I’m not a person who believes cables make much, if any, difference, but I use Audioquest Cinnamon cables, partly because I like the way they look and like uniformity, as crazy as that sounds.
I make most of my own interconnects and power cables but I do have a few purchased cables that cost me something more than I would have spent DIY but not like >$100 a cable. Some pre loved and others new and my take is that as long as you are spending within your means and not forcing others to follow along its all good. rubbish interconnects like those with set top boxes etc I would not use…but I’m not about to spend $500 on a pair of RCA 1M interconnects either…even if I could hear a difference im not sure it would be better, different maybe yes but everyone hears differently too so if you like what you hear and its its within your means - by all means run with it.
I made my own NUC in a Fanless chassis too…is it better than my i7 windows setup…not that I can tell. I make my own speakers to linkwitzlab.com and im happy with what I have in that department too,
I find Roon has allowed me to find more music and play to multiple rooms and devices more easily…there are so many variables in my setup that I can’t honestly say which I prefer the most…but they all play music and that’s what I want to listen to.
I buy/make gear to listen to my music, not buy music to listen to my gear.
Hey Jim, it’s about the same for me. I bought an Audioquest HDMI cable in an attempt to fix what appeared to be an HDCP 2.2 handshake issue between my 205 and the TV. Whatever the problem was it did go away with the new cable. I liked the looks of the Cinnamon cable, the build seems pretty good and I liked the stiffness, plus my problem was resolved. So I replaced the remaining HDMI cables with those. I also prefer the Audioquest RCA interconnects, doubled headed single cable, for convenience and I like the way they look. Uniformity as you say. Doesn’t sound crazy to me.
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HDMI cables are very moody, my Nucleus is directly connected via HDMI to the Denon 4400 and I had to pick up cables, but as a result, 24/192 goes directly and sounds great.
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@Mike_LC just out of curiosity, were the handshake issues on all music files or just HiRez? I had same issues via HDMI on 192/24 on my Oppo 105.
Cables as moody teenagers, I like that.
The Audioquest Cinnamon cables have worked well for me with my Oppo 203 as well as LG TV.
The problem I had initially, which appeared to be the handshake issue, was before Roon and music files.
I was trying to get the OPPO setup for 4K video and the soundtrack. That was when I started using the Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI cables. The problem was gone after replacing the cable.
HDMI can definitely be problematic.
years ago, I needed a longer hdmi cable from my oppo to my tv. I went to best buy and bought a monster cable. it had handshake issues on start up regularly. then a few years later, I bought one on amazon that had really good reviews. it was inexpensive but looked like good quality and it worked great. was a name I never heard of
I went up a few notches with the cables that I just bought and it made a definate difference but probably not enough difference for most people to warrant the cost. I always wanted to see if I would hear the difference and truthfully didnt expect to but I surprisingly did. I will not ever upgrade these cables though. once was enough
one thing that is undeniable is that with the power cords and the power conditioner, the system louder. no denying that
what I dont like is that the power cords are very thick and not flexible… I have to stand the Niagra 1200 next to my stereo cabinet and its not easy to flex the cords to get them to plug in good
James
I am in the same doubt. With my present ROOM installed in a cheap NUC INTEL core I can send via USB to my dac both local library and as well Tidal streaming, no problem.
But the problem is that when listening my local library in my usb DAC from the NUC (to which the local library is connected) the quality is excellent nothing to criticized. But when doing it from TIDAL quality is very bad.
If I do the same, sending to LINN streamer from the NUC, the quality of Tidal is equal to my local library. In all cases witht he same high quality external DAC.
So my question is that, if I buy the NUCLEUS I can get withouth the LINN streamer same quality?. I am not electronic engineer and I wonder if the hardware of the NUC is the one causing problems and if with the Nucleus the streaming will high quality.
The quality of streamers have big variations and the question is:
how good quality have Nucleus as streamer?
I am talking about my system of medium high HIFI quality with a high quality DAC.
Craig
Please could you tell me if your experience of streaming with NUCLEUS gives you same high quality similar to high quality streamers like LINN? Assuming a high external DAC quality.
Hard to say since I can’t compare directly to Linn. I do separate the Nucleus+ from my best DAC (Chord Dave/Blu) which is connected via a network connected Lumin U1 which is a fabulous combo (and separating the Nucleus+ from your streamers is considered best practice to electrically isolate them). However I directly connect my Nucleus to my AV receiver via HDMI do get 5.1 & 7.1 music properly decoded by the AV receiver so in that case it’s a streamer and it works great.
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From my own experience:
Nucleus feeding my Chord M Scaler/TT2 directly wasn’t a match for my Linn Klimax DS/3.
However, a Stack Audio LINK ‘endpoint’ feeding the same DAC is a clear match for the Linn in my system.
I suspect you’ll have the same issues. You are already essentially using a DIY Nucleus. With an OS optimized for audio.
If the problem is only with content you are downloading in streams from the Internet, from the TIDAL servers, I’d suspect the Internet connection somewhere. Which means that other streamers might have the same problems. No matter who makes them.
Thanks for help. But since the quality I get with same Ethernet using LINN streamer is much better, it exclude the problem of ethernet quality.
Craig Thanks for comment and help.
I think that since NUCLEUS, although been able to work as streamer and not only as CORE for ROON OS system, is not sold as streamer, should be to some reasons either in the field of electrical isolation of the DAC or prehaps to some problems of the OS in to Nucleus or NUC to manage the whole thing.
It is not a problem of noise but lower quality.
Electrical isolation is specifically done to prevent noise. Bits are bits, there isn’t any lowered quality bits going over the hdmi output of the nucleus.
From my first-hand experience SQ of my Nucleus+ While acting as the streamer was fairly acceptable.
N+ as a streamer was outperformed by dCS NB and MELCO N1 and since then it’s been used as ROON Core for what it is designed at the first place. Sometimes for the pure matter of convenience I use it to stream Radio stations.
David,
I am hoping you can help me. I have just purchased a Nucleus with no internal memory. I have a old Sooloos Control 15 and a twinstore that I need to replace because it is acting up and it is no longer supported by Sooloos. My plan is to take the data off the Sooloos devices and put them on a storage device that the Nucleus can interface will well. I do have a local network (That is essentially what the SOOLOOS required to communicate between the control 15 and twin store and send the output to my DAC which was connected directly to my Control 15). My question to you is, Is it better to use a DAS to store all of my 4TBs of music on and connect it via USB to the Nucleus, or should I buy a NAS and connect it to my Nucleus. Is one way better than the other? I would like to be able to rip CD"s and add it to my memory file and automatically back up my files.
If you could, which DAS or NAS (Brand and model) would you recommend? I have been considering a QNAP TS-453D-8G 4 bay NAS with four 4TB Seagate IronWolf Pro hard drives. Would this pair well with the Nucleus and be reliable or is this not a good choice. Is this overkill? I could really use your help to make these decision. I bought a Nucleus but I can’t really use it until I get this storage solution solved and transfer my data from the Sooloos to the NAS or DAS.
Thank you for your help.