Nucleus Or Roon ROCK With NUC or Sonic Transporter?

I’m thinking about replacing my aging MacMini with a Roon Nucleus. I’m thinking about replacing my aging MacMini with a Roon Nucleus. It appears that most people find the SQ of Nucleus to be better than from the NUC i3 or i5, correct?

And is Roon any closer to an upgraded model as Danny Dulai has mentioned on another thread somewhere? I can perhaps postpone for a few months or even a year so long as my MacMini holds up which it should hopefully do.

Another question. If a copper case for the Nucleus is too expensive, do you think that my using 3M conductive copper on the inside (and perhaps outside also to the extent possible) of the casing would help with keeping out RFI/EMI, or anything else?

Are the differences between the Nucleus and the more expensive Nucleus+ only relating to the additional processing capabilities and not to SQ? I will have no use for the foreseeable future for DSP and my library is about 4000 CDs burned to a Firewire/MiniUSB drive.

What are the advantages of the Sonic Green Computer sonically or in terms of set-up simplicity or reliability?

Thanks for any insights.

Correct. SQ is not an issue.

Thank you John

There are both users and reviewers who are getting sonic improvements from using a sonicTransporter to repalce a MAC or Windows computer. This is because of the low latency stripped down Linux OS. You would get the same advantage from the Nucleus or even an DIY NUC running ROCK.

What are you using for a DAC? Is it a USB attach DAC? If so you would hear a big sonic improvement using a player over attaching the DAC directly to the USB port on the server.

I send the MacMini’s output via ethernet to the DCS network bridge and from there into a SPDIF only redbook NOS tube DAC. The DCS is the Roon endpoint. The Macmini is the Roon server. I use a Macbook air as laptop. I bridge the ethernet connections in and out of the Macmini, so its output goes directly to the DCS.

Thanks

That’s a great setup. The DCS network bridge is a really nice endpoint.

Yes, it is thanks.

[quote=“agillis, post:4, topic:45054”]

What are the advantages of the Sonic Green Computer sonically or in terms of set-up simplicity or reliability?

There are both users and reviewers who are getting sonic improvements from using a sonicTransporter to repalce a MAC or Windows computer. This is because of the low latency stripped down Linux OS. You would get the same advantage from the Nucleus or even an DIY NUC running ROCK.

But how about the question of SQ comparing Roon Nucleus to Sonic Transporter? Can you discern a difference in SQ between these two?

If you do an “apples to apples” comparison the audio quality is about the same. For this test you would attach a USB DAC to the back of the sonicTransporter, NUC or Roon Nucleus.

If you want to improve the sound quality you need a dedicated network player like a ultraRendu. This is why we sell the sonicTransporter in a bundle with the ultraRendu. With this setup you get both ease of use and great sound quality.