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Roon Nucleus

I have now read 2 reviews of this hardware, in Stereophile (John Atkinson) and in Hi Fi News.
Both reviews fail to address two central questions.
1) what is the need for this?  Since Roon cores can be placed on virtually every playback device around ( PCs, mobile devices, kitchen toasters, etc), why does some need to shell out $1.5 to 2.5K for another piece of Hardware?
2) There was no sonic comparison.  Namely, do files played back on from a device with Roon loaded on it sound different than the same files played from a Roon Nucleus, if all other variables are minimized.
Thought
mahler123
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

@clio09 - I only used the RPi and Digione wired Ethernet. I did have problems with reliable 192 and 176.4 playback. Even after modding the boards, still has problems. My DAC is picky about errors. Maybe yours isn’t. I have read about flakey WIFI behavior of the RPi, but have not tried this myself.

The thing to do is download DietPi and put this OS on the SD card using your laptop. Then, just plug it into the RPi and power it on and use the laptop to talk to the RPi using PuTTY on the laptop. Free download. Configure the RPi to accept the Digione using the menus that come up on power-up in the PuTTY window.

It’s a $150 way to get S/PDIF coax output for DLNA players and Roon.

BTW, I don’t get 10psec of jitter from the Digione, more like 70psec. I use my own DLNA renderer, the Interchange. The Interchange delivers 10psec of jitter:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=156409.0


$3K with fast LPS supply.

I can also use my own WIFI adapter with special LPS with the Interchange. This has no problems with dropouts, assuming strong WIFI location, and supports 192 error-free. It sounds identical to the wired Ethernet. Cost is $1K for the WI-FI add-on.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,807 posts
 
Personally I don't get this product at all. It is not that we don't love Roon we love Roon, the issue is the high price for what seems to be very ordindary hardware.

A high quality server absolutely sounds better, we have been doing digital transport comparisons for years.

The first time we compared an Aurender to a modified Mac mini there was no doubt that a dedicated server outperforms even a modded computer, let alone a stock computer,  but that is the rub with the Roon Nuclues products they don't seem to be particularly well built or designed to maximize the sound quality of the data stream. 

We sell many different servers, we sell the Baetis, the Naim Core, the Aurender products, the Lumin products, the NAD servers, and lastly the Innous servers.

The Innous offers a custom motherboard, custom OS, a specialy designed digital output board, and massive power supply upgrades especially the Zennith model which weights about 25lbs!

When you compare that to the Roon Nucleus it doesn't appear that Roon is really engineering a solution to how best to run there software other than perhaps a Linux core designed to maximize the playback of the Roon software.

So my question is why would anyone buy this thing?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ  
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
It is reviewed in the current issue of Stereophile which went live recently. Mentioning in case those interested want to know more.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Since this server only has USB output, the question is how well is that implemented.  Is there isolation?  Separate regulation?  LPS rather than SMPS?  And if it's only Roon player and not HQplayer too, what is the SQ like?

Seems like a step-up from a Sonos Connect, with support for higher sample-rates and I assume DSD. Nothing in the documents about this.

mahler123 OP
3,362 posts
 
Just saw the May 2018 issue of hi fi + featuring a review of the Nucleus by Chris Matthews.
”I had been running the Roon software...for over a year now and one of the issues has been that running it requires a decent amount of processing power.  A tablet won’t do it, so I have been using a MacBook.  It works well enough but that essentially means that the computer is out of bounds while the music is playing.  What has been needed is a separate and dedicated computer for running the Roon Core, linked to the network to assemble and collate the metadata as well as providing an extensive view of the library through your tablet.  Utilizing the Mac also led to some occasionally clunky and irritating reboot moments...”

Pretty much confirms what I thought.  Roon almost fried my computer and ran quite poorly.  Matthews then goes on to extol the virtues of the Nucleus +.  Regrettably, he doesn’t compare the sound of Roon from his Mac vs the Nucleus +
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