sorry if this has been asked before… but any comments on the following?
I have a Nuc8i7beh in an Akasa fanless case, powered by a HDPlex 300W.
This has always been functioning as my Roon core, and situated in my study room. I do my main listening in the lounge, with Roon streamed to an SoTM SMS200Ultra Neo.
Recently, due to working from home, I have been spending more time in the room and have hooked up a DAC to the Nuc Roon Core.
Question: with the Nuc Roon Core in a fanless case + LPS, would it still be preferable NOT to have the Roon core hooked up directly to a DAC (as i have read often times in the forums)? or is it better to have the Nuc Roon Core linked to the network, and have a separate streamer connected to the DAC (despite them all being in the same room)?
I have my opinion considering the streamers we sell, but since you’ve already got everything it’s best for you to do a listening comparison and tell us what you find.
For a long time I used a direct connection of Nucleus + via USB to the DAC. High-quality wires, filters, regen - played well. Lumin U1mini was purchased as the end point. A fantastic increase in sound quality, it’s not for nothing that Roon recommends such a scheme.
thank you, guys!
i gave it a shot. hooked up a PC in the study room (which i was previously using for HQplayer) and ran it as the Roon Core. The NUC ROCK then becomes an endpoint.
not sure if it is placebo, but somehow music sounds better… ha ha ha! not that i mind the placebo effect, especially when i didnt have to spend additional money for it.
that being said… the U1 looks extremely tempting.
The problem is PC’s/NUC’s and even the Nucleus are inherently ‘noisy’, in an electrical sense. They unavoidably ‘inject’ electrical noise into the DAC via USB.
You can mitigate against it, with LPS, USB cables etc, BUT a dedicated endpoint is preferable.
You should get better SQ by using a dedicated endpoint on your network, rather than connecting your NUC directly to a DAC via USB. I speak from experience.
And +1 for the range of Lumin streamers. They’re superb.
Thanks @stevev1 all those videos are helpful indeed. Will be fun to build this. 5 hours was a conservative estimate. I had a concern that my parts list was incomplete particularly with DSP functionalities. But, I think as long as the cpu is i7 then it should work.
I have a 7i5 in an Akasa case and it works a charm. Should only take two to three hours to build - an hour or so to lay everything out, disassemble the NUC and watch the videos again, and another hour or so to assemble - while watching the videos again. Not many talk about i5 cpu’s here, but they are a good medium between lower power usage and computing power. I haven’t done much DSP with mine (don’t like the sound it brings) but when I tried it with the i5, it didn’t break a sweat so i7 should be more than enough for you.
In case it’s helpful, I posted my last minute panic and solution when doing a similar build. There’s also some links in the follow up posts. NUC7 though so perhaps out of date.
Hmmm, now you’re making me wonder whether I did mine right… it’s been awhile so don’t recall the mix of pads/paste. (I do wish one could check the temp via ROCK as going into BIOS is a pain with my setup).
My Nuc (Intel NUC Frost Canyon Tall I7-10710U) is dead silent. And it runs cool. So from my point of view there is no reason to stay away from a NUC because of presumed noise.
I do understand that some people like the simplicity of Nucleus. But I have to say that “building” and installing (just following easy to understand instructions) the NUC was very smooth. Took me less than an hour. And I have never built a computer before.
Yup, agree. I did the same… Ever works at 35C fanless. That said I do not mind tinkering and have no issue if folks pay for the ready and out of the box Solution that is the Nucleaus…that chasis is a thing to behold and must cost a prity penny.
Same thing here - I’ve got a 7i5 NUC that was getting pretty noisy so I stuck it into an Akasa Plato X7D. Turns out it was getting noisy because the cooler and filled with dust, but for £70 the Plato has been a fantastic investment to have completely silent running. Reckon it took me 2 hours tops, an hour of which was trying to work out the sub-optimal Akasa instructions!
As an aside, there’s a company online selling an equivalent NUC in the same Akasa Plato case as a ‘Roon Rock Server’ for almost £900. That is one helluva markup!
Согласен полностью. Не знаю, как обстоят дела с Nucleus, но в Nuc (проверено на двух аппаратах) очень шумные USB выходы. Это особенно стало заметно когда я внедрил в свою систему сабвуфер. Сразу при включении NUС по USB идет низкочастотный сигнал, который вызывает автоматическое пробуждение саба из режима standby. Далее эти низкочастотные искажения достаточно хорошо слышны, особенно без включения музыкального стрима и при увеличении громкости в сабе. Отключаем от усилителя USB кабель - полная тишина. Причем причина именно в выходах USB NUC. Альтернативно в качестве конечной точки по USB пробовал свой рабочий ноутбук HP Elitebook 855 g7 - никаких сторонних искажений. Звучание великолепно. Прирост огромный. Даже не знаю стоит ли добавлять в систему специализированный стример, аля Aurender, Lumin, Melco и т.п. Не верится, что что-то еще может изменится в лучшую сторону, настолько хорошо сейчас играет система. Не уверен, что такой же эффект будет при замене на другой ноут или ПК, но данная модель HP в плане USB выхлопа очень хороша.
I am a UK amateur radio operator and OFCOM Intermediate licence holder. Morse Code is an analog signal, not digital. And no-one uses ferrite chokes on antenna cable. A 1:1 current balun containing a choke may be used at the antenna, or before the shack if reflected RF is an issue, but they aren’t just slapped anywhere willy nilly.
