Anyone been able to compare the SQ of Roon Nucleus vs. MacBook Air?

Jbuhl, I look forward to learning about your results. As well as anyone’s experience specific to the original question — how SQ compares between Mac running Roon vs a Roon Nucleus. You would hope for an improvement with the dedicated Nucleus, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone report one apart from usability, not that that’s unimportant.

@drubin 

On 11/15/19 in the "Options besides a computer for streaming" thread, I reported:

"I replaced my 2011ish MacBook Pro and iTunes/BitPerfect with with a Roon Nucleus and Roon. Had my data (music) on an external Samsung T5 SSD. Super easy conversion.

Wasn't expecting much improvement in sound quality, just in usability due to moving to Roon. No question, Roon is a vastly superior musical interface, but the surprise was the sound quality. Everything sounded "identical" till I realized in the first few seconds/minutes that the sound/noise floor had dropped noticeably. This might seem trivial, but is not. A lower noise floor lets you hear details, like how notes end, spatial placement, hall effects, etc., that make the music that much more realistic. I am 100% happy with my purchase (I bought the less expensive Nucleus, since I don't do DSP into my Yggy), but I am considering an LPS to see if I can drop the noise floor further."

Currently waiting for the new 300W HDPlex LPS to be released.

-docknow

Thank you all for your input.
It just seems like with the Nucleus there would be less (zero maybe) restarts, less noise and the ability to stream music to other parts of the house.

Get a NUC and install ROCK it's about 1/3 the price of a Nucleus and does the same thing. It runs 24/7 unattended , installs any updates in the background and if you get a fanless one is quiet. If you want to use your mac book you certainly can.