Hello Patrick!
I’ve been using a Roon Nucleus I3 as a Server/Streamer since November. I have it hooked up to a Chord Qutest via Curious USB Cable. In April I replaced the stock Nucleus power supply with an Sbooster 19V Linear Power Supply, and then upgraded my ethernet cable to a Wireworld Starlight Cat 8. Together, these changes upped the SQ to whole other level. Prior to that, a Bluesound Node 2i was my principal streaming source, again with the Chord Qutest as DAC.
I have nothing but good things to say about the Bluesound products and BluOS. Have been a Bluesound user since 2014 and have 4 pieces of Bluesound kit in the house. But Roon interface is simply superior integrating Tidal and/or Qobuz. But what I find most valuable with Roon is the music discovery piece. Once you begin really using Roon, there is no going back. You can see my system here:
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8156
(note that the Node 2i can now be found on my desktop, having exchanged places with my original Node N100).
As far as ripping, I use dBpoweramp to rip CDs as uncompressed Flac files to my PC, and then copy them over to my NAS (in my case a Melco N1A). This method would work equally well copying over content to an SSD or HDD installed in the Nucleus (or for that matter any other storage hardware installed on your network). And as I understand it, Roon now provides ripping support, but to date I haven’t used it. If you have any questions I’d be happy to try to answer them.
I’ve been using a Roon Nucleus I3 as a Server/Streamer since November. I have it hooked up to a Chord Qutest via Curious USB Cable. In April I replaced the stock Nucleus power supply with an Sbooster 19V Linear Power Supply, and then upgraded my ethernet cable to a Wireworld Starlight Cat 8. Together, these changes upped the SQ to whole other level. Prior to that, a Bluesound Node 2i was my principal streaming source, again with the Chord Qutest as DAC.
I have nothing but good things to say about the Bluesound products and BluOS. Have been a Bluesound user since 2014 and have 4 pieces of Bluesound kit in the house. But Roon interface is simply superior integrating Tidal and/or Qobuz. But what I find most valuable with Roon is the music discovery piece. Once you begin really using Roon, there is no going back. You can see my system here:
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8156
(note that the Node 2i can now be found on my desktop, having exchanged places with my original Node N100).
As far as ripping, I use dBpoweramp to rip CDs as uncompressed Flac files to my PC, and then copy them over to my NAS (in my case a Melco N1A). This method would work equally well copying over content to an SSD or HDD installed in the Nucleus (or for that matter any other storage hardware installed on your network). And as I understand it, Roon now provides ripping support, but to date I haven’t used it. If you have any questions I’d be happy to try to answer them.