That is another reason to maintain your own open server instead of a closed appliance - performance tweaking, beyond the obvious like upgrades ( are the Nuclei upgradeable? ) but also OS optimization.
If the library is too big and/or too problematic (with the usual stuff like too many unidentified albums etc) for the hardware performance, no amount of tweaking to squeeze out a few percent will solve the problem, though.
Itâs a NUC (or whatever similar platform the One is).
Donât know enough about Roonâs architecture to confirm or deny, but what I mean is that the advantage for those that know how, they get to try when not using the appliances! Again - in the end I recognize that it all depends on what you want and like.
The main question is how do you use your Roon and how got to it - got frustrated with the appliances and went general OS or the other way around, got frustrated with the complexity and went all appliance.
What I failed to mention or ask about - and it is weird because it was the case for me, before I went all general OS - is that there seems to be a third way, those of us that can deal with whatever technologically⌠just do not particularly want to for this application.
Again, had my ROCK not broken down, I would still be on it, and wouldnât have gotten the itch to move the endpoints away from Ropieee. But indeed it broke and kind of feel better for not going back to it - feel like I get more options and control that way.
And should I decide (AND IT DOESNâT LOOK LIKE I WILL, just sayinâ) to move away from Roon, that gives me options, as opposed to a complete teardown, with dedicated appliances.
Iâve always preferred to run things like Roon or Plex Server on regular Macs (MacOS) or Windows machines (Intel NUC). I didnât go for ROCK and make a machine just for Roon. Iâm glad I went that route. I can use my device not only for Roon, but other things. It also makes diagnosing things easier. Also, if something gets broken, I can always have alternative temporary solution to keep things going. For example, if Roon goes down, I can use native Tidal, Spotify. If Plex goes down, I have VLC.
Now that I donât collect physical music anymore and donât need to further mess with adding more stuff to my existing music drive (1.5TB), all I really need is Tidal. So a dedicated machine would make more sense for me new for just ROCK use, but I donât have a NEED for it at the moment.
Bit late to this party
But it strikes me if the OP is unhappy with the appliance route then Roon is not his product. Roon issue a fully functioning (apart from whatever bugs are identified) all in one package , creating an environment where the experience requires minimal IT knowledge. Plug and Play !!
The origins of Roon were a bit DIY with installing software etc but once Nucleus and ROCK came along the full appliance experience was there to allow take over. Their acquisition by a major hardware manufacturer must give some hints, the hardware route may be expanding not reducing.
I am a retired MS developer so I am perfectly capable of doing all the tricky Linux commands if I choose to, I choose not to.
Consider my personal situation , I am not expecting sympathy as itâs mostly self inflicted, 18 months ago and 18 years ago I underwent a neck fusion procedure to correct compacted discs . This has left my dexterity at not far off zero. Imagine choosing not to wear a conventional shirt because itâs too much effort to fasten the buttons. Typing is a bit hit and miss , while normal life is fine, fine motor control is all but gone. Quite simply my hands donât work properly any more.
Enough of that , but the simple job of creating a NUC from the bits is now really beyond me, I bought mine from a local dealer and he put the bits in and tested it all I did was install ROCK.
The thought of optimizing etc I simply ignore, I had a library running under Windows that I transferred to ROCK and never looked back.
The point I am making is that not everybody is a budding programmer, not everybody wants to learn Linux ,not everyone has the skill set required to do such things. Some people just want to turn on a âBoxâ and listen (like it used to be ?). Did we hanker after optimizing the sound quality coming from your CD player back in the 80âs No of course we didnât we chose the box that suited our tastes. I suppose there has always been DIY and tinkering
If that box was created by Roon, Cambridge Audio or Naim is irrelevant. I choose those 3 mainly because I have used all 3 and all 3 have a reasonable app interface. Roon has the metadata on top which reduces the screen time too, so to me wins out.
You pay the money you choose , if Roon has so many drawbacks why pay for it choose CA or someone else.
Itâs like saying I hate Ford cars because the indicator stick is on the wrong side. The choice is in the purchase.
Finally a word of warning , both my neurosurgeons believe that the cause of my cervical damage was due to posture, screen position and TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME (my words)
For Ref my system is NUC 10i7 / 32gbRAM / 4Tb SSD to a Naim Uniti Atom HE , with various headphones
I know you were not trying to overemphasize your issues, but I have to say that I am sorry you are going thru them. Hang in there.
That said, second person that says, âmove away from Roonâ - I think I am being misunderstood. No need to defend the platform.
I have stated may times that I am staying with it, happy, but no 100% happy. Which is perfectly fine. It is not a contradiction, it is perfectly practical decision! Baffles me when people suggest I move away to a different product or that Roon is not for me. Nothing is perfect for everyone nor does it have to be.
UNLESS, of course Roon goes to an âonly appliancesâ model. Then I would have to THINK about it. Not even in that case it would be a given that I would move away. But I will ponder it.
I really wanted to have conversation, out of curiosity, what are peopleâs take on the dilemma I had when my ROCK broke. Would you have reinstalled the ROCK and just moved on?
No agenda like some posters at the beginning of the thread suggested. I see this forum as conversation on common interests, just wanted to start a topic.
I repeat, like @Mike_O_Neill also a perfectly capable engineer, who would have stayed with the ROCK had it not broken down. Mostly I wanted to have feel of the makeup of the user base how they implement their Roon setup.
And of course, curious about the Nuclei, again just to get a feel of how the company handles supporting those, given the philosophy of exposing to the user only what is strictly necessary.