Dedicated NUC/Nucleaus vs shared PC (w Fiber Media Converter connected to Endpoint)

“But is there a big difference of sound quality if we have optical isolation between the shared PC and an endpoint ?”

This would squarely depends on your rest of the system. You may hear the difference by upgrading to NUC or you may not. I doubt you would get any consensus to your dilemma. For me, both NUC or PC is a non-starter. A dedicated streamer like Innuos or Lumin along with a decent DAC is a must if you’re serious about getting the best out of cloud based streaming services like Qobuz or Tidal.

Once you accomplish above, then you can tweak your way into optimizing the Ethernet signal before it reaches your streamer. 

@lalitk If you use a streamer like Lumin, you still need a PC or NUC to run roon core, right?

@sns totally agree with you. But what I meant is the noise from a shared PC can be eliminated by an FMC and buffer of DAC

@truongv0ky

If you’re running Roon, I believe with Lumin you need a headless NUC for Core. Alternatively, Lumin is perfectly capable of streaming music natively with Qobuz or Tidal through its proprietary app. Innuos is capable of both Roon core and rendering duties. But then you are faced with the ‘myth’ spread by Roon geniuses that both Core and Rendering should be on separate devices for optimal performance. IME that’s not the case, if both Core and Rendering are implemented properly, they can coexist in one box.

@lalitk 

+1

Nope, that pc is noisy environment, you've lost both resolution and lost a great deal of timing/jitter with that solution, the FMC can't repair what was damaged in pc. Every component in chain critical to optimize streaming.

I differ from latik and ghdprentice in I believe NUC can be nice solution as server only, Roon core only on NUC, streaming out of NUC is issue, where separate streamer come into play. Streamer is where Roon Endpoint goes.

For one box solution you need top notch rendering within that single unit, this means Roon Core and Endpoint both in this single server/streamer. In that case my choices go towards Anitpodes K series, Aurender  W20 or N series. I've chosen to continue with diy route via recent addition of custom build server based on ATX motherboard (Windows or PC computer boards). With this I can choose to use as streamer or server via choice of different PCIe cards.  Optimized  via Euphony operating system and choice of Roon or Stylus Version 4 music player.

Going route of custom build can give one both versatility and possibility of optimizing many rendering protocols. Also, atx boards used in SOTA servers/streamers such as Taiko Extreme and Wadax. There are sources for professional builds as well as diy possibility. Much more bang for buck with these builds vs common off the shelf servers and/or steamers. These builds can range from SOTA to elementary.