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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
jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
964 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



sdl4
209 posts
 
If sound quality is your primary consideration, Roon may not be your best choice. By all accounts, Roon is wonderful for music file management, but other server/streamer setups using leaner (and quieter) software may sound better. Check out the A-gon thread by Grannyring describing the sound comparisons between Roon and the new software that runs on Innuos hardware. You may still decide that Roon's user interface is worth making some compromises in sound quality, but at least you'll be making decisions with eyes (and ears) wide open.
jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
964 posts
 
If sound quality is your primary consideration, Roon may not be your best choice.

Which brings up another question, what is your music source? Ripped files,music service , both?
kingofgix OP
11 posts
 
Thinking of using Qobuz and/or Tidal as the primary source. 
jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
964 posts
 
There is a Bryston BDP pi over on USAudiomart with a LPS for ~$750. The interface is Manic Moose and the player is open source MPD. I think it sounds a bit better than Roon and it has native access to Tidal and Qobuz. The units are discontinued now but Bryston still provides support. MM will not be near the elegant interface of Roon but its a lot cheaper option. It will also function as Roon endpoint if you decide to invest in the Roon immersive interface and infrastructure. The BDP pi is a lot of bang for the buck in SQ. Needs a hard wired network connection and has USB,optical and Coax out.
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