750$ Intel NUC vs $6000 Aurender N200: I don't hear the difference

@metaldetektor thanks for sharing your experience. The many positive reviews of Grimm seem to imply it is the best thing since sliced bread, but this easily forgotten concept of synergy is the most important principle. Was this a DSD observation that gave the Playback the nod, or was this preference observed across all formats? 

The side two of it is the inconsistency in the A/B testing between the two use cases, the subjective nature of it all and the part where the inaccurate data posted here will result in misguiding others who are potentially striving to improve their systems. May be I’m completely off track here, but here are my $0.05 cents (inflation adjusted).

@audphile1 you are not completely off track- I am with you 100%. Opinions are one thing, and taking personal preferences into account one cannot argue the decision if someone comes to a conclusion, but if forum posters wish to have a credible forum it is the responsibility of all to ensure that is an educated decision  with a sound and valid process, to the best of our volunteer hours permit of course. 

Then again, maybe the clickbait title was enough for some posters to ignore the whole thread. 

by all means spend the 6k on the Aurender, but my humble suggestion would be to try a Roon rock on an nuc first. It cost as much as an audiophile usb cable for gods sake :)

Did the op @essrand ever re-try the comparison "properly"? as he suggested he would in a "few weeks" quite a few weeks ago :) 

@mclinnguy there was no follow up so I would assume that no, there was no round two to retest. I also won’t be building a Roon NUC to just try it. I’m also wondering if the $750 NUC was fanless. I forgot to ask. It’s rare to see a fanless NUC. And that fan, when it gets going, sounds like the whole thing is about to lift off. With time it will suck the dust in and clog the vents, which will make it work harder and louder.

It will eventually sound like your grandmother’s hair dryer and will interfere with listening and inject noise into the signal chain. It’s a double whammy.
 

At least get a fanless Roon Nucleus if you want to go that route. 

@audphile1  You have a way with words. 😂