Oops, apologies…I think these specifics passed me by…I had formed the view that you were more generally sceptical of PSU ‘upgrades’.
Ah, so he used the Meridian via USB and it sounded better than the Hifiberry via Ethernet?
But it doesn’t come with RCA outputs, the Meridian, does it? I was planning to use a DAC that does for my setup. Moneywise, a budget USB DAC would be 200-300 Euros which I would be willing to spend as opposed to the 100 Euros for the Hifiberry, if of course sound quality could be expected to be better.
Hi, you are mixing something up.
The Hifiberry is an addon to the Pi, the Pi works via Ethernet. To use the Pi as an Endpoint you either need a Hifiberry DAC or Digital Output on the device itself, or a USB DAC.
But the Pi is always part of the equasion, since connecting a DAC to the NUC directly is not the best option and a Pi costs next to nothing.
So either:
Pi with Ropieee software and a Hifiberry (or other company) soundboard connected via Ethernet
or
Pi with Ropieee software and USB DAC which is connected via Ethernet
yes the Meridian has anaolg outputs
I am sceptical about aftermarket PSU upgrades, but that’s not too say in some circumstances they are beneficial. 
When you say “not the best option” what do you mean exactly? Of course, none of this is the best option as I have a limited budget. The question is, if you have 200, maybe 300 Euros what would you buy a) Raspberry Pi with Hifiberry as Roon Endpoint to be connected via Ethernet to NUC Core b) a USB-DAC to connect directly to the NUC Core and then stream directly from that. Both variants should be possible in theory, shouldn’t they? I guess you would go for option A
Anyway, I guess at this price level the differences will be magical anyway? As a newbie, I don’t know a lot about the different DAC chips that are used, but I take it that while the HiFiberry one is fine, and good value for money, you can get better ones in low budget DACs such as the Topping or also from Pro-Ject for example.
For example the Pro-Ject DAC Box S2+ has the supposedly superior ESS Sabre ESS9038 chip and costs just 229 Euros. https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/dac-box-s2/ The Hifiberry has a Burr-Brown DAC.
(I feel a little silly going on about this, it’s probably fine either way.)
I was thinking of a limited budget. A Pi is only about 40 Euros, so it really is a budget device. Then you either add a soundboard or USB Dac.
You could also look at other companies that sell soundboards for the Pi , IQaudio issupposed to be good.
Having a seperate Endpoint (Pi) keeps a lot of electrical noise from your audio system and is really cheap.
I personally have this http://www.schiit.com/products/bifrost, plus a Pi with Hifiberry Digi Plus Pro - and am very happy with it. But that would be more than your budget.
I think you could get the Meridian for about 170 Euros and a Pi for 40 and have a very good endpoint. Or a Pi and an onboard DAC, which would be even cheaper - even very good. There are many people out there, that are extremely happy with that solution. It is a great startingpoint. And affordable
You’re right. As many have said here, the best option for a beginner is to look for a budget solution, but good value for money, and then see where that leads him in the future. Alright, so it’s settled then: Raspberry PI + Hifiberry + NUC Core. Total costs: Only a little over 500 Euros.
I will report how things will work, thanks everyone for helping me, this has been great!!
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I like this way of thinking, and in fact I have a DX3 on order to try exactly that. Bear in mind that a Pi is a computer, too, so using it plus an Ethernet link isn’t all that different from just using the USB cable. The real difference is between the S/PDIF method of connecting and the USB connection. There are pros and cons there, but in general connecting via USB seems to me to give you a bit more flexibility (with a modern DAC).
Do you need to worry about electrical noise from the computer transferring over the USB cable? Really depends on your DAC, and how well it isolates the inputs, There’s another Archimago post in which he examines that topic.
Good. Make a decision on what feels right to you. This is the internet, you will never get consensus.
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Haha you are a very wise man
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Another reason why having the nuc in a different room and using a Pi might be a good idea is, the Nuc has a fan. A Pi is silent.
You will enjoy the HiFiBerry, it is a good option. I come from the Squeezebox world and there are very many users with that hardware who are happy with it.
Looking forward to your report.
I’ve got three HifiBerry products all been reliable and sound great. Cant say the same when I had Allo though.
Tim, i have tested the same setup. It was not very difficult setting it up. The Mac mini I use is a 2012 version i7 with SSD. It runs Roon core and further less as possible. The advantage of the DAC of your choice is that it runs 32 bits formats too. However you will find the format rarely. Later I switched to a PS Audio DSD DAC which I found more spatious and round in sound. Take into account that choosing the right interlinks and USB cable should not be underestimated. In the end I had Audioquest Earth interlinks and Coffee USB. Now I changed all for a Devialet Expert Pro 250 which has it all no need for a separate DAC. Have you considered a setup with a QNAP NAS which runs Roon core also? No need for a Mac mini. I have two cores now one on the QNAP and one on the Mac mini. I can run both simultaneously both with the same audiophile quality.
Philip
I found the late 2012 Mac Mini (6,2 variant with quad core i7 processor and 256GB SSD) to be a very capable Roon Server. I ran it bootcamped with Windows 10 and could compare Roon DSP with that of HQ Player. To echo what has been said previously, if you want to use DSP to upsample to the higher sample rates, you are going to need an i7 processor.
A kind of extravagant half-way house between a NUC and a Roon Nucleus is a Sonictransporter i5 running a Linux-based OS (see Small Green Computer) if you want a fanless networked server that ‘just works’ when you need it and doesn’t have the high maintenance of a Windows machine. Disclaimer: This is for the lazy (although I like to dress it up as those who are ‘time poor’) of course, and I’m sure equally good performance can be had from a NUC for less money.
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Lots of good advice here.
I would add that you should consider your goals.
If you want excellent sound with minimal effort (for setup and management), an excellent solution is a Nucleus with an internal SSD, and a good modern DAC like a Chord Qutest. I have found that with a quiet computer like a Nucleus-with-SSD and a modern DAC, there is no sound quality problem with a direct USB connection. If you need to go to another room insert a Sonore MicroRendu.
But it is not inexpensive. “Expensive” in the audio field is very subjective, compared to high-end gear it is reasonable ($5 - 6k), but still, this is not the least expensive.
If you want to reduce cost and are willing to do some DIY stuff, there are options: NUC+ROCK instead of Nucleus, there are lower cost streamers in the Ropiee family.
If you really want to reduce cost and are willing to fight for sound quality and have more management trouble, use your existing PC.
If you want to chase after the ultimate sound quality, there are lots of options. Isolation devices, power supplies, crazy expensive gear.
But I would suggest you don’t mix up those goals.
As for me, I value simplicity/convenience and sound quality, but not bragging rights.
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Lots of good advice indeed! I am happy to announce that I have managed to succeed in Step 1 of the whole process, which was to set up a Roon Core on a NUC. This wasn’t without its challenges (the Bios is a bit different on the NUC 8 than on the older versions which are described on the Roon website), but it did work and while I am writing this, the Core is setting up my library fed from an external SSD and I am able to listen to the music via my Macbook which has been downgraded to just a control. This is of course not the final setup: I am waiting for my HiFiberry DAC to arrive which will then be my output device (after going through Step 2: Setting up the DAC and Ropieee on a Raspberry PI … So keep your fingers crossed
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Good start!
And fantastic news today: They are adding Qobuz!! Much more HiRes than Tidal at this point, so this is a great thing for me and I am starting with this whole endeavor at exactly the right time.