Hi
Do you also have a DAC connected directly to the core? If yes, don’t you have performance issue with USB hardware?
Bye
Hi Saverio,
usually use Ropieee on Digione Signature as endpoint. Also tried the DAC connected to USB from the core, from my desktop (NUC, also running Linux) and USB from a pi4, no big differences (maybe my hearing is not what it used to be).
The core btw. runs on a Celeron J4105 with NFS, Sambe, minidlna, backups, the usual stuff.
If you are familiar with linux: You can run the Roon Desktop under wine, there is an installation script from Harry ten Berge, the developer of Ropieee (thanks).
Cheers
Very nice work! my compliments!
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First, I think your issues are Windows related. I’ve been running on an old MacBook Pro since Nov 2019. Totally stable and handles multiple streams fine. I’m awaiting delivery on a Leveno M90n and will install ROCK on it. My primary listen place is in another room, so I’m using an RP4 endpoint with USB to DAC.
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I’ve run rock and windows 10 on 2 non Nuc platforms (intel) interchangeably with no issues for either, windows can of course support windows specific drivers for some dacs to get their best performance but it can also support running of extensions, and give more feedback on performance and temps etc going on the system, but I haven’t seen or heard any real difference in performance or sound quality or reliability for that matter.
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It can make a difference depending on the driver you use. For example, with W10 I could use Deivalet’s AIR driver or shut down the driver and let Roon use their own proprietary streaming solution to the hardware.
That certainly made a difference in the sound. I agree that with ROC running on a NUC that all goes away.
I was talking about Roon with Windows 10 or Linux. I got no difference in SQ.
Hello there,
I’ve been using Roon on Linux for a couple of years, on an old Mac mini. I did a basic Ubuntu install and later added the low-latency option. It’s been rock solid. I only reboot it when I update Ubuntu every 3-4 months or so. If you can run it on a dedicated machine and are comfortable with Linux, it’s the way to go.
My current version is Ubuntu 19.10 (GNU/Linux 5.3.0-53-lowlatency x86_64).
LF.
You will be surprised, I don’t run ROCK on a nuc but a fanless prebuilt pc it runs perfectly.
As a person with over 30 years experience in Windows, Linux and Mac (and a few older things), as a general rule Linux is ALWAYS more stable and Mac is pretty close to linux, but you have to weight that up with some other things like how hard is it for YOU to fix it if it goes wrong. Of course there are always exceptions. But there’s a reason why all the world phones, TV’s and critical servers run on linux or BSD (very similar to linux for purpose of this conversation.
However if it’s hard for you to fix that’s going to really bring down your uptime figure if something goes wrong. If you’re technically minded and like to learn new things, linux might be right for you.
For me I’ve only ever Run Roon on linux - that’s about 4 years now I think and nowadays I run it inside docker. I’ve not had one issue.
Hope that answers your question a little more directly, (not intended to be a Windows vs Mac vs Linux discussion, they each have their strengths and weaknesses).
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I have a support ticket open about this minor issue, but it’s something to think about because others also have experienced it: When my NUC was running Roon on Windows 10, it imported every file on my NAS except for one in an atypical file format, but, when I set up ROCK on the same NUC and re-scanned, it couldn’t import about 30 mp3 files that it characterized as “corrupt.” Those files continue to play just fine using JRiver on another Windows computer that uses the same NAS files for its library. When I have had file corruption in the past, the files wouldn’t play, period, so I doubt they are corrupted in any way.
The filenames don’t have forbidden characters on which Linux chokes and, per some advice on this forum, I have tried converting a few from mp3 back to mp3 using DBPoweramp, but I haven’t had success getting ROCK to import them.
It’s not a huge deal because I have a gazillion successfully-imported files, but now a few albums are incomplete.
All things being equal, I would have preferred to keep Windows, but they weren’t: I migrated to ROCK because I had some overheating issues on Windows when I started to oversample everything to DSD256. The importation issues are of concern to me, though, especially since others have had them as well and there’s no clear solution to them.
Mike - see my reply to your support question on your MP3 issue…
I did. Thanks, Geoff.
No, I don’t have a DAC directly connected to the Core.
I have many Roon endpoints, mostly RPis with Ropiee.
The vm with Core is doing just that + Roon Extensions.
Roon server/core on Ubuntu is THE BEST in my opinion…have run ROCK as it’s own stand-alone server, but found it to be more buggy and the sound was not as good as the server on Ubuntu… have not had any problems whatsoever, especially with version 20.04… that is about as bullet-proof an install as your going to get…
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Hi guys here is my experience:
I subscribed to roon by installing the core on a fanless PC purchased on aliexpress (cheap but 8GB RAM, 240 m2 SSD and 512 MB disk) with windows 10 installed.
Roon envinonment appears unstable especially when waking up from sleep.
Roon extensions (deep harmnony and denon / marantz) frequently crashed or died:
First attempt, install UBUNTU, failed after innumerable retryes (I deepened a lot and there seems to be some problems with the PCI chipset), I also tried with Centos but without success (same crash during the installation).
Second attempt, installed a Mac Mini 2012 with Catalina OS SSD (from my office), ok the Roon core on Mac works well, very stable, the extensions are stable but I realized that it is not possible to listen “native DSD” with the my SMSL M500 (from what I understand the “native DSD” is not possible with Mac) and the playback at 768Khz was distorted (384 Khz instead OK)
OK they are not so important problems … but …
Third attempt: I install ROCK on the fanless PC, the installation is very fast, the system seems robust but I realized that extensions cannot be installed on ROCK, fortunately I have a Rasperry PI3 always on, where the home automation runs, fantastic !! I didn’t know that extensions could be installed on another machine in the network !!!
Unfortunately I notice that the fanless pc heats up like a supernova even disabling all the library processes …
After a few minutes it smelled of burning !! 
Final results:
I went back to the fanless PC with Windows 10 with ASIO drivers installed, the roon extensions continue to run on the Rasberry and are robust !!
Thanks everyone, I will let you know!
My suggestions:
Intell NUC with ROCK but if you need extension you will need something like a Raspberry…
I too was running on Windows and hating it, for all the usual reasons. Bought a NUC. Tried installing ROCK- that didn’t go well, despite 20 years’ experience managing Linux servers. So instead installed Ubuntu and then Roon from the package. Never looked back - Roon is solid and unobtrusive, just how it should be.
Do you recall where you were running into problems @Kevin_Holdridge1?
In my case ROCK heat my pc, but I think the problem in the PC itself… too low cost !! 
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Hi Scott. I recall problems with BIOS - the installation wouldn’t recognise the HD. Tried a few tweaks after some online research, but gave up. Went with Ubuntu and it installed first time, no problems.