I too am rather surprised at the pricing, especially the Nucleus+ at USD2000. For comparison, I’m looking at the Cirrus7 Nimbus v2 configured as follows: Intel i7-7700T, Extreme Cooling Edition (more passive-cooling fins, I think, given that the i7-7700T has 35W TDP), 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz RAM, Samsung M.2 850 EVO 120 GB SSD (for the OS and, say, Roon), Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB SSD (for the music itself). This prices out at 1525.00 Euros, including 243.49 Euros VAT. If a buyer is in the US (ie, outside the EU), one hopes the VAT would be dropped, yielding 1281.51 Euros, or about USD1435.00. Of course, there’s shipping, and there might be customs duties. But even with those latter two, the Nucleus+ seems dear.
I should add that I already have a Roon perpetual license. But Danny says that the Nucleus+ does not include a license, so I am looking simply at USD2000 for the Nucleus+ versus USD1435 (plus shipping and duties).
For me, there are several big question marks. 1) Shipping and duties, as noted. 2) Quality of the Nucleus+ power supply (contribution to a quiet audio environment). 3) Quality of the heat dissipation in the Nucleus+ versus heat dissipation in the Cirrus7: The CPUs would consume a fair amount of power. (What’s the CPU that the Nucleus+ uses, and therefore what is the TDP?)
Send me $1000 and I’ll build the same i7 for you and still have a $200 profit and that’s without bulk pricing on the parts. More uber expensive stuff, that doesn’t have to be. Sorry, Roon software guys.
Direct sales is very different from a dealer network system, (or a one of private sale). The store where you try and buy this needs it’s profit too and these won’t be high sales products.
There is no need or profit for Roon to compete with budget options, cheap solutions are already possible with the software and almost any system you choose. You just have to install Roon yourself.
I’m not criticising the pricing, as I don’t know the process behind it. However, I’m guessing some of the folks who bought NUCs in advance will breathe a sigh of relief that the ‘surprise’ ROCK offering does not really compete in the same general price area.
That case with the Roon logo on it is WAY sexy. Make the logo light up (or, better yet, make it move like it does on the waiting screen), and I might consider upgrading from my fanless NUC.
Great news about the sooner-than-later release date for ROCK! Best of luck to the Nucleus! If it goes well, I hope you guys consider end-points.
As to the price, I think it is very fair, given all the margins and costs at play for RoonLabs.
Can’t wait to see the Nucleus at this year’s RMAF!!!
Why gripe about the price (and I appreciate it’s not all griping) when you could instead applaud Roon that although they have a hardware offering at a price point you are not happy with that they still provide the software (FREE) for you to roll your own.
I think this is exceptional and needs to be noted and appreciated.
Well done Roon, I feel more a part of a the Roon community today than I ever have and there does indeed seem to be a strong community element and long may it continue.
The thing that i hope changes is the requirement that an internal HD be wiped clean and music manually copied. I already have an HD filled to use with ROCK.
If there is any other good thing about this hardware announcement is that ROCK may develop into full blown Linux Roon Server and all it’s capabilities. Previously, the premise is to just have ROCK with basic features for easy installs.
I’m afraid this is a misconception of ROCK and Roon Server. An installation of ROCK (or Roon OS) will run exactly the same full-featured Linux Roon Server as any other Linux installation (or Windows or Mac).
The limitations of ROCK are all to do with running anything else except Roon. It is a specialised operating system designed to run only Roon Server and a limited number of ancillary programs.
Hopefully only a “timing of announcement” thing rather than technical? Anyway will await your further pronouncement with baited breath, and some trepidation
