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Wyred 4 Sound vs. Roon Nucleus

Trying to decide which way to go for a Roon streaming system.  W4S has the Essential MS (Music Server) and the MS.  Roon has the Nucleus and Nucleus+.  I am using a W4S DAC2v2SE.  Sound quality is my primary consideration.
Streaming is new to me, and other than the MS having a CD ripper, the differences between these units is mostly Greek to me.  I can't translate different values of RAM, gigabytes, GHz, SSD, HDD, etc. into anything meaningful.  I really don't know if or why one of these units would be better than another.  Help!
kingofgix
eastein
97 posts
 
You might also look at smallgreencomputer,com , they are very helpful and sell a kit with a roon server, endpoint, and optional upgraded power supply. Also lots of good information on how to set it up
mahler123
3,381 posts
 
The Roon Nucleus is a piece of hardware that Roon developed to specifically run their program.  I tried my Roon trial on an aging MacAir and the computer severely overheated when it got hung up trying to run the program so I can appreciate where a dedicated piece of hardware makes sense.  Otoh Roon is primarily a software company that doesn’t have a history designing audio components, unlike W4S.
  I’m not an IT guy but Roon is a large program that needs some computer firepower to work best  (I am basing this opinion on my limited trial and on the experiences that I have encountered here).  I think the one critical spec might be the RAM.  Roon specifies a minimum RAM and imo I would make sure the W4S at least doubles it.  Otherwise, if running Roon is the priority, and the choices are limited to the two that you have specified, I would go for the Nucleus
jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
993 posts
 
+1 on the Small Green Computer. Mine has only hung up a couple times. Generally very solid. Will run other media software programs as well.

Can the W4S DAC2v2SE act as a ROON endpoint? If not you gonna need one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2WxKDAoVsA



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