Room Nucleus+ vs what for dCS

Mayor you are making a ton of assumptions.

DCS’s network bridge is decent but in most cases the built in network card is not as good as feeding the unit externally from USB. We have seen this time and time again, the advantages of the internal card should outweigh any external box but we have seen it.

We have the $37k T+A SDV 3100 one of the worlds most technologically advanced dacs in fact in terms of raw technology this piece is far more advanced than any current DCS Dac including the Vivaldi.

The T+A SD 3100 is the world’s only dac that can accept DSD 1024 as a native input via USB, the input card is a 100% in house designed high speed USB input card, yes many dac’s can process DSD 1024 but they internally upncovert the incoming data which isn’t that difficult the problem, is haivng a fast enough data throughput which requires a 100% custom solution, hence none of the other manufacturers including EMM Labs has invested the time and resources to develop their own input receiver most companies use XMOS.

The SD 3100 has a built in Roon compattible network streamer and we are running it through the filtered ethernet connection as well as USB and USB trumps it everytime also allowing for DSD 128,256 and 512 to be implemented via HQ player or Roon where the network steam can not handle the higher sampling rates just like the Bartok so it can only be assumed that most networks aren’t fast enough to handle these higher sampling rates

The Bartok can only handle data rates upto 24bit 384k and DSD 128k quite frankly this is dissapointing on a 2020 cira piece of expensive digital you should be able to handle any high res data source, however, this does not negage that DCS does build a very good piece of hardware.

If you ever get a chance to hear upsampled DSD to 512 it will open your ears to what digital can sound like it isn’t subtitle to sounds like really good analog.

As per Ethenet being better we have a client with your exact setup DCS Bartok and he has the Statement and his DCS Bartok sounds better being feed via the Statements USB output then from Ethernet

With digital there is no right or wrong you need to play with these things for themselves.

As per the Roon Nuclues we would never sell them they are vastly inferior to the Innous Zen which is the same price as the Roon Nucl Plus.

The Zen uses a custom motherboard,
has a built in powerline filter,
incoming ethernet noise filter,
has a filtered ethernet output to power a  streamer/dac,
has constantly evolving firmware,
a custom dual rail power supply by Dr. Sean Jacobs an expert in digital power supply design, 
use a low noise industrial Intel processor,
it even has a built in CD burner.


vs

Roon Nucleus an Intel Nuc computer in a nice case with a linear power supply of some kind.

Roon is a software company vs Innous which is a hardware engineering company.

You really need to borrow an Innous server and try these things for yourself. We can send you a demo Zenith and or Statment you will quickly see how much better your Bartok can sound.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innous dealers

@audiotroy i do not doubt anything you are saying (and I was incorrect on pricing - I was looking at CAD not USD). I’ve also read things to contrary, and in this industry, what I’ve learned is that everything is subjective and there will be people on both sides arguing they are right and their way sounds better. DCS directly claims Ethernet is better on *their* HW. They don’t claim this for all HW. Just theirs. My trusted shop said they tested and agree. On Roon forums, both Roon employees and members seem to strongly prefer the Nucleus over the underpowered Zenith. So if anyone is cheaping out on parts, it’s Innous. The biggest complaint is that the underpowered Zenith is not able to easily cope with large libraries and searching will be slow. I hear your opinion and understand it. What Id like to hear is from people in the field and experiences, especially those not working at a shop selling me something. Surely you can see the conflict in interest with both you and my local shop.

It seems like for networked listening, as long as the device can serve up the file quickly, there shouldn’t be a sonic advantage to other devices

...What I’m trying to understand is if there really is any sonic difference between them if running over Ethernet

There is, as in capital IS. Pursue different options to find out for yourself.

and the core is not located near the rack.

The Roon Core Component can most certainly be near, or in, or on the rack. Consider it an audio component and treat it as you would any other audio component in your primary system.

No reason to use WiFi. House is wired and WiFi will always be inconsistent due to interference and overlapping zones.

Not true. WiFi can be used to effectively isolate the 'dirtier' sections from the more important and hopefully 'cleaner' sections for audio applications. There are other reasons as well. Dig deeper as WiFi can be your friend.

@audiotroy 's posts above are valid and share important and helpful information.