy thing to do in some circumstances.
I don’t consider the Roon Server as part of my audio system.
It’s just a data server, like Qobuz’s servers are.
What needs to be isolated from the noisy network is the DAC, and the streamer part of the ND555 which is directly connected to the DAC.
The Roon Server could be located in antarctica, connected to your home network through VPN, it wouldn’t make the slightest difference (as long as the intercontinental connection is reliable, of course).
What’s critical for sound/signal reconstruction is the DAC, and whatever is directly connected to it, and could interfere in the signal reconstruction.
Depends how many switches you have, how good they are, and what else is plugged into them?
e.g. if you had 2 Cisco 2960s in PoE configuration you might try plugging the Roon Core into the first switch - with nothing else plugged in apart from a link to the 2nd (PD) switch - which links from there only to your streamer (if that’s a Roon endpoint).
That way you’d have separation between the Core and the streamer - as well as significant isolation between the streamer and the nearest upstream psu.
I fully understand your reasoning but for me, my experience is that moving the core (server) to the last switch result in a more open and dynamic sound in my system (and obviously my ears). And is actually the reason for this thread. If I didn’t “believe-feel-imagine” this I would happily just place my MBP in the spare room it resided until I started using it as my Roon core. That was the reason for me asking nothing else.
Even though I’m not really the tweaker kind, I could try that, of course. It’s just swapping a pair of cables. Curiosity costs nothing 
I have an EE as my last switch, before that a Cisco (WS-C2960-8TC-L, internal PS). The Cisco is connect to incoming router in another small room. As described earlier connecting the MBP/core to the last is my clear preference.
If considering e.g. a Melco that is basically the same but in a single box… So there might be something to this?!
Not in your case, in my case it may very well cost me a nucleus (or at least a fan-less NUC) 
I consider it as a music media and service aggregator and proxy server. I use to also optimise the digital audio for playback. As such it is part of my audio system in the same way as, say, external power supplies are.
I run my Core on my IMac as a background process. Performance/Speed and SQ appears perfect for me. The load on the iMac is negligible, to the extent it’s hidden and you don’t know it’s there… even when stream serving.
Hi Simon
How do you use Roon to optimise your digital audio for playback?
Room correction?
Filters?
Yes, filters to optimise headphones for my ears and sometimes cross feed.
Also I eq some masters, such as some 1980s masters that were mastered thin.
Do people who use DSP to tailor frequency response for
headphones also apply it when playing through speakers? And if not, why not? (I am not talking about trying to correct severe dips due to room cancellations, a real no-no, but improving things once positioning is optimised.) Whilst I understand it is possible to obtain predetermined response correction settings for some ’phones, with speakers it is easy to measure though you need a microphone costing up to about £100 (less secondhand - and can be sold on after use if not wanted again).
I use filtering in a very basic format at the moment for my speakers. I don’t have much room to move my speakers around to adjust bass intensity, low and sub bass. So I tweak both in DSP to boost it a little, 1-3db. It’s useful as you can adjust the amount without turning it boomy or unbalanced.
That said, I picked up an app, Room EQ Wizard, and will at some point buy a mic so I can do proper adjustments. Just haven’t got round to it yet.
Headphones, I use it more for my Elegia but not on the Empy (other than crossfeed).
I have now got a NUC10i5 up and running since almost 2 weeks. I can report that it is silent to my ears so right now I don’t need to reinstall it in a fanless case.
To my ears sound quality is at least on par with the MPB/Roon-core, so happy with the move.
Some days ago I started to copy my ripped CDs (.aiff) from my NAS to the internal SSD (Samsung 860 EVO) I installed in the NUC. To my surprise I find the sound lacking compared to the same file on my NAS!? This was not what I was expecting! The sound is possibly a bit more distinct and clean but seem to lack some “air”, making it slightly dull in caparison, if that is possible to relate to? Anyone with similar experiance?
It will be down to your streamer/renderer. They probably use different code to play UPnP media compared to RAAT media…
But underneath the covers it’s the same and PCM. (Assuming you are not using Roon filtering or sound modification,
One consideration is word length. Roon will use 32 bit if it can, whereas UPnP maxes out at 24 bit.
