MacMini to Nucleus +

Today Nucleus + arrived .
I directly killed the MacMini and put the Nucleus + @ the same place in the Network
Update to 1.5
Set Audio Zone to Linn Akkurate
Set Audio Storage Locations, Import starts

Listend to some Albums I know well with Tidal

Sound is 10 Times better then anything I ever heard with my stuff .

Nucleus +
Linn Akkurate
Electrocompaniet Nemo Mono (2x)
Kimber XXL
KEF Blade

1 Like

Nice to hear a positive result. Enjoy.

What are the specs of your mac mini? Did you do any mods to it?

Btw, great system!

Older one from Mid 2011
2,7 Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, AMD Radeon HD 6630M
No mods @ all ( mostly bcause lac of knowledge )
Difference in SoftWare and handling Audio to the Nucleus + probably

Before Roon 1,5 I used the optical system out for Audio into the Linn
There has been a step forward with Roon 1,5, without TOSLINK,
I could hear the difference in quality but also a kind of crisp in mid & high tones …
But that was definitely the MacMini Influence

Now, very fine, very balanced, great Stage …

What is the difference in terms of price?

Can I run a web browser on the Nucleus+? I need to have web browser access so I can stream from the Naxos Music Library to my Aqua Formula DAC over USB.

Hi, MacMini fully equipped is around 1600 €, Nucleus + costs in Germany 2600 € …
As far as I can see there is no web browser @ all

Thanks for the reply, Horst. Unfortunately, that rules it out for me unless there is some Nucleus option that is more open. It would be great if Naxos interfaced with Roon but that doesn’t seem like it will happen.

If we lose Tidal, I will fall back on Naxos and Qobuz, once they launch in the US. A Qobuz integration with Roon doesn’t seem likely either.

I would love to improve my sound quality but not at the expense of being able to stream from anywhere. Of course, I guess I could have a Nucleus+ and a Mac Mini connected to my DAC but I need to look at the output options available on the Nucleus+.

Unfortunately it’s probably the absence of any unnecessary services like the webbrowser that makes the nukleus a better sounding system

At some point you have to obey, ROON is what it is, why certain streaming services are available and others not …

I for example choose tidal because of its integration in Roon, not because I preferred it otherwise .

Have fun , rgds. hpb

I wish I knew what caused an improvement in sound quality. My biggest improvement came recently after upgrading my amp and getting a new DAC. Somehow, I don’t think getting rid of the Mac Mini is going to make that big of a change.

Did you switch from TOSLink to USB? A lot of people say that TOdLink is an inferior connection and I never understood why. It’s kind is funny that my high end DAC uses an optical connection between the digital and analog sections.

Sorry that took so long .
Obviously DAC, AMP and LSP are key to what you are listening .

The toslink is often a good way of isolating high frequent digital interference from the rest audio world.
Because of that I use little plugs in between the network cables of each source for galvanic isolation.

Netzwerkisolator MED MI 1005
artistic-fidelity.de/index.php/de/giso-isolator

Also all components are in one place with one switch (ubiquity) and nice network cables (audioquest) and each source (DAC,nucleus+ and the Mac mini as the video source to the TV) has his own network isolator …

But when that is done down to the cable, the experiments with digital music files begins .
My people rejected the LINN SW on the iPad because it was not easy to use, it did not take playlists from iTunes and looked ugly .

So we started with SONOS, connected with Toslink to the LINN DSM, after purchasing ROON we changed the SONOS to a Mac Mini as a ROON Core, also connected via Toslink to the LINN DSM .

Then better USB Cable to the extern USB HDD, better Toslink Cable to the LINN Streamer .

All the time, the hifi system itself was unchanged .
So yes, the nucleus+ made the difference .

So latest, I copied the files from a WD myCloud external to a 4TB SSD inside the nucleus+, that boosted the sound again very much .

Today I tested the ROON DSP, thats sounds very nice, so from today the AIFF/FLAC files @16bit/44,1kHz are served to the LINN DSM @24bit/192kHz .

Have fun, rgds hpb .