Morning All, in the process of speccing an Intel NUC. I can go slightly lower in spec to run ROCK headless or go higher spec and run Windows 11 with Roon Server. The later gives me the option to have a large visual display for Roon using the tv and to use it to its full potential as a small form PC.
Can anyone tell me if they have noticed any sonic benefits to running ROCK only or would any quality difference be negligible.
Many Thanks Ian
As listening impressions are always highly subjective, as well as it is common knowledge that all sorts of psychological effects are prone to distort perceptions, you’ll very likely get the full spectrum from ‘night and day’ to ‘no’ difference at all.
You probably knew that anyway, so it’ll rather save you grey hair to follow Roon’s KB article about sound quality.
Following these recommendations will make sure you extract the best possible audio results, then just decide on the core installation that gives you the best usability for your use case.
Good luck and happy listening without symptoms of audio nervosa!
One more thing:
Currently Win 11 isn’t officially supported yet, so that may cause trouble…
Thanks buddy, too true, was more of a general concensus question. Currently run Core on a Windows 10 pc at the other end of the house with no problems. Building the Nuc would allow me to hardwire into my streaming dac and router and eliminate all that WiFi nervosa too 
Running perfectly at the moment, just windows 10 in a new dress! 
No Sq difference between Rock or any other OS, and Roon claims none.
Rock provides an easy to setup appliance.
Since no other software can loaded there are no potential for compatibility issues with other software, like occur with windows.
There is a second way to get the interface on a tv. You can also screen mirror your tablet to a tv via chromecast or apple tv. In that case you can also use rock.
I run my NUC ROCK headless. Just use an iPad or whatever to access ROON. Also use AppleTV with the ROON app to see on the big screen TV.
The one downfall in using Windows/ROON Server on the NUC is those moments Windows requires an update. You can set rules for those updates to happen but it could still cause some inconvenience or performance problems after the fact. IMO, Windows is just bloatware when it comes to using music services.
Thanks for all the input guys, much appreciated. After all the contemplating and price calculations, I think I’m going to get an M1 Mac Mini. Will serve both purposes pc and core while looking lovely and being a nice size to sit in the living room rack. Good for the WAF!
Your concerns on sound quality should be about making sure you’ve chosen a nice Roon Audio Endpoint. Don’t plug the NuC into your DAC. When you don’t plug the NuC into your DAC than the difference do start to come right down to nil.
Of course, DSP, size of library, and other factors will determine what else you can do with the machine while running Roon. But if you want to negate any difference in sound quality just make sure you’re feeding an audio endpoint (via RAAT) and then don’t worry about it.
As long as the windows machine is set to exclusive mode, I didn’t notice sound quality differences.
I think it is definitely a cleaner setup with a ROCK and I don’t have to worry about any Windows weirdness. I have used a ROCK and a windows machine and my preference is to the ROCK - but it is not a major difference between the two.