I tried a iDefender connected to Pi with my Bryston BDA-3 no difference. With a PC also no difference.
Figure Bryston designed in a similar tech already.
The iDefender did make a difference on nano iDSD Black Label as well as curing ground hum with my ADI-2 DAC FS connected to my PC. (Same PC that the BDA-3 was connected to later without hum).
Have moved onto a Bryston BR-20 now not Roon ready yet. Amazing sound looking forward hearing its streamers sound with Roon…using a Lumin U1 mini presently for streaming duties.
Hi Scott, my Brother has the same set up NUC → usb to GAIA ----> I2S to T, However, we can not get play from NUC. Would you kindly advise if I am doing wrong here in my set up. Thanks
What is it doing when you try to play something?
Hi Henry, I see the music is playing but no sound coming out from the speakers. The Operating System, Roon Database & Settings, and Roon Server Software all show “OK” … not sure what is missing to cause this issue. Thanks
Honestly, facepalm all you want. You’re wrong. Even with all your experience as an engineer.
Connected to my R2R DAC with USB from my…
- Innuos player is considerably better than my
- iPad which is MUCH better than my
- MacBook
I couldn’t and still don’t understand why. There are various explanations but the best comes from Paul McGowan of PS Audio. Lookup any of his YouTube videos on the subject. He explains the phenomenon way better than I. I just know what I hear. The difference is considerable.
To the point of this thread. I expect the USB output from the Nucleus is pretty damn good. They put a lot of effort into making it sound great and I expect this would include isolation from noisy power and a reduction in jitter, timing and re-clocking (all things I do not understand, but there are plenty of ‘experts who do’).
The Nucleus isn’t far from a standard NUC in a fancy case. It’s a to spec USB output, nothing more.
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Really?! Interesting. I can’t really see a point in it then. I suppose if you want the best Roon integration possible, but for that it’s pricey. I have my Roon Core running on an M1 Mac Mini. It’s flawless and I can use the Mac for other things. Love Roon 
Happy to ear you get a good result.
But I am in doubt about buying NUCLEUS withouth a separate streamer.
BUt let me give my experience which not about USB/Etherent differences, but only about different quality of streamers.
Using the same WEIS DAC usb with cpacity for DSD.
I have excellent quality listenign my dsd library which is with the NUC Intel as server, in which I have the ROCK of ROON.USB from NUC to DAC.
When I do the same (USB from NUC to DAC) listening streaming, TIDAL high quality the result is awfull.
If I do the same using an external streamers LINN with the same DAC the quality is equal to my local library.
So the streaming done by the NUC is very bad.
The question is about the quality of Nucleus for streaming.
I would expect the same SQ from NUC/ROCK or Nucleus unless there is some underlying issue with one or the other.
I have my NUC/ROCK with HDMI to Receiver, USB/Ethernet to OPPO 205 and Ethernet to other Roon Ready endpoints around the house.
Added a Roon Ready MC streaming DAC with Ethernet that far exceeds the SQ of HDMI or USB outputs. Of course the HDMI/USB connections are feeding different DACs.
The difference in SQ seems to be related to the quality of the DAC and how well Roon interfaces with the DAC, not NUC vs Nucleus.
Interesting. So the sound is great with the DAC directly connected via USB to the NUC, if you are using local media, local files. But streaming TIDAL with the NUC isn’t great. And you’re already using Roon OS on the NUC. Since the Nucleus is essentially a NUC in a fancy case, and also runs Roon OS, you’d expect similar issues. Though since playing local files is good, I’d expect that the problem lies with the network you’re using, not with the NUC hardware or Roon OS itself.
Thanks for help.
Somehow when using the LINN streamer the quality is better than when using just the NUC. something shall introduce the difference. Actually ROON is not selling Nucleus as streamer although it can be use both for core of ROON OS and as well as streamer.
But nobody have given technical reason for the quality difference in this forum.
Thanks for help.
Since the DAC is high end one as you say the relation between DAC and NUC could be the difference, perhaps due to noise pass from network through NUC to the USB.
Any way ROON is not selling the NUCLEUS as streamer although it can work as such.
A truly high-end DAC should be able to cope with this hypothetical noise on its inputs.
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Indeed, though as we all know, a ‘high-end’ price tag in hi-fi does not guarantee ‘high-end’ engineering…
There’s many a poorly-measuring expensive DAC out there…
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I think Chord DAVE (just one of many well-engineered DACs/streamers out there) can deal with RF emissions/electrical noises passing thru noisy USB cables/sources.
Just buy a DAC that HAS galvanic isolation and a proper implementation of USB. That’s the true answer.
IE Chord DAC’s, Schiit DAC’s etc. have fantastic USB implementation. Many expensive DAC’s are a ripoff as their USB implementation is garbage.
THIS IS WHERE the huge discrepency comes from with ‘usb sounds bad’. Yeah, it does, on DAC’s from 80yo engineers that don’t understand how the digital domain works and avoid it completely making their ■■■■ for use outside of computer systems only, leaving their digital connection ports grounded to the rest of your system. Actually hilarious.
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So much snake oil in one post hahah
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I recently bought the Chord Qutest and M-scaler. Took my USB isolater out of the system. Very good SQ. Thank you.
Hmm, not all Schiit products do USB well…
Well… bit of a tangent there.
Point was more schiit actually galvanically isolate their usb inputs so you won’t get computer noise.
This is better than most dacs at that price point which don’t.
Also, measurements are a bit missleading. If it sounds good that’s what matters at the end of the day. You won’t hear a mosquito fart behind your music which is essentially what’s happening often with “bad measurements”. Some of the best gear from the old days sounds amazing with “bad measurements”