Hey everyone, I am currently torn between getting either a sMS-200Ultra or a Roon Nucleus to be my main streamer on the living room setup. It has to connect to a Resonessence Labs Concero HD DAC (USB) and I was wondering which you would recommend. I am currently using my main computer rig as my core.
If you’re using your computer as a core, connect it via usb to your dac. If you want to use a nucleus as your core, connect that via usb to your dac. If you want separation between core and dac, choose a streamer and connect it via usb to your dac. A raspberry pi is arguably as good as any streamer in terms of price/performance.
I would personally go with something dedicated for Roon Core. But that is for practicality and simplicity. I don’t know the spec of your rig but I would only have that on when needed. The sMS may seem like a shortcut to excellence but I personally found Roon on a Windows Pro PC a pain.
Currently I am leaning towards a Nucleus for the sole reason that is double duty of being a streamer and a core in a visually pleasing box. Does it boot up near instantly?
I have a fairly decked out computer so I never find that it is lagging with any of the processes I run on it. The Roon Server mode runs nicely on it as it is just a background process (and I don’t typically use Roon on my computer to listen to music since I would much rather use Tidal when in front of the computer.