Another endpoint suggestion question... Roon Nucleus? Mac Mini? Sotm sms200? or?

[Tony_Lee]

Please help me choose between a Roon Nucleus, Mac Mini, Sotm sms200, or other suggestions? I want to connect through USB to a RME adi-2 dac and keep the budget under $1500, but can stretch to $2000 if sonic benefits are significant. Thank you!
Tony

[Jim_F]

Never mind. I think I misunderstood your question.

[Bill_Janssen (Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)]

Looking for streamer advice

I recently purchased a Nucleus and I am looking for streamer to go to my Amber 3 DAC. I was using a Orchard Audio Pecanpi Streamer/DAC into my Hegel H160 but recently made change to my system no computer in music room. I would like to stay under 2k new or used. I currently stream with Tidal and music from my NAS. What streamers should i be looking at that have USB to DAC. Thanks

[AnimalOnDrums]

Something like a nucleus or Mac mini is going to do a different job than a SOTM streamer. The nucleus is meant to be a server that runs Roon core on it. From there you could connect to you DAC via USB. Or you can use wired LAN and stream to something like the SOTM or ultra rendu, and then connect to your DAC via usb. Do you already have a computer or Roon core Server set up? Or do you need a server? Are you going to keep the computer in the same room as your DAC?