Music Server Advice

I use Roon to explore "new to me" jazz artists, usually from Europe. If I like it I'll search to see if it's on vinyl and if so I purchase it. (Discogs, Bandcamp, etc.) You'd be surprised how much music is actually available on vinyl, but not sold/marketed in the US. I don't download music at all. I can still use Roon for that purpose. You're correct about my viny rig. It's anchored by an Ortofon MC Diamond and sounds simply amazing and is my preference. But I also like digital and want it to sound as good as I can afford, thus my reason for reaching out to the AGon community. 

I'll add that the vinyl versions do not always sound better than the digital stream! As I acquire more vinyl it's appearing as if more record labels are capitalizing on the resurgence of vinyl and releasing vinyl just for the sake of releasing vinyl with little regard for sound quality. There are streams I'm listening to with my current setup that are truly wonderful sounding and prefer over the vinyl counterpart.

You’re right about vinyl quality. For the brief time I toyed with vinyl again a few years ago I was appalled at the quality of some of the offerings. Surface noise in some cases was obvious, meaning they’re using low-grade regrind material, as well as just plain bad masterings. I won’t get into the pricing lol.

Not sure you’re aware, but there are a few websites for researching recordings and their quality. I often use Discogs, DR Database, and Hoffman Music Corner for this purpose. And AllMusic for music quality. Not for everything, but definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already.

How do you feed your Esoteric D-05x from your NUC?

By the way, the Innuos Pulse you mention is not a server. It is just a streamer. You would still be running Roon Core in your NUC with it, there is no other way to use Roon with Innuos Pulse. You would need a separate machine for server (Roon Core) duties.

You are correct about the Pulse. I fed it with the Nuc as Roon Core. I feed the D-05x directly from the NUC via USB. The D-05x is a Roon endpoint.