It’s just a NUC i3 inside the Merging+PLAYER and is essentially running ROCK. So there’s nothing extra special about the Core side of the Merging+PLAYER. As a DAC obviously it’s pretty special but that’s a separate thing.
I merged the threads. Going to answer it all here.
Is the above a logical signal path? I’m switching over from the analog world, and after so much reading I both feel like I understand this new digital world, and that I don’t get it (yet).
Yes
Which multichannel DAC do you recommend? Various pricepoints… under $5k, under $10k. I’ve browsed the Roon Ready Network Devices list… not many multichannel ones in there I’ve seen so far.
Under $10k, exaSound. $10k+ NADAC+PLAYER or Trinnov Altitud…
And having Roon Core inside the same box/housing as a networked DAC, is the complete opposite of Roon’s own general recommendations, which is why I mentioned to test with your NAS far away from your listening room (I know you confirmed you tried it). Roon recommend your Core be outside the entire listening room… let alone having Core inside the networked DAC.
You really want Roon on the PC, and the DAC somewhere else. I know the “Computer Audiophiles” may not like that idea, but the computer is a pretty electrically noisy place. In an ideal situation, you’d want your DAC to be networked and far away, but if you can’t do that, you’d want a bridge of some sort. PS Audio makes one (that will run RoonSpeakers soon!), and you can also make one with RaspberryPi or maybe even an older Android phone.
If it were me, I’d build kickass Roon library managing PC…
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is having the media server away from the listening room really necessary, if we are using completely silent builds tailor-made to be in the listening room (such as the CAPS machines mentioned)?
Electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference are the kind of “noise” I’m talking about, not the audible kind.
We worked with Meridian for many years on these issues when building out the Sooloos product line, since the original Sooloos devices were fanless PCs in pretty boxes. They were fairly wel…
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It could be there? How would I test for noise?
Subjectively: ABX test between Computer->DAC and Computer->Network->Bridge->DAC.
Objectively: Plug Computer->DAC and Computer->Network->Bridge->DAC into a scope with plenty of dynamic range, play the usual test signals, and analyze/understand the differences.
The first one tells you if the difference matters to you personally. If you iterate the test over a population, you can determine whether it makes a difference to anyone.
The second one t…