Should I get a Roon Nucleus?


Hey folks,

I just discovered Roon after using Bluesound for years. I have the new Bluesound Node wired with a Cat7 Ethernet cable. I love the Roon interface. My node streams to both my Focal Arche and Rotel RA-1592. I just use Qobuz at this point (recently ditched Tidal). I have an iMac M1 as my Roon core currently. What do you think the Nucleus or the Nucleus+ would accomplish in my system? Thanks!

128x128dmmichalowski

Probably a waste of money if your digital source is a bluesound node. Unless you're having delays or some kind of performance problems with the iMac delivering the music to your node, there's probably no reason to get a nucleus. Is there a reason why you thought you might want one?

It will most likely accomplish nothing for your audio as long as you don’t use that computer as a streamer. If you use that iMac as a computer for other tasks concurrently with running Roon and it doesn’t have enough brains to multitask, you will slow down Roon and Roon will slow down whatever else it is you’re trying to run. Potentially. If you run into it, then make the decision. Other than that you should be fine as is.

Oh…and take whatever it is you were going to spend on dedicated roon core, sell your bluesound node and get a good streamer. 

based on your equipment list i would tend to agree with @fuzztone 

but for not too much more money, you could get an innuos zen mini mk3 (used, new ones are no longer made), that can run as the core machine... then use its rca digital out to feed a nice downstream dac

will be a nice upgrade over the node, especially if you improve the rest of your gear