Roon Nucleus as a Streamer
The Roon Nucleus and Nucleus+ have been recommended here as a music streamer hooked up directly to a DAC via USB or i2s. Others advise against this saying it should only be used as a music server with a dedicated music streamer in the loop. What are your thoughts?
+1 @big_greg I have a Roon Nucleus+ with 2TB internal drive and 3TB ext drive connected directly to it. The Nucleus+ is connected directly via USB to a Bryston BDA-3 DAC. Simple and clean and to my ears sounds great. Have a few TB of DSD on the ext drive which is really exceptional. OP, As in all cases it may not fit your ideas or your system plans. Regards, barts |
Roon is completely unnecessary if one just wants to listen to a few songs on Tidal or Qobuz. Roon has four main advantages. 1 it is a fabulous source of information on music and on the relationships between different musician and their recorded output. 2 - its user interface is superb. 3. Its capacity to integrate stored and streamed music. Lastly, it frees one from reliance on the streamer manufacturer's proprietary interface. Ok, so one is reliant on Roon being around long term (so there is a vulnerability there), but it means one is free to change dac/streamer while one's user interface remains constant. As an observation on the Nucleus / +, it's way overpriced for what it offers. for the price of a Nucleus plus in particular, one can build a top notch ultra quiet Windows computer with more onboard SDD storage and a quality USB card like a JCAT that will deliver superb streaming quality and have the flexibility/upgradability that is missing from the Nucleus. |
Fwiw…I did the Roon Trial, and I was using a 2009 MacAir, which had been replaced by a new model. I had scrubbed the HD. The Air started to overheat during the Roon download, something it had never done otherwise. I aborted the trial. Make sure that you have a lot of computer firepower for that program |
It would be helpful if we understood what you're currently using for a DAC. If your goal is to keep your DAC then you've received some helpful feedback. It sounds like perhaps you don't have the DAC yet either. If that's the case, then the easy button may be to simply get a combined streamer and DAC. Most will come with a free app that will allow you to stream music from Tidal and Qobuz and depending on what you get there are a number of aftermarket apps that are free or close to free that may provide a better user experience than the manufacturer's app. |
