ROON users - Nucleus or Nucleus+ what are you using?

FWIW I got the plus to future proof and have the scope for room correction or whatever at some point. One year on and I’ve never used any of these “extras”, but the Nucleus has worked faultlessly, delivered improved sound quality to my ears than the quite high-specced fanless NAS it replaced (compared in pre-sale demo for a week or so) and improved substantially with the addition of a good linear power supply

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Anyone have an answer to this?

A quick look at number of tracks / number of albums suggests the answer is Yes, the total number in your Roon library.

Dave

NUC8i5 running Roon Rock for me.

Works very well indeed.

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I read on the Roon community that they are talking about bringing out new Nucleus with the latest intel processors.

I am on the Roon forum (sporadically) however I have not run into that. Do you have a link (if permitted?).

To be honest this is something that has crossed my mind. The Nucleus uses a NUC7 and Intel has just announced end of life on NUC8’s. One would think that availability of NUC7’s are thus beginning to become a bit strained.

Does Roon play nice with the UnitiCore?

NUC 7i5 2.6GHz running ROCK and internal SSD for music storage. As a test, I’ve run 4 end-points simultaneously with large amounts of DSP for each, e.g. convolution filters, and there’s no way I seem to be able to bottom out the processing capacity. As I only ever run one end-point at a time this is more than adequate. The NUC has been transplanted into a fanless case and the the laptop-style power supply replaced with a linear power supply.

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I’ll have a look. It was definitely getting spoken about and sure it was on there that I heard about it but I maybe wrong so don’t quote me on it. :+1:t2:

That’s my understanding; because the Roon database includes metadata for all your library music whether local or internet.

Innuos Zenith, with the latest update even better just trialling Roon again as I find the recommended Innuos USB using iPeng is superior SQ.

The Zenith does struggle with some of the more extreme DSP, but then your have a server, ripper also.

That’s what I use.
The Nucleus was not cup of tea :wink:

– NUC7i7DBN (i7-8650U) running Roon Rock
– TeddyPardo (power supply)
– Akasa Plato X7D (fanless case)
– 32Go Ram Corsaire Vengeance
– 512 Go SSD Samsung 960 Pro (Roon Database)
– 4 To SSD Samsung 860 EVO (Audio Files)

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Gregg I just sent you an email about another solution – the Sonic Transporter from Small Green Computer.

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Nucleus +

Also using small green computer. It’s excellent, works flawlessly.

I am a using a fanless rugged i7, which has a custom milled case and I installed Roons OS on it, got it ll all assembled from Tranquil PC in Manchester UK. Runs splendidly for the 10 zones I have and a lot less than the Nucleus or a NUC.

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Nucleus+
Works flawlessly with UnitiCore

Hi Bart
Email not received.
I am familiar with Small Green as I used their Sonicore Orbiter cube to serve Roon to my Linn before Roon and Linn made peace with each other :grin: The price of the Sonic Transporter at $895 is already close to the price of a base Nucleus.

Since I am in an all Mac environment building a NUC is a bit more complicated as I do not have access to a monitor to facilitate the installation of ROCK. I would also like something fanless and I am not comfortable with taking apart a NUC, removing the fan, using thermal paste etc.

At this point a base Nucleus makes economic sense as its price is not that far from DIY and other alternatives. It is only when one contemplates using a Nucleus+ that the price becomes exagerrated imho.

The other niggling concern is that the software on a Nucleus is different from ROCK on a NUC. Roon have tweaked the Nucleus software to provide excellent thermal management for their fanless case, as well as things which perhaps provide other advantages as well.

The only potential change to my plans is if they are already working on changing out the current NUC7 from the Nucleus. Both it and the NUC8 (the only other officially approved NUC) are on Intel’s EOF list. It would make sense that they must be investigating how to use one of the current generation NUC’s.

I built a NUC8i7 running ROCK, and added a 1 TB SSD for my file library, all for a fraction the cost of a Nucleus or Nucleus +. That took less than a hour of my time to put together and stand it up running ROCK. That works great for me. I have not felt a need to use a fanless case or special LPS. It is sited in a different room from my system (well, actually it’s next to my office system Uniti Atom).

Odd – maybe I’m in your spam folder :slight_smile: It was an offer to sell you my not-being-used Sonic Transporter 5i w/ 2tb SSD in it, if you want it. I don’t hear any difference between it and my Roon brand Nucleus. Compared to 500 systems, these devices are pretty cheap, but I do have one not being used.