Was thinking of getting a s/h Nucleus + to give Roon a try…… What do folks think of this vs a new Roon One, or the other streaming‘Connect’ options?
Or are they effectively all the same?
ATB, J
IIRC, the Nucleus + just had a bit more poke over the standard Nucleus. Useful if you had a very big library or were using a lot of the DSP functionality.
I’ve had the standard Nucleus for 7 years now – all very good and apart from opening it up to add an SSD for the internal storage, just plug and play. If I had to replace it, i’d just get a new Nucleus One.
I’m sure someone will be along soon to tell you that Roon is crap 
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I did my home test with a Nucleus which I found to be excellent and bought a NEW Nucleus One, even though the Demo Nucleus was available.
Very happy with my choice, the original Nucleus was marginally more expensive, but would have been happy with the ex Demo unit from a functionality standpoint.
Both performed better than my Core with ROON running on my Mac Mini M4.
Roon is notthe same as a “connect” service, like Tidal or Qobuz Connect. The Roon Core takes the Qobuz, for example, stream and then converts to RAAT for onward play via an end point. Connect services directly connect the network card in your device to the service providers servers.
If you’re just trying Roon out, then buying a dedicated device as a Core seems very costly. Just use your laptop orbwhatever to run the Core and decide then whether Roon is for you.
I bought a Nucleus Rev B 5 years ago. It has recenly failed. This is not uncommon. The Rev B was originally £1500. The newer One is still £700 or so in the UK. I wouldn’t buy a used Nucleus if more than a year or so old; just not worth the risk of a failure, imo.
I may well dump Roon and just use Qobuz Connect. Roon UI is exvellent though
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If you are going to put the Roon server on your hifi rack I’d go for a fanless Nucleus or NUC.
If not the Nucleus One would be a great relatively cheap solution.
I really value Roon for the easy way you can access artist/album information, implement volume levelling and run DSP but as has been said before someone will say it has rubbish SQ and is too expensive.
Best to give it a try yourself 
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…and don’t forget device grouping irrespective of manufacturer.
Being able to play music throughout the house on my Linn DSM’s and Naim Mu-So’s whilst doing chores etc, is really great.
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Yes, this is a definite advantage of Roon. It takes away the worry/need about a controlling app for any new kit that might be being considered. Qobuz Connect also operates across multiple platforms, of course, but it won’t multi room. It all depends on your use case, like much else.
I’ve been a Roon user for very many years; what you say is certainly an advantage. Things move on elsewhere thought; the new Qobuz Beta app also has easy access to artist/album information and the ability to ‘explore’ around a particular track/album. Innuos Sense is more than decent on that front as well, plus Sense will combine a streaming library with local files, a la Roon.
You could also look at music servers from SonicTransport. I run Roon on a 3rd gen i7, and I also have the option to run Audirvana, HQPlayer, MinimServer (DLNA), Squeezebox, Plex Media Server, and more. In general, I think you get more value for the money, and you’re not locked into Roon.
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Don’t do it. I had a gen 1 Nucleus+ and then the revised B version, purchased at a small discount after a motherboard component failed. A couple of years later, the same thing happened with gen B Nucleus+. I was offered a 1k repair or a small discount off a new one. I decided they could forget it.
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Indeed.. you could download Roon and trial for a couple of weeks on a lappy or home computer to decide if its for you before investing in hardware. I ran it on a Mac mini for a while before purchasing my Nucleus. The principle benefit of Roon is the integration of streaming services and a local library into an easy to use interface with the ability to explore the available sources by more than a simple ‘artist’ search. As alot of its functionality is now cloud based the local hardware needs are quite simple so a ‘+’ might not be needed.
I’m using the Roon 1 and I’m very happy with it.
An older Nucleus+ will be fine, and probably has more CPU peformance than the current Nucleus One.
The later Rev B model uses a NUC7i7DNK board, which HP actually has a Gen 8 i7 “quad-core” but still offering a 15W TDP.
If you search on my posts on the Roon forum I made some performance comparisons of NUC models, and their single thread CPU performance, which is the determining factor for RoonOS.
The latest Nucleus One uses an Intel Celeron processor, so not even an i3 or i5 processor.
One single to do before you start with a S/H Nucleus+ is to upgrade RAM to 16GB and a faster NVMe PCI Gen3.0 SSD, this will provide a performance boost to the Nucleus and ensure you have sufficient headroom for library size.
I use a NUC7i7DNKE NUC running ROCK with 16GB and a fast 250GB NMVe SSD with a library of 8k albums and 108k tracks on a NAS connected library.
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I have the rev B also and when I switch on my 500DR and it trip the mains my nucleus+ rev B is fried. Just like that the motherboard gone. I make the mistake of plug it in the same power block. Do not get old nucleus it could be faulty design. Esp the rev B.
I end up with Silent Angle and no matter how much my mains trip the unit reboot just like a normal mini computer would. There is something wrong with the nucleus motherboard design.
Do you still have the non-working RevB Nucleus+?
Would you consider selling it, as a non-working unit?
I no longer have it. My dealer took it back to repair but I asked him to sell me a different Roon core, and he suggested Silent Angel Rhein Z1 Plus, which is even more expensive, unfortunately but not as nice looking as the RevB heatsink Nucleus.
I like the look of the RevB, but it must be my mistake share it the same power block with my amplifier 
. I used it for a few months only and motherboard is dead after that 1 trip.
Ok, I like the casework too, and was hoping to find a non-working one, and recase my current NUC board.
Oh well
Bit late to the party
I would steer clear of an old Nucleus, it’s likely to be old, I think the last ones were 3-4 yrs ago certainly an old processor, based on a NUC 8 series we are now 14 !!
I would set up a server on a laptop/desktop (must have a SSD system disc where the Roon db lives) , put a selected set of albums on an external HDD . Play and see if if it’s for you. Take the 2 week free but I would advise a couple of 1 months subs, there is a lot to see in Roon. I am approaching 10 yrs as my main system .
Much depends on library size, 100k tracks is the max for Nucleus One beyond that it’s Titan which is Expensive. You could try the NUC/ROCK DIY route, although with the Nucleus one price it may even cost more. Be prepared to put extra RAM into N1, not a cheap exercise these days.
Building and setting up the NUC is very simple - honest !!
For ref I have 10i7 NUC 32Gb RAM my library is 130k tracks with an internal 4Tb SSD
Should you?
A decent NUC7i7DNK NUC is reasonable to purchase used.
Give it a good dust out, put 16GB or even 32GB and a fast NVMe PCI Gen 3.0 SSD, and you have yourself a good ROCK machine for under €500.
And remember Intel was not been winning the Silicon war lately.
For RoonOS what is important is thr single thread performance
Plus for a device running 24/7 you want the lowest TDP, ideally 15W
This is the list supported NUCs, by single thread performance and TDP rating.
NUC Family Typical CPU CPU Gen Approx Single-Thread Score TDP
Intel NUC5i3xxx Core i3-5010U Broadwell ~1600 15W
Intel NUC5i5xxx Core i5-5250U Broadwell ~1900 15W
Intel NUC6i3SYx Core i3-6100U Skylake ~1800 15W
Intel NUC6i5SYx Core i5-6260U Skylake ~2100 15W
Intel NUC7i3BNx Core i3-7100U Kaby Lake ~1900 15W
Intel NUC7i5BNx Core i5-7260U Kaby Lake ~2300 15W
Intel NUC7i7BNx Core i7-7567U Kaby Lake ~2700 28W
Intel NUC7i3DNx Core i3-7100U Kaby Lake ~1900 15W
Intel NUC7i5DNx Core i5-7300U Kaby Lake ~2200 15W
Intel NUC7i7DNx Core i7-8650U Kaby Lake-R ~2500 15W
Intel NUC8i3BEx Core i3-8109U Coffee Lake ~2400 28W
Intel NUC8i5BEx Core i5-8259U Coffee Lake ~2500 28W
Intel NUC8i7BEx Core i7-8559U Coffee Lake ~2600 28W
Intel NUC10i3FNx Core i3-10110U Comet Lake ~2500 25W
Intel NUC10i5FNx Core i5-10210U Comet Lake ~2700 25W
Intel NUC10i7FNx Core i7-10710U Comet Lake ~2800 25W
Intel NUC11TNHi3 Core i3-1115G4 Tiger Lake ~3200 28W
Intel NUC11TNHi5 Core i5-1135G7 Tiger Lake ~3400 28W
Intel NUC11TNHi7 Core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake ~3600 28W
Intel NUC11PAHi3 Core i3-1115G4 Tiger Lake ~3200 28W
Intel NUC11PAHi5 Core i5-1135G7 Tiger Lake ~3400 28W
Intel NUC11PAHi7 Core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake ~3600 28W
Intel NUC12WSHi3 Core i3-1220P Alder Lake ~3600 28W
Intel NUC12WSHi5 Core i5-1240P Alder Lake ~3900 28W
Intel NUC12WSHi7 Core i7-1260P Alder Lake ~4000 28W
ASUS NUC 13 Pro (i3/i5/i7) 13th Gen Raptor Lake-P Raptor Lake ~4000–4400
The last 15W NUC with a single core of 2,500 was the NUC7i7DNx with the ‘quad Core i7-8650U Kaby Lake-R, which just so happens to the one used in the RevB Nucleus+
This will be more powerful that the Celeron based Nucleus One, and way cheaper than the Nucleus Titan.
Just wait for the next release of Roon, performance is much improved, along with the memory management in the last Production release.
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Do you use the Roon volume leveling feature? If so, please share your settings and how you find it. I believe that Room’s implementation of volume leveling, from a mathematical standpoint, maintains its actual fidelity, although some individuals may have differing opinions.
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