Are we are reading different documents?
The article goes on to say:
Pretty clear to me.
David, Tyler is right here. The article does give clear and applicable insights on optimizing sound using ROON. There is a lot of misinformation about ways to improve sound quality that are confusing and misleading. We don’t want you to get caught up in that quagmire.
Final insights from me: Follow ROON’s direction. Keep it simple as Tyler suggests. My experience is that NUC + ROCK is great once you get everything arranged.
It’s not possible to do both of these things at the same time. Tyler advocates for connecting a DAC directly to Roon Server, yet Roon Labs recommends “an ethernet cable between your server and output components” for best sound quality.
These approaches are irreconcilable. Roon Labs’ guidance in this case:
Reference: https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/sound-quality-in-one-computer#Overview
I’ll leave it at that.
You do not need 16 or 32gb of ram for ROCK. Even with four zones and DSP on one, 4gb was sufficient, with 8gb being comfortable. Unless you’re running a library of tens of thousands of albums anything beyond 16 is nonsense overkill
2 Likes
I think you are reading too much into the recommendation. The article is really about a PC or laptop, used as a daily driver, running Roon, too. Note the references later in the guide to multiple GPUs, running Google maps, running the Roon GUI etc.
A headless setup such as a fanless NUC running Roon OS or Linux, and a Nucleus are intended to be used directly in the Hi-Fi cabinet. It’s quite acceptible to connect the DAC directly in this scenario.
3 Likes
This confuses me all the way. My situation: dedicated Apple mini M4 USB to DAC. Is that oké or do I actually need bridge? Doing some basic up sampling with ROON to PCM 384.
That’s not how I’m reading this:
Here, I take “fully-featured media server” to mean Roon Server regardless of the underlying hardware or operating system. Yes, Nucleus can be placed in the Hi-Fi cabinet with minimal compromises to sound quality, but Roon’s network audio design provides an easy way to eliminate them entirely. Why not take advantage of that?
I suggest we agree to disagree as I don’t see either of us changing the other’s mind at this point. 
David, I don’t want to argue about what sounds best and, btw, I follow Roon’s advice (and yours) and keep my NUC as a server while using two separate Roon Ready streamers as endpoints. However, I can have both at the same time by connecting the NUC directly to my integrated amp (w/DAC) via USB, therefore adding another zone. I actually did this for a while and couldn’t find any difference in sound (maybe because my NUC is very silent and I don’t use much DSP), although functionality was superior when using the integrated streamer as endpoint.
1 Like
I know! 
I wasn’t seeking to change your mind. Just putting a different interpretation out there.
1 Like
If you’re both interpreting the text that differently, perhaps is wasn’t clearly written in the first place. [moderated]
It’s not superior, it’s inferior - the NUCs are noisy as hell. You would be better having it nowhere near the listening space and using a quiet endpoint.
2 Likes
It’s written pretty clearly to me…
1 Like
Not in my experience…my tall i3 NUC is not audible at my listening position. I would certainly agree with you if my NUC was noisy. IMO, a noisy NUC would be a short version running an i7 on Windows…running ROCK with an i3 and the tall chassis has been no issue for me. To be fair, my NUC is 10’+ away and tucked on the back of a shelf.
I think it depends upon which generation of NUC you used.
I have a NUC11TNHi7 which was totally silent, or at least so quite that I never noticed it when running RoonOS (apart, admittedly, from the initial local library analysis which worked the processor hard for a comparatively long time). I ran this ROCK/NUC in my listening room for more than a year.
During normal operation of Roon, and even when scanning the local library for new content, the processor was not running hard enough for long enough to cause the fan to run to any audible extent.
At the beginning of this year, I did move my NUC into a silent case because, 11 months ago, I changed to use DietPi instead of RoonOS and started running other activities on the NUC which did occasionally cause the fan to become audible (and I prefer the aesthetics of the new case as well).
Caviat 1: I don’t use DSD streaming and so the stream DSP (MUSE) that I use does not stress the processor in the least - even with 2 or 3 independent streams running.
Caviat 2: My library is small (~1000 albums mostly local) by the standards of many on this forum so local library (re) analysis typically does not take very long. Subsequent to the initial analysis, I set background analysis to ‘throttled’.
1 Like
Sorry should be @Beanoir
My NUC 10i7 ( tall form with 4Tb SSD Internal Drive) sits on my desk directly under my main monitor where I spend at least 3 hrs a day, other than an odd whir when it does something, it’s silent
If yours is noisy something is not right.
Have you cleaned the fan , they get noisy as they get dusty ??
I guess a straw pole of NUC users would agree….
On first reading, I thought @Beanoir was referring to physical noise, which is not the case with an 8th generation NUC in normal use, so I’m thinking the comment is about electrical noise.
But that’s a discusion for another thread or may be started by replying as a linked (the top-left button in the editor.)
I also took the comment to be about physical noise because of the part about putting the NUC ‘nowhere near the listening space’.
Maybe @Beanoir should reply with a clarification.
1 Like
I’ve always interpreted the article about separate server and output devices as being relevant to physical noise that comes from PCs (fan and/or HDD). I run a physically silent server and have noticed no sound quality differences between direct and networked output.
1 Like
Who’s asking?
Just want to offer that if you aren’t DSP-crazy, there’s an incredible deal these days on a GMKtec box ($137 currently including SSD & 12GB very fast memory) which trounces my old 7i5 NUC, mostly due to that crazy fast memory. Easiest build I’ve ever done…. (Actually no build)
Check it out:
3 Likes