Good evening! I’ve been looking to get into Roon for a bit with my ever expanding HD FLAC library. My biggest hold off has always been mentally trying to piece together the proper way to put a system together. Obviously when you purchase 24/192 content, you want to hear it proper and unmodified. The point of this post is, I’m still confused about a setup, but want to start a subscription with the black Friday special. Maybe someone can give me some advice on how to get the full resolution from my files with my equipment? All help is appreciated. …and here we go…
I have a QNAP TS-364 that houses all my music.
I have a Intel NUC with windows 10 that I could reimage to ROCK.
I have a Denon X4700 to play music ( roon tested, not ready).
To get the absolute best sound quality, should I install the ROON core on the QNAP and use the HDMI to the receiver?
Should I wipe the NUC and run ROCK with an HDMI out to the receiver? And map the music back to the QNAP?
Should I do the Core on the QNAP and make the NUC (Windows 10) as an endpoint and output HDMI?
I don’t want to purchase an endpoint when all these units sit on the same shelf of my entertainment center and can be connected with a 1ft HDMI cable.
I apologize as much of this has been asked before (I’ve spent hours rolling through the forum) but I never saw the quality/resolution rates and most threads were closed for comment.
@MikeS54, welcome to the community. Just a fellow user here, I don’t work for Roon, but based on your options, the QNAP NAS Celeron CPU does not meet the minimum specifications for a Roon Core as listed here:
However, it definitely can be used as a storage location for your library. What generation is your NUC and what is the CPU, RAM, and storage? That probably is the better solution for a Core based on the information you listed.
Your NUC is one that is supported for a ROCK solution, and your SSD is more than sufficient for the Roon database. My only possible recommendation is to increase the NUC’s RAM to 16 GB given that you want to play primarily high bitrate files, but this is not a definite requirement and also depends on how large your library is (even though the library may stay on the NAS).
Definitely repurpose the NUC to ROCK, then the NAS as storage , The NUC is small enough to hide on a media rack, then try HDMI from NUC to amp
The amp has only optical or coax Not USB which would have been preferable so HDMI it would have to be, The HDMI Settings show in Settings > Audio just Enable
Many users swear by Roon on a NAS , more have problems, if you have the NUC without spending then this route is preferred. A NAS design normally has a lower spec CPU than Roon needs, it may struggle whereas the 8i5 will be fine. The Nucleus uses either 8i3 or 8i7 so you are in between
Check the ROCK install guide in the KB the legacy boot requirement just changed , I believe you need to enable UEFI , I am not sure the instructions have changed yet
Thanks for all the great advice! Guess I better get started on the ROCK install. Can’t wait to try ROON. Because HEOS and DTS Play Fi are not that great.
The NUC8I5BEH you have would be the best option with the 2.3 base processor frequency.
Installing Rock on the NUC would be the way to go. All updates for OS and music server/software would be provided by Roon and take Windows/updates out of the equation.
Using the HDMI connection would allow playback of 192/24 files on the Denon X4700 and multi-channel material as well if that is of any interest to you.
I have the Denon X8500H with HDMI connection to a NUC8I7BEH and used that as my primary playback setup for several years until I got a 8 channel DAC for multi-channel DSD and PCM playback. NUC/Rock HDMI will not allow DSD playback.
I still use the NUC/Denon/HDMI setup for simulated MC playback of Stereo files and casual listening.
Until you try Roon, you should hold off going the full ROCK route and instead install Roon on your WIN10 OS. Why go to a lot of trouble until you’ve tried/tested Roon out?
Thanks for the reply! I like to tinker and mess with things and really dont have any other use for the NUC now. Plus, the $2 for 3 months black friday special was an easy decision to try it.
So I have the NUC all configured and my library is imported. The NUC is connected with HDMI to the receiver though the only option I have is Airplay for the receiver. No HDMI audio out option. Would I be missing a codec on this NUC?
OK, that is different from mine. Don’t know why. If possible try connecting the HDMI from the NUC to an HDMI monitor or TV temporarily , you should see the NUC boot screen information.
Thanks for the reply! Yes, i see the NUC screen on HDMI 2 of the receiver. I leave the receiver on that input, enable the HDA Intel PCH, but get no audio through the receiver. Ill try turning off the onboard audio in the BIOS and see if that forces HDMI.
