Best Roon End Point for 1k usd range

Audio Gear Talk
1

Hello
Have been using nucleus for 6 months as roon core and also as a streamer via its usb output to my Lampizator Baltic3 Dac.
Although I am happy with the sq i want to add an enpoint and seperate the streamer part. Looking for an usb out endpoint with dsd capability aiming for a decent and noticable upgrade over using only nuclues.

I have narrowed my options and need your support on choosing the best option. Would appreciate any feedback from the users and/or anyone who had chance to compare any of these devices.

Sotm sm200 ultra
Sonore ultrarendu/optical rendu
Project streambox s2 ultra
Waversa streamer
Stackaudio link2 streamer
Lumin u1 mini

Would be nice to hear general sound characteristics and which one is superior to others according to your experiences…
Many thanks

2

Out of your list I would go for the Lumin U1 mini but you are not going to find it remotely close to 1k USD unfortunately.
Maybe $1500 if very lucky but more likely to be $1700.
Good luck!

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3

Just get a raspberry pi 4 and stick Ropieee on the SD card. Under $100 with PSU and case, done! USB is digital domain, the difference between spending $100 and $1000 will be minimal. The thing you will gain either way is separating core and renderer, which Roon recommends.

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9

For me (I’m using end points from Lumin, SOtM, Naim, many RPIs, MiniPCs (with Rock, Linux or Windows), some Chromecast Audios,… and know a lot of other Roon-Ready devices) in the most cases not the streamer itselfs defines the SQ, but the used DAC and the configuration (for example upsampling with HQPlayer).
An exception is the SOtM Neo in using the orginal power supply, which creates some hiss (there are also some measurements, which are showing this) and one of mine RPi4 on a Penning DAC (also here I’ve changed the power supply).
Otherwise I don’t hear a really difference between a Lumin U1 mini and a RPi4 with Ropieee connected to the same DAC.

What I would do with 1k USD, if you Baltic is not a NOS-DAC: Buy a PC (Nucleus can’t), which is able to handle the filters for HQPlayer and add before your DAC a RPi with a NAA-Image.

19

I also had the Nucleus connected directly to my DAC. I ended up getting the Stack audio Link2 with LPS and made a big difference in my setup. My soundstage got larger, taller and voices sounded more natural. I had my list narrowed to that or the Lumin. I will say that if you use Apple Music/Airplay with the Link2, I find that it doesn’t sound all that great. Sounds veiled. Good luck in your decision

25

I send Roon through power plugs and Ethernet to both of my wired end points. If anything is supposed to crap up the stream it’s using electricity to get it there. However miraculously it all works and sounds great. Now I’m sure you can say I’m deaf or my system isn’t resolving enough or both. However it still sounds great to me and if it were any taller dido would be 6 foot, wider then later Elvis would be beyond the walls and deeper, well Keith would be up the chimney.

34

For my headphone station I have settled on the following, which was quite a bit less than $1k USD:

Streamer:

  • Raspberry PI 4 board + power supply + plastic case
  • JustBoom DigiHat board (provides coax & optical output)

DAC & headphone amp:

  • Chord Mojo (bought used for ~ $300 USD)
  • RCA to mini digital coax cable (Blue Jeans Cable Co)

Headphones:

  • AKG K702 purchased used (a few years ago for ~ $150)

I use the headphone convolutional filters from the AutoEq project to make the AKG K702 sound a bit fuller.

I have to say that the overall listening experience is stunning at least to me. I hear new and beautiful things in tracks I have been listening to for decades on more inferior systems.

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