Advice please. I am currently running Roon on my Mac laptop and using that as a core.
I am considering the purchase of a Nucleus but as I also have a number of CD’s and music downloaded onto an external hard drive I am not sure what would be the best investment in order to integrate the CDs and music on the hard drive.
I do have an Aurender but that is not compatible with Roon.
Welcome any suggestions.
You like Mac so why not one of the M1 minis?
Thanks for the suggestion. Honestly I never even thought about that. Please provide any further information or guidance on the set up.
Search the forums and do your own research as your needs will be unique.
You may consider a Roon ROCK which is NUC computer running Roon Optimized Core Kit (ROCK) operating system. A model like the NUC 7i3bnh is sufficient for even complex DSP and can be had for under $200 used. The taller case model has room for a HD and with a 1 or 2TB drive for all of your CD’s FLAC files. This would be your core that could still feed your Aurender. Lots of information on how to build and its a fun project. If it doesn’t work out you can always resell.
Intel NUC running ROCK.
Music ripped to USB hardrive attached to NUC.
If core is within earshot of lustening space then stick it in a fanless case.
If you have / ever get a NAS then music ripped / stored to NAS and rsync copy of NAS music folder to USB hardrive (attached to NUC).
I can see the appeal of the nucleus but you can save some money going the NUC route.
Assembling and setting up NUC / ROCK is a very straighforward process.
The reason to buy a Nucleus is if you can’t or don’t want to do anything other than plug a device in, update it and have it play music. It is designed to make the initial part of using Roon easy. After that it simply acts as a core that would have your music plugged in to a USB port in the rear.
You can purchase a NUC and build a silent machine and load ROCK. This would be the functional equivalent of a Nucleus but you balance paying a lot less against putting work in to getting it working.
You can buy a Windows or Mac based machine and simply load Roon. Easy to do but you have the burden of maintaining the operating system which means remote access to its desktop or a screen, keyboard and mouse connected.
Nucleus = ease of initial use but costly.
ROCK = less easy to set up, less cost but same functionality as above.
Mac/Windows = simple to do but with OS to maintain. But can be used for other things too.
A base macmini m1 is normally adequate for most smaller to medium sized libraries…ie under 100k tracks.
If you are comfortable with the Mac ecosystem then this could be your best bet…if purchased from apple stores you also have 14 days no questions asked return options
Plus you can use it for other things like HT connection for movies etc and still reuse at a later time if roon is no longer your thing.
Really appreciate all of the advice and suggestions. Thanks for pointing out a few directions, I now have some home work.
Cheers.
I would either go with a new mac mini (it will now run Roon well as it supports .NET6) or with a NUC with ROCK. These recommendations assume you’re playing over the network to an endpoint. If you’re playing over USB (you don’t say what your DAC is either) then there are a few caveats in terms of sound as well as cleanliness of the USB output from your Roon core.
