@909 I think it’s also worth mentioning that if (IF) you plan to dabble in DSP related options that a beefier CPU (i7) is desirable with more cores. Operations like DSD up/down sampling and convolution will tax most even i7 but the i7 will cope best.
Importing a new library will also use more cores if you want things to complete faster.
If you library if going to be large then opt for more memory (16GB if good) and i7.
lots to digest.
Hmm – that gives me some food for thought. And I read some more about this here: 8th Generation NUC’s announced
Bottom line: The NUC8 is better in terms of performance than the NUC7, with the NUC8 i3 even rivaling the NUC7 i7. AND the NUC8 is, in the current market, less expensive than the NUC7. Now that’s very tempting indeed. On the other hand, none of the NUC8 machines are currently officially supported by Roon. While many people do in fact run Roon on a NUC8 machine, you are thus on your own if something goes wrong – a considerable downside for a newbie like me. Also, with reference to what wizardofoz has written, I do not actually need a top performing NUC. My library is 30.000 tracks, with very HiRes, the idea being that I will take most if not all superior quality material from Tidal. DSD is thus not in the picture, only MQA unfolding.
Still undecided …
You have got a system up and running on your Mac?
Maybe buy the player end and ponder the server end.
I am sorry, you lost me there 
Not sure what you mean. I do have Roon running on my Macbook at this time. The idea is to use a different computer as the core, so that I don’t need to have my Macbook running (and, ideally, Ethernet connected) whenever I want to listen to music. I don’t want to go two stairs up (where my home office is), wake the Macbook from sleep, and then go downstairs again to listen to music. I want to come home, hit a button on my iPhone or iPad, and the music will start.
Does that clear things up or what am I missing?
P.S. Funny thing: When I first wanted to post this, the software wouldn’t let me, claiming I had posted to many replies on my first day on the forum. Fair enough, I guess us newbies should restrict ourselves and let the experts talk …
It’s a “feature” of the Discourse Forum software, used on this site. It should get out of the way fairly soon.
You have now progressed from a “Level 0 New User” to a “Level 1 Basic User” Tim, so shouldn’t have a problem any more. PM me or any other Mod if you do.
It’s more an anti-spam measure than a suppression of the youth of today.
On the bright side though, with some diligence and application you could soon graduate to a “Level 5 Crushing Bore”, like the rest of us 
.
Ged shared a good plan. About the Pi though:
Secondly use ropieee as the roon OS. I did one last night it took ten minutes or so.
Agreed, unless you want to use the Pi for other things. If it’s going to do double-duty (Home Assistant, Pi Hole, AirPlay endpoint) DietPi will allow you to install other software. Personally, even with a NAS, I have one Pi endpoint running each OS to cover both use-cases.
Enjoy your new Roon setup!
What I meant was; as you seemed a little unsure of what to replace the Mac with, get started on the streamer part of your plans and set that up. That will give you a little time, whilst still moving forward, to think about a server.
antipodes audio dx v3 is my server
Oh, thanks a lot Andrew! I am humbled to have graduated to a new level! Will certainly work on further improvement, like the rest of us …
You do have a point there. Maybe I will do that after all, can’t hurt to do some testing and weighing my options while I do. And from what I am reading it should not be a problem migrating the core from the Macbook to a NUC later. (As a side note, it just pains me to think how ugly my Macbook will look next to the loudspeakers with the former, thanks to Apple, plugged into the Ethernet by a double-dongle (Ethernet – Thunderbolt 2 --> Thunderbolt 2 --> USB-C.)
One more question about the HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro: I saw this review by Hans Beekhuyzen about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps-X4ipA_fY
He seems to be really horrified by the sound quality UNLESS you use it with a linear power supply which, if I understand correctly will a) cost something like 200 Euros and b) will require some messing with the board which, according to Hans, is not something he’d recommend for beginners. Now I am a little concerned of course, although I did not find any other negative review of the Hifiberry anywhere else on the web. So the questions are:
For me, if the DIY part becomes both complicated and expensive, I might be better off with the Bluesound Node 2i, which would also add considerable versatility.
(Sorry if I come across a little erratic, I just want to make a good decision here … ). Your help is appreciated immensely!
I haven’t heard any negative views of the hifi berry.
If you have doubts there are other hats such as the Allo DAC which I have.
Thinking on your ugly ethernet chain ***WARNING Caveat Alert **** if your wireless is fast you can get away with running your core wirelessly. Especially if the music files are local to the server.
There’s this review by Archimago in which he comments on the Beekhuyzen review:
Looking around the internet, I see this video review from Hans Beekhuyzen for the DAC+ Pro. He claims the sound was poor without the use of a linear power supply (starting at 2:50 - " Not the sound I expected… Not by a long shot… I don’t want to review stuff at this low a level… ")!? Hmmm… Unless there has been a change in the board revision (mine says “HW 2.2” on the board), or he used some remarkably poor switching power supply, I see no evidence of a problem personally. Maybe he should take a moment and use the testing equipment in the background of the video and see what he finds… IMO, there’s no reason to bring up questionable pet theories like the “water organ” analogy and claims of “voltage of the power supply not constant” as the rationale for vague subjective impressions. What evidence is there to support the claim of “stunning” improvement such that he’s suddenly “enthusiastic” to compose a review!?
Frankly, I have yet to see anything truly useful in a Hans Beekhuyzen video.
Empty wallets? Not sure I understand the reasoning there, @thyname. If one were to educate oneself about the topic, and then base purchases on an understanding of the basics and actual measurements of actual hardware, wouldn’t one tend to have a fatter wallet than someone in some perpetual state of uncertainty about what works and persisted in wasting their money purchasing everything under the sun in some superstitious attempt to avoid out-of-date audio shibboleths?
Archimago seems to me to be doing a positive favor to the digital audio community. Not sure what you have against him? But that’s OK. Don’t really want to know about that.
Like @ged_hickman1 I haven’t heard any negative comments about the HiFiBerry products on this forum. FWIW I use the IQAudio product line and am very happy with them - won’t claim it’s any better/worse/different to HiFiBerry. I did find that an iFi IPower brought a worthwhile improvement to the sound from the DAC (no diy required) but I only used it as I had it spare (and I can hear @Martin_Webster groaning at the possibility in any case ).
My thoughts would be that the less you spend now, the more you can treat it all as a tentative experiment with digital audio/Roon, allowing you to make more personally informed choices later down the road if you wish.
Thanks you all for helping me with my little HiFiBerry problem. I am now inclined to believe that Hans is overstating his case, with so many people being perfectly happy with their Hifiberries and the standard power supply and with Archimago’s positive reviews, which seems to be much more solidly grounded in data than Hans’. So the Hifiberry is back in the game …
If you allow just one more detour before I finally make up my mind and buy something:
I understand that for optimal sound quality, it is best to separate the core and the output and it is also best to connect core and output via ethernet. Like I would have with my NUC-Core + HiFiberry. However, it is also possible, and practiced by a lot of people, to connect a USB-DAC directly to the core and then play from there (right?). I wonder: If said USB-DAC would be better in sound quality than the HiFiBerry, would this difference then not be more substantial than the difference between Ethernet and USB wiring? To be specific, how about a setup in which I connect a Topping DX3 Pro DAC directly to the NUC.
Here is where they sing that particular DAC’s praises: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-topping-dx3pro-dac-and-headphone-amp.4967/
And it is only 200 Euro, so not much of a price difference between this and the HiFiberry solution.
What do you think?
I think a lot of the differences are overblown. There are far too many aesthetes in HiFi with too much money and time. So have a go.
I had mentioned the Meridion Explorer2 USB DAC before, the friend that has that now was using a Hifiberry DAC and that was perfectly fine. But the Meridian really made a difference. Not night and day, but audible.
He is much happier with his choice now, but the Hifiberry was good. It all depends on what you want to spend.
I nearly have a 100.000 tracks also many hires and the i3 Nuc works perfectly. So unless you want to upsample like crazy, I guess you could easily buy the cheaper Nuc and spend more on a Dac
Misrepresentation alert! 
IIRC my comments elsewhere relate to the Allo DigiOne feeding a high quality DAC; in my experience PSU noise was not an issue on the input (and this has been verified with measurements elsewhere.)
Whether the iPower improves the performance of a DAC hat is moot. I never tried that combination.
I agree.