I know it’s flogging a dead horse, but I still can’t get over the choice of name, esp as the whole tragic fiasco became a public referendum on the hubris of the super rich. But nine months later, and here we are…
I might have gone with something like Nucleus Kraken - digital tentacles that can reach every audio device in your home and wherever else you might go (well, ok, if ARC is working for you).
If Harman wanted to avoid the unfortunate name Titan they could have had fun by calling it the Nucleus Nautilus. After all, the namesake vehicle in Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” had an impenetrable double hull and was the ultimate bachelor pad! Of course, B&W might not have agreed with use of the name of its iconic speaker created by then-designer Laurence Dickie, now of Vivid Audio fame.
And there could be a faux kraken-skin shell, too!
Buoy of an idea there!
I thought audiophile satisfaction with a high end product is directly proportional to the price they pay - and it has to start around $10k.
The TL;DR section is supposed to be a short summary for people who can’t be bothered (or have the time) to read the long version. I’ve seen a couple of examples here lately mis-using it. /rant
The paragraph prefixed by TL;DR is the short summary - the rest is the exposition.
Buy a NUC 12 and save a lot of money.
Thank you for the lead. Had no idea about kiosk browsers.
I’m pretty sure that I can build at least 2 and probably 3 very nice fanless NUCs which at least match the specs of the “Titan” (whatever they are) for $3.700. They will not feature exchangeable wooden top plates though.
Unlike other HiFi hardware, practically everyone can build their own Roon server as all you have to do is to plug some standard components together and install some software.
That’s a very valid point.
As we all know, brand name and associated marketing are crucial to achieve ultimate sound - since in the end we are all susceptive to confirmation bias.
I can imagine that Roon stops the free distribution of ROCK with the appearance of the new Nucleus and license it to a few select companies.
There be Dragons, and while I am surprised at the harsh response to the announcement of the Titan, I do wonder if that is at the back of people’s mind.
No one is made to buy a Titan (or a Nucleus) at this point and if you happen to have a spare $4,000+ and don’t know how to build a NUC or burn an ISO image then it’s a nice but expensive option that might sell a few thousand units a year.
I am sure Roon knows that would do incredible damage to the good will and it’s reputation with it’s customers if it were to make a move like this.
I have often thought that Roon should stop supporting NAS devices and older Windows and Mac computer’s, but try telling that to those who run on a Synology, QNAP or a 2012 Mac Mini and the response barely seems civilised 
Absolutely, also from a financial view, selling a few ROCK licences to select companies compared to losing 1000’s of Roon subscribers. It just does not stack up …
For years now Roon have offered ROCK and Nucleus to support different market segments, Titan or no Titan I don’t see that changing.
That would kill their user base . How many NUC/ROCK users , if they all went ???
Could they afford to lose so much revenue ?
Maybe I start polishing up my JRiver library my streamer is UPnP ready as well as Roon Ready , for the amount of Tidal I use its a credible option.
I used to use Auralic products, but had performance issues with them and I didn’t like that they “phoned home” all the time and then forced updates on end users that would sometimes brick the device. I wound up blocking the device from communicating with the outside world, and then it didn’t work correctly at all times either.
So I am saying this fully realizing that Roon makes many people feel the same way.
But since I have two other DACs that I love that are discrete components, I felt like removing an expensive and proprietary commercial hardware option was a good move, allowing me flexibility. That is why I like RoPieee. It’s commodity hardware, easy to rebuild, and it does its job so incredibly well. I can tell that things are bit perfect by using one of my two DACs — RME ADI-2 — that has a bit perfect test capability built in. Test files are streamed from my Roon on NAS installation through RoPieee to the ADI-2 and the ADI-2 shows me success or failure (never had a failure.) I’m satisfied in more ways than one. I can tell you that it sounds as good as my Auralic DAC/streamer components used to, yet I could NOT be sure that those were doing bit-perfect work.
As a result of all the above, a Nucleus is not attractive to me, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t work well for others with different priorities.
100% agree with your sentiment and Rock is a really good and simple solution for tens of thousands of Roon customer (or at least I imagine it is based on those I speak to)
Another idea would be a yearly license fee for Rock. Say 100$.
Doesn’t Rock reduce the support burden on Roon staff as it is a known quantity with all known libraries and no access to change anything.
Any charges for Rock would just push people to use Mac, Window’s and other Linux distributions which Roon has no control over what is loaded etc.
I’m not sure that helps the bottom line or lower the support burden at all.
Usually something that is free lacks value for people.