Can't afford Nucleus

I love Roon and i wish i could afford Nucleus but $2000 aus for what is basically a nuc inside a box and the another $700 aus for the lifetime subscription…errrr I don’t know.

Hi mate,

Check out the sonicTransporter i5 or i7 from Roon partner Small Green Computer.

Fanless silent case like Nucleus and you’ll probably have money left over to cover most of the Roon lifetime subscription.

Great support too.

https://roonlabs.com/partners.html

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Good info, thanks.

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By the way, if you didn’t want to purchase one from the US, VortexBox Australia are official re-sellers of the sonicTransporters.

For warranty support/repairs it’s always easier (and cheaper) to post the unit to an Aussie address, rather than send it back to the US. It means you get it back much quicker too.

http://www.vortexbox.com.au/sonicTransporter.html

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If I buy a Intel NUC 7i7, put it in a fanless Akasa case and install ROCK, will it be the same as a N+ ?
Will I get automatic firmware updates, for example?

I have a couple of Intel NUCs, an i3 and an i5.

  1. You don’t a fanless case. The NUCs are dead quiet and the fan keeps them cooler than without.
  2. You don’t need ROCK. WIN 10 works just fine and you retain the capability to run other programs besides Roon.
  3. You will get both automatic Roon updates and WIN 10 updates.
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Hi Terry, it won’t be exactly the same. For example, there’s a home automation feature that is exclusive to Nucleus models.

But a ROCK’ed NUC in an Akasa case will be fanless and headless like Nucleus and receive updates the same way Nucleus does. Both run Roon OS.

I put a NUC7i7DNHE in an Akasa Plato X7D. It’s in a really slim and rigid case that I can easily travel with.

Thanks for replying so quickly, Sean. Much appreciated.
I won’t need home automation so it looks like a perfectly viable alternative to a N+ assuming you have the smarts to assemble it yourself.
Thanks again

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Hello there

I would not recommend these kind of music servers as you don’t know how the SW/HW is maintained.

I believe the best is to go with a Mac mini or a NUC as there will be always more of these used than any high-end server, which are in reality just a PC.

… home automation? :no_mouth:
care to tell me more, please? :slightly_smiling_face:

I can confirm that the stock Nuc is very quiet. At least my NUC7i3BNH model is. Quieter than the hiss of my powered monitors which is quieter than the background noise of my room. I also like the look of it, but a fanless case would definitely look cooler. I will tell you it was not that easy to set up Rock OS because the first Nuc I got which was referbished turned out to be a dud. Roon Support attempted to help me diagnose its problems but could not. After returning it and getting a new Nuc everything worked as it should. Just make sure everything is up to date firmware wise, including your router and the Nuc OS before you try to transfer your library to the Nuc. Also I have the Nuc connected via ethernet as recommended but also have it connected to the wifi because otherwise my laptop could not access its shared network folders. This is a great resource if you go down this route:

I thought about this question last year:

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How ever you look at it the Nucleus is very expensive for what it is. How do dealers actually support it to justify the huge mark up?

I understand Roon need to make money on it pay for the dev of the OS and the case as its bespoke. But the rest I am left rubbing my chin.

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j[quote=“pl_svn, post:10, topic:41517”]
… home automation? :no_mouth:
care to tell me more, please? :slightly_smiling_face:
[/quote]

Hehe no problems, I searched “nucleus home automation “ and the first thing that pops up is this:

I don’t know any more than that I’m afraid :cold_sweat:

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NUC7i7DNHE is not quiet. :frowning: In any case with a large CPU load when DSP works .