Been playing around with Roon on a small Beelink PC that I have. It’s an i7 with 8gb Ram and 256gb SSD. Fan noise is an issue which is well known and at the moment it’s connected by Wi-Fi.
Now I have a feel for Roon, I am very tempted to make the upgrade to a better Core unit. Not a massive collection by Roon standards - about 4,000 albums and a Tidal connection - connecting to a Synology Nas.
Torn between an NUC and picking up the M1 Mac Mini (they are down to £620 with 8gb and 256gb SSD). Any thoughts welcomed on this bit.
What’s confusing me though is the different performance I am getting on Remotes:
IPhone 13 Pro - Jerky and sluggish (looks like this is a known issue)
MacBook Air M2 16gb - Pretty decent - bit of load time
IPad Pro 12.9 M2 - lighting fast and smooth.
Given they are all high spec devices why is the IPad performing so much better and what causes the difference?
Try moving the existing core to Ethernet direct to a switch (if you use one) or your router. This will improve things for sure.
You may fare better keeping the existing core, which is more than adequate for Roon, and moving it away from your listening area, buying a streamer, and improving your network.
Have managed to pick up an 8th Gen supported NUC for £160 so will give that a whirl on Rock.
Will also switch it over to Ethernet, although will have to use Powerline adapters as our Mesh network starts in the most inconvenient place in the house!
When you mention a streamer, Im not using the devices mentioned for playback - we have Sonos all over the house, but I wonder if you meant adding a dedicated piece of kit I haven’t thought of!
Also still a bit confused regardless of Ethernet connection why the interface on IPad is so much smoother than on the other devices?
Refresh rates on the iPhone 13 are much lower to what can be achieved on the iPad this helps with the smoothness.
Having your core on a wired network ensures the best performance. If your wireless as you are then it’s not going to be optimum on any device as Roon is a server app and one that is quite demanding on a network. Being a server app it needs to pull and push data at the same time. Wi-Fi can’t do this it can either receive or send at any one time so you can get lag and latency on a busy Wi-Fi network with Roon. Best to wire it if you can. Powerline devices are best not used as they can also cause other issues. Move the core close wear your modem is it’s best away from the Hifi anyway.
Definitely the best way to go as a best practice approach.
Roon is very flexible for many types of setup which is a good thing and in some instances can be used in a WiFi setup even though it is not a best practice.
Will try and hardwire it to the router if I can (like I say its in a very weird position), but if no need to access the tv/monitor that may be a lot easier.
Weird how the iPhone 13 screen refresh is so awful comparatively.
I don’t have issues on my lowly se 2020 but I think some models have had users moaning about them being jumpy and not smooth not noticed anything untoward on my phone.
I used ethernet over power for quite a while to connect my core to my router. It worked just fine. The only reason I got rid of it was the transceivers were putting out RF interference that my phono preamp was picking up. I don’t really listen to vinyl much so it wasn’t a big deal, but it was just as easy to move my Nucleus nest to the router. Bottom line, I think the bad rap ethernet over power gets is undeserved.
Robert_Coker
(MagicRobert ~most harmless of all maniacs~)
11
Glad you solved the remote mystery. On the topic of the NUC, I don’t know which 8th gen you are running, but I thought I would pass on an idea that I found and am following up with. It might help the placement, fan noise, and any RF interference. I picked up a NUC8i7BEH - a bit of overkill for my needs. I ordered an Akasa case for it. Akasa makes very specific cases for each NUC variant. The NUC will run fanless as the case is the heatsink. There are several form factors, one of which might help with placement. For decent RF output, you must add a $10 antennae to support wi-fi, as the solid alumin(i)um case acts as an RF shield. If you do take this approach, the Turing case is recommended for an i7 for the best heat dissipation. Any of the case form factors will work for an i3. Hope some of this info might help.