Wow. I don’t post often but this the number one result for the search term “rf choke” on this forum and it’s WAY off base.
Digital signals are not created equal! Morse code is a digital signal and radio operators have been using Ferrite Chokes on morse code antenna cables for over a century. It’s true that rf chokes on some digital signals is a bad idea - primarily between the antenna radio and antenna on something like bluetooth which runs way up above 2 GhZ - most digital signals can pass through.
A lot depends on the interconnect. If you are using a shielded coax cable then the choke just cleans rf from the sheild, not the inner core.
I spec’d out the equivalent of the Nucleus Plus…and some! However, the price difference seems too good to be true. Am I missing something?
Nucleus Plus in Canada is $3,800 (USD is $2,559, exchange rate is absurdly high at 1.48 when 2021 already started at 1.27 steadily declining to 1.21).
Parts list between Amazon and Newegg Canada only totals $1,078 CDN. That’s a $2,722 savings!
Fanless case: Akasa A-NUC45-M1B
Intel NUC: 8th Gen BOXNUC8i7BEH1
RAM: 8G Corsair CMSX8GX4M1A2400C16
Operating drive: 500GB Samsung MZ-N6E500BW
Thermal paste: Corsair CMSX8GX4M1A2400C16
Plus, my time to build, configure, software setup…estimate 5 hours x $100 = $500.
****** Total is still only 41% of the $3,800 Canadian price of the Nucleus Plus. ******
Then, add music storage (which Nucleus Plus doesn’t come included) $480:
4T SSD: Samsung QVO MZ-77Q4T0B/AM
This comes nowhere close to that of the Nucleus Plus price in Canada.
Have I missed something crucial by the audiophile community’s standards within this build? I am perplexed by the tremendous savings if I were to opt for the NUC.
You missed the point of turnkey and it being sold by HiFi dealers. In addition, Nucleus firmware is optimized for fanless operation, and provides home automation features.
Unless you want to reduce the cost as much as possible, for the boot drive I suggest getting a smaller capacity version of NVMe Samsung 970, not 8xx.
In all fairness, I get that the HiFi dealers depend on the margins. However, Roon Nucleus’ wholesale have low markups. Moreover, the disparity of the MSRP in US vs Canada is what I’m contesting. That foreign exchange gains go to Roon, not the dealers.
Turnkey benefits is worthy of a price premium. I’ve already factored my time for setup to attempt to get closer, but nowhere justifiable to the $3,800 MSRP vs $2,559 that our neighbors in the States pay. Shipping, duties, dealer network, and exchange rates still doesn’t explain it. Clearly Roon doesn’t care, it’s greed.
Roon Optimization does update the firmware in the NUC version. Remember, I’m highlighting the insanely the higher Canadian price that Roon has conveniently chosen to ignore.
5 hours of your time? 1 to 2 hours max.
I knew absolutely nothing of computer hardware and assembled a Fanless nuc several years ago when rock was just introduced. Still running perfectly to this day.
It’s all very well documented and even if you go fanless with akasa case you can find info on youtube on how to remove the fan,apply heatpaste and fit the case.
It will save you a lot of money for the same roon experience a nucleus would offer.
Or as an alternative try a Sonic Transporter I5. Even with a 4TB HD you’re looking at $2,100 CD. That’s just slightly more than a home built Rock and is still basically turnkey. Let’s face it, I don’t think Roon started out selling Nuclei to make additional profit off hardware. I think it’s likely more trouble than it’s worth. They sell Nuclei to make it easier for folks to use their software. I’m actually surprised they continue to sell Nuclei considering the proliferation of devices capable of running the Roon core.
If you think a Roon Nucleus is too expensive, don’t buy one. I purchased a Roon Nucleus directly from Roon 18 months ago for US$1119. I did not want to fool with a DIY option. My Nucleus runs 24/7 and has been flawless for 18 months.
Everyone will have his opinion on the subject and probably everyone is right from his point of view.
For my part, I think you can even build your own roon hardware for much cheaper if you like tinkering.
I have built my fanless server with no moving part and completely quite for about 700€ (case excluded: Streacom db4 Cube Aluminium in Silver) based on a stripped version of linux Arch, i5, 16gb RAM, 2tb ssd storage and 250gb ssd for OS.
So here it is, and I am sure you can make even a cheaper build if you wish.
Not really honestly.
I mean, the time I spent building the hardware, and tweeking the software (9 month or more) would justify a much higher price. Though I bet the quality of audio I get from my system rivals, very high end music servers and I am talking about 10k and up high end. And I am not the one giving this evaluation but the audiophiole who comes and listen.
So what does my server cost at the end of the day?
around 1k € including case, but much more if I want to factor the time spent on setting and tweeking.
In brief, if you have time to spare, or if you are patient and wanting to learn and not afraid to break and start all over or if you are curious, then maybe it is the way to go if you cannot afford let say several k $ server.
On the other hand, you can get a NUC if that fit in your system and satisfy your listening experience or get a nucleus or similar if you can afford the price and do not have time or the rest to spare.
At the end of the day, it all depends on your needs and what you can afford.
