A dealer that carries Nucleus claims that Nucleus has a version of ROCK that cannot be had / downloaded form Roon to be used with NUC.
Further, he claims that is vastly superior version of ROCK and sounds much better.
Is this true? Can a Roon @support chime in?
āFurther, he claims that is vastly superior version of ROCK and sounds much better.ā
Of course he would say that, he is a dealer presumably with a Nucleus to sellā¦? Dealers have a lot to answer for when it comes to spreading BS disguised as fact.
According to the white paper (see last page where it says ābased onā¦ā)
this seems to be right.
Itās different. And Iād bet the Nucleus has no sound of its own at all; itās designed to be a silent computer anywayā¦ 
This is true. The version that runs on Nucleus is customized for Nucleus, just like the version of RoonOS that runs on Mergingās NADAC PLAYER is customized for that hardware and ROCK is customized for suitability with a range of available NUC platforms. Those are the three RoonOS builds out in the world right now.
Some of the stuff that is differentāthe Nucleus Roon OS build has some thermal management stuff to account for it being fanless. It removes some audio devices in Settings->Audio so that ports not exposed on the hardware (like the analog outputs on the NUC inside) arenāt listed. It also identifies itself as a Nucleus, shows Nucleus branding on the configuration screens, etc.
The above is pretty basic stuff, mostly focused on branding, hardware differences that must be accounted for, and delivering a polished product. The implication above is that there is some extra secret sauce for sound quality in the Nucleusās RoonOS build, but not in the other buildsā¦and thatās not true. If things sound different, itās probably because of some other difference.
So, no optimization using Intel provided tools that enhance or otherwise affect the resulting sonic performance of the Nucleus vs. the other two extant offerings you list?
The thermal management stuff on the Nucleuses (what I assume you are referring to) was designed to allow it to operate without a fan, so as to avoid putting mechanical noise into its environment.
Whether or not that stuff has some indirect effect on sound quality via another mechanism is not an area in which we are making any claims.
Iām sure there are other companies that would spin wild stories about sound quality secret sauce if making a product like this, but weāve never really been in the snake oil business, and we know better than to argue with audiophiles about what makes a difference.
Weāve used that (and a ton of additional in-home expertise in operating systems) to make it run cool and to make it run quiet. Who wants a device with a fan in the listening room? Not us.
@brian posted this White Paper we wrote up about Nucleus elsewhere, but you will probably enjoy reading it.
Thanks. Most helpful. Looking forward to all updated manuals, etc. And hoping to hear about the LPS in the not too distant future 
Iām thinking about replacing my aging MacMini with a Roon Nucleus. It appears that most people find the SQ better than from day the NUC i3 or i5, correct? And is Roon any closer to an upgraded model as Danny mentioned above?
And, perhaps another question for Danny please. If making a full copper case for the Nucleus is too expensive, do you think that my using 3M conductive copper on the inside of the casing would help with keeping out RFI/EMI if not cooling?
And finally 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.
Thanks
The content discussed in this thread reads that there is no difference in SQ between the NUC and the Nucleuses.
Hi Brian, is it fair to interpret your response to suggest NUC/ROCK will sound the same as Nucleus? Assuming everything else remains constant in the system/signal chain?
Itās Roon policy to never make any claims for SQ. Totally understandable as they look to cater to everyone and not angry the Debbie Downers that seem to be plentiful around here and in the Internets
I totally agree with that policy. They leave it us to make that decision
sure. but itās challenging to make the decision without actually hearing the products. 
You will have to built the NUC yourself. If you know a dealer, they can let you try a Nucleus.
If you ask these questions on Internet, you will get all kinds of opinions, more often than not based on cliches and beliefs, rather than actual experience
wellā¦iāll take my chances with asking question i suppose. isnāt that what a community is all about?
Iāll try to help as best as I can. Iāve put together a couple of NUC-based Roon servers, but Iāve never tried Nucleus. On the software side, ROCK is a prepackaged Linux-Roon distribution that is easy to manage for people unfamiliar with Linux, and leaves out the Linux stuff that is not needed for a Roon server. Personally, I run Ubuntu Server on my NUC(s) and then install Roon Server, but thatās because Iāve been messing around with Unix and Linux since whenever and when things go wrong Iām happy to use the shell command line to fix them. Where there may be differences is in hardware. Nucleus is engineered to be quiet and to provide a good USB audio output. USB audio is a bit of a mess in that DACs vary in how sensitive they are to stray electrical noise from the USB source. I believe Roon tried to minimize this in Nucleus.
On the other hand, if your NUC or Nucleus is used as a RAAT server over a wired Ethernet network, which is how I use my NUC, the NUC or Nucleus USB out does not matter. What does are your Ethernet Roon endpoints and how well they interface with your chosen DACs. Some DACs are a bit too sensitive to the electrical USB noise from a basic Raspberry Pi endpoint, for instance. My current Ethernet endpoints are very good, but then one uses a definitely-not-cheap Metrum Ambre, and the other a cheaper Allo USBridge but with under-test DAC hardware that is not yet commercially available.
Over time, I have used a Windows desktop, a Windows NUC, a ROCK NUC and now a Nucleus. Each required progressively less management and troubleshooting. With the Nucleus, I have logged on and futzed with it exactly as much as I did with my FM tuner: not at all. No troubleshooting and configuration of the platform. Itās an appliance.
āItās an applianceā doesnāt work well as a sales technique to someone whoās spent half an hour trying to programme his cook top out of demo mode this morning so he could have his pancakes. 
Do you happen to remember your sources for that ? AFAIK, Nuclei are bog-standard Nuc7 boards in really nice cases (thatās expensive to make), sold by people whoāll either set them up and troubleshoot them for you in case of trouble, or help you set them up and help you troubleshoot in case of trouble (something thatās expensive as well).