Roon….The Gordon Knot of concierge musical services?

Roon is pretty cpu and resource intensive in general.

For the core, it kind of varies. While yes, new DB changes can consume the CPU, what can consume it more is DSD to PCM or intense DSP activities. Mind you, the Roon app does ALL of the DSD/conversion/streaming from the core, so Roon is concerned about the core bogging down with multiple devices being fed at once, but one device doing modest DSP / sample rate conversion is really not CPU intensive at all and practically any NUC from the past 5 years should be good enough.

I’ve been running my core on a 10 year old APU (A10 7500? I thinik. I forgot) for 3-4 years now and never had an issue with CPU power, I’m sure anything you buy now which can boot Linux/Ubuntu will work today.

On the other hand, you can use a Pi4 as a streamer with no issues. 

Gordon who?

I run ROCK on a NUC with no problems.  You don't want  other programs running on the same machine.

Jerry

I just put another CD into the player and hit "play".
Never fails.

All the best,
Nonoise

Hi,

Doesn’t your Technics unit allow you to audio stream? Are you not curious/tempted by the vast music library available via your fingertips?
Charles

I took the plunge and got a Roon Nucleus+ and enjoy it very much. I think the strength of Roon is how robust their software is, at least when run on the nucleus. Added benefits, you’re able to rip all CDs and then put those in the attic. Another added benefit, the Roon ARC software lets you access your library anywhere you have an internet connection. This is all in addition to seamless integration with all the streaming services, many providing ultra hifi. Is the Nucleus expensive, yes. But considering how much I’ve invested in vinyl and a SACD player, it makes sense to invest in a good streaming platform. 

My PC is just slightly under spec based on Roon published platform requirements. It runs fiine most of the time. But the cpu does get pegged from time to time so I am certain an upgrade on my pc running the core would make things run faster and more consistency. As it stands it’s fast and reliable enough. Sometimes access to qobuz lags a bit retrieving metadata but that’s not necessarily Roons fault.

Also there are always apps and services running on Windows that are not needed for Roon alone so shutting those down always helps if needed.

linux is surely a much lighter weight ps for running Roon efficiently but it’s nice that it core runs on windows or Apple ie the computers many people already have.