Music Server Advice

@commumique1  I agree with you re the Aurender app but beware the Auralic app is as bad if not worse.

@communique1

If you don’t wanna give up on ROON then consider the alternative from CAD’s CAT, Grimm Audio - MU1 and one of many Wolf Audio offerings. I was at AXPONA recently and I got to hear all the server/streamers from the top names, including EVO432, Auralic (full stack with clock) Innuos Statement and Aurender N30SA.

The app interface is an important part of the streaming experience. I have been an Aurender user for 10plus years, it is the only brand I found to be well balanced and consistent in all areas, i.e. sound, build and robust app. The Conductor app takes little getting used to and it is certainly not as fancy as ROON but more importantly it does not do any manipulation of your digital bitstream. Their focus always been an optimized audio performance over a fancy app interface like ROON that consistently manipulates incoming bitstream and compromised performance.

I am also a lifetime ROON subscriber but stream through Aurender 99.9% of the time. Once you done messing around with ROON, consider a Aurender N200 or N20 and call it a day :-) 

Trial the Euphony Stylus software. Then, once you hear it's in a class of its own, buy a Summus from Euphony or a ridiculously cheap used Pink Faun.

Or, repurpose your NUC, get another, and run Stylus and its endpoint in a dual pc set-up.

I’m an Esoteric fan. I have an N05 Network player with a Qnap NAS. I use this thru my home Ethernet network with fiber connection before the N05. The NAS was easy to set up so if you can do that sort of thing I would recommend it over the “all in one” proprietary solutions out there. I’m not saying anything against them, but my set up gives me more flexibility and upgrade ability. The Esoteric has super capacitors among other noise deterring features. That along with the fiber tx and rx in my Ethernet line, I’m extremely satisfied!

Check out SmallGreenComputer.com.  I have been using their products, and the Sonore products they sell for years.  Very reliable, easy to use, and fantastic support from Andrew.  IMHO, they offer great value by keeping their casework simple and eschewing expensive marketing.  The sound is wonderful, and I am using mostly their entry level kit.  I would imagine their better offerings would be competitive with many more expensive options.  They have a 30 day return option, too.