[pippen99]

I have had Roon for a year. I enjoy the reviews and the suggestions for new music. I got it originally for the DSP function because of my LCD-5. My core is running on an aging Dell desktop(8 years old). I basically use it for occasional surfing and my printer is hooked up to it. I run Roon Remote on a last generation Ipad. The search function is really slow and hit and miss. I don't know if is the Ipad or the Dell or that is just the way Roon search is. Certainly sooner rather than later the Dell is going to die. My question is should I get a Nucleus or simply replace the desktop. My library amounts to only 250 GB mainly ALAC and Flac. I stream via Tidal and only access my library a couple times a week for obscure albums that Tidal does not have. I read that the Nucleus has no SQ purpose. To complicate my decision both my streamer/dacs have their own apps to control streaming and access my library(Lumin and dCS). Those are the only two zones I utilize.

I see this as my choices.
1) Get another desktop
2) Get a Nucleus
3) Ditch Roon and use the native apps for my streamers
4) An alternative that I don't see and you guys recommend.

If I did purchase a Nucleus why would I buy a SSD from Roon? Their SSD choices seem overpriced when I can get a smaller SSD for much lower price from Best Buy or somewhere else. The only advantage I see is that it would come preinstalled which is a consideration for an idiot like me.

What do you think?

 

[bearFNF]

I have had Roon for a year. I enjoy the reviews and the suggestions for new music. I got it originally for the DSP function because of my LCD-5. My core is running on an aging Dell desktop(8 years old). I basically use it for occasional surfing and my printer is hooked up to it. I run Roon Remote on a last generation Ipad. The search function is really slow and hit and miss. I don't know if is the Ipad or the Dell or that is just the way Roon search is. Certainly sooner rather than later the Dell is going to die. My question is should I get a Nucleus or simply replace the desktop. My library amounts to only 250 GB mainly ALAC and Flac. I stream via Tidal and only access my library a couple times a week for obscure albums that Tidal does not have. I read that the Nucleus has no SQ purpose. To complicate my decision both my streamer/dacs have their own apps to control streaming and access my library(Lumin and dCS). Those are the only two zones I utilize.

I see this as my choices.
1) Get another desktop
2) Get a Nucleus
3) Ditch Roon and use the native apps for my streamers
4) An alternative that I don't see and you guys recommend.

If I did purchase a Nucleus why would I buy a SSD from Roon? Their SSD choices seem overpriced when I can get a smaller SSD for much lower price from Best Buy or somewhere else. The only advantage I see is that it would come preinstalled which is a consideration for an idiot like me.

What do you think?

5th option is to get NUC and put Rock on it, get the benefits of the nucleus at much lower cost. I did this and it solves the, I need to boot my computer to play music issue. It runs headless and can be placed next to your network gear. I put a drive in mine so it's an all in one thing. Or you could point is at a NAS if you have one to get your music to it.

Or you could use this as an excuse to "get a newer more powerful computer",

 

[pippen99]

The desktop sits with the network gear. Since there is no SQ advantage to the nucleus and I am running only two zones I am leaning towards new computer. The advantage to the Nucleus and Nucleus + is the ability to handle very large libraries and multiples of zones so I read(?).

 

[bearFNF]

The desktop sits with the network gear. Since there is no SQ advantage to the nucleus and I am running only two zones I am leaning towards new computer. The advantage to the Nucleus and Nucleus + is the ability to handle very large libraries and multiples of zones so I read(?).

I think the desktop would handle a big library just fine. The only benefit I can see to Nucleus or NUC/Rock as far as library size goes is that it is dedicated resources vs on a desktop that also needs to handle all the overhead of a full blown OS. In other words it does not need to be as powerful as a full blown desktop, but is really also depends on how much DSP you are going to be using, also.

The other nice thing about a Nucleus or a NUC/Rock is the low maintenance OS, you would only need to let Roon do the updating in a Nucleus or NUC/Rock (kinda set it and forget it). Whereas with a desktop you have to worry about updating not only Roon but Windows (or MAC if that's your flavor OS) also and any of the issues that Windows causes after updated software, drivers, or network/firewall changes, etc..

 

[pippen99]

I have been on Amazon looking at NUC. Would I buy one without an os and the Rock download would become the os?

 

[joseph69]

I have been on Amazon looking at NUC. Would I buy one without an os and the Rock download would become the os?

Just curious as to why you wouldn't directly from Roon? Also, I know Roon had some deals going around Thanksgiving, so maybe they're still available if you ask?

 

[pippen99]

All I saw was Nucleus(+) at regular price. I can get a new computer and run Roon Core for lot less and have computer functionality. Trying to figur e out what advantage to Nucleus.

 

[bfreedma]

The desktop sits with the network gear. Since there is no SQ advantage to the nucleus and I am running only two zones I am leaning towards new computer. The advantage to the Nucleus and Nucleus + is the ability to handle very large libraries and multiples of zones so I read(?).

The Nucleus is a nice solution if you want something plug and play, but you’re paying an enormous premium for a single use system. Whether that’s worth it varies mostly on how comfortable (or not) someone is with basic system setup.

With the Roon config you describe, any moderately specced I3 or I5 based NUC should be more than enough compute power unless you’re running a ton of DSP or HQplayer - for those, an I7 based system would be better.

I run a headless NUC running Windows as everything is already setup in my network to manage that OS, but if it was a new setup, a ROCK would be the way to go.

 

[rkw]

Just curious as to why you wouldn't directly from Roon? Also, I know Roon had some deals going around Thanksgiving, so maybe they're still available if you ask?

I put together my NUC/Roon ROCK for under $350 (barebones NUC + memory + 2x SSD), and it's possible for even less money with a used NUC from eBay that already has memory and storage. It requires a similar skill level to putting together a PC and installing Windows. With Nucleus, you pay a big premium for a prebuilt, plug-and-play box.

 

[kumar402]

The Nucleus is a nice solution if you want something plug and play, but you’re paying an enormous premium for a single use system. Whether that’s worth it varies mostly on how comfortable (or not) someone is with basic system setup.

With the Roon config you describe, any moderately specced I3 or I5 based NUC should be more than enough compute power unless you’re running a ton of DSP or HQplayer - for those, an I7 based system would be better.

I run a headless NUC running Windows as everything is already setup in my network to manage that OS, but if it was a new setup, a ROCK would be the way to go.

ROCK OS doesn’t support HQPlayer to run natively so no point to bump up processor if the plan is to simply run ROCK OS. I5 is more then enough for Roon ROCK with large library

 

[rlw6534]

I have been running Roon Core on my Synology NAS for a couple of years now and it works great. Plus you can use all of the other NAS features for multimedia and storage (Plex, UPnP and many others).

 

[bearFNF]

I have been on Amazon looking at NUC. Would I buy one without an os and the Rock download would become the os?

Yes, you would buy one without OS, ROCK would be the OS.

@rlw6534: As far as running Roon on a NAS it comes down to what NAS, how much DSP, how big the library, what other things are running, and network config. as to whether the NAS will run well as a ROON core. A lot more variables to consider.

 

[rlw6534]

Yes, you would buy one without OS, ROCK would be the OS.

@rlw6534: As far as running Roon on a NAS it comes down to what NAS, how much DSP, how big the library, what other things are running, and network config. as to whether the NAS will run well as a ROON core. A lot more variables to consider.

FYI, my DS918+ has never had any issues running Roon Core including MQA unfolds, transcoding DSF, DSP, etc. The core is always at least 10X on processing speed. I'm sure every device has it's limits, but I have never had a problem. It's actually a pretty elegant solution IMO and you get a lot of extra functionality. It has replaced my NUC media server and my Desktop PC use cases (as a server, but not gaming of course)...

 

[Forsaked]

ROCK OS doesn’t support HQPlayer to run natively so no point to bump up processor if the plan is to simply run ROCK OS. I5 is more then enough for Roon ROCK with large library

Just virtualize ROCK and HQPlayer Embedded on the same host.

 

[Daniel Johnston]

I have been running Roon Core on my Synology NAS for a couple of years now and it works great. Plus you can use all of the other NAS features for multimedia and storage (Plex, UPnP and many others).

^This

I'm using a QNAP NAS for the same reason.

It's actually the configuration Roon suggested before they released the Nucleus.

Flawless so far. I don't have a massive library and usually use the Roon radio feature with my library and Qobuz.