Do I need a new NUC?

[dabassgoesboomboom]

Where does the claimed absolute minimum 1.3x figure come from?

Not absolute. Just recommended. If 1.2x is working fine for you, then no worries at all.

The Best NUC for ROCK?

1.3x can be ok, but i wouldnt like it to be below 2.0x – you don’t want to hose your audio stream processing just because metadata updates occurred or you did a search/focus/heavy-artist-page-load