2. pc-audio
  3. 179871-175920

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

A Roon system of 2 devices includes:

- Music Server (NUC/Nucleaus/PC, etc...)

- Endpoint (SOtM, Sonore, etc..)

with Fiber Media Converter in between.

I think we all agree that a dedicated machine of NUC/Nucleaus will be better than a shared PC as a music server. But is there a big difference of sound quality if we have optical isolation between the shared PC and an endpoint ?

Here is the idea:

A shared PC creates 2 problems:

- Analog noises (from power, fan..). But most of them can be eliminated by optical isolation like Fiber Media Converter (according to Small Green Computer).

- Latency, jitter (because PC run many other tasks). But the endpoint and DAC have buffers. So all jitters before DAC can be ignored. Besides, if we don’t listen to too fast music, the issue (if happen) will not impact much.

So does a NUC really brings a difference, compared with a shared Pc connected with endpoint through FIber media converter ????

truongv0ky
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,634 posts
 

Yes it does but only you can see for yourself.

fittebd
101 posts
 

NUC is not better sound. But better stability. Less troubling by far.  Sonore with fiber is a tremendous increase in sound when connected to good DAC

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,202 posts
 

Fiber media is cheap ,nothing special inside much bette4 off with a Uptone audio

ether regen , which can use fiber optic,as well as Aethernet, and there is a bunch of low noise regulation worth every penny and not that expensive at $630

i learned awhile back just because it says fiber optic the signal through a $40 fiber optic devise the signal  is not that clean b6 the time it goes through the fiber optic 

a waste , I tried both ways you get what you pay for  , try light cannot pick up noise But if it’s dirty before hand that is what it-will read down stream more blurry compared .  And the media transceiver too for the fiber optic counts a good one$100 each ,not $20 

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,852 posts
 

@truongv0ky 

I would have agreed with you more a few years ago about using a computer, but with the green computer isolation and the fact that my wife’s laptop doesn’t have a fan in it, really takes two of the main problems out of the equation. I’m still not crazy about using an off the shelf computer, but it would certainly be worth a try.

rudyb
141 posts
 

I've tried both, a dedicated fan less PC and a normal PC. I could not hear any difference. Even if a music player is the only running app, Windows still runs a plethora of background tasks. I would not worry about that. Besides, any 'dedicated' streamer or player that runs on an operating system does too.

I used a USB to USB galvanic isolator and that made a huge difference. It takes out literally all the PC noise. There also are USB to optical (toslink) converters on the market, 192kHz / 24 bit ... more than enough for normal music playback.

More to discover