Roon Nucleus as Network Player

Thank you both for your input.

jaytor, if you happen to have a decent USB cable, and if your DAC is USB capable, I'd be very interested to get your take on the comparison.

djones51.  The miniDSP Studio and Dirac is something I've thought about as well.  Just conjecture on my part ... if you went USB out from your NUC to the USB Audio input on the miniDSP Studio and then Toslink, spdif or AES-EBU out from the miniDSP Studio to your DAC, could you not achieve both use of Roon interface and Dirac for DSP?

That's probably what I'll do.  I was thinking I wish you could simply export Dirac filters to Roon and not need the minidsp in the chain. 

Not to side track the thread but I have been on fence with Dirac tech. I am particularly interested in hearing feedback on DDRC-22D. 

https://www.minidsp.com/dirac-series/ddrc-22d

I looked at the DDRC-22D but wasn't sure it could be connected by USB using ROCK as the controller it says only Windows or Mac so I went with the SHO Studio to connect with ethernet and use it as an endpoint. I think the Dirac is the same. 

Prior to acquiring my Roon Nucleus I had thought about buying the DDRC-22D to put between my Bluesound Node 2i and DAC. My reading of the DDRC-22D instruction manual was that the USB 2.0 input was for control only. This was unlike the SHD Studio where USB 2.0 input was for Audio as well as control.

I’ve also thought about taking advantage of Roon’s own DSP capabilities.
This requires taking measurements with a calibrated microphone using specialized software and then interpreting those measurements to develop convolution filters to be loaded into Roon. Microphone and Software comes to around $500. As a do it yourself project (unlike Dirac) this can be a tricky business. Mitch Barnett of Accurate Sound has written extensively on this subject. In fact he has an article up today at EnjoytheMusic.com. Expert support from Mitch Barnett would be another $500.

I’d like to see hardware that hosts Dirac Live that also functions as a Roon Endpoint that would play nicely with an external DAC such as my Chord Qutest. Had been hoping that the NAD/Bluesound folks might come up with something, like a super Node 2i with Dirac Live, but with digital outs (unlike the NAD 658), with or without (my preference) its own internal DAC.

djones51. Please provide an update once you have the SHD Studio up and running in your system.