just received an email about the Roon Nucleus ( sale). After doing some research it appears that is must be hard wired into my router? This would be a deal breaker since my router is my basement. Is there a way to just use wifi to connect it??
It is not recommended to use wifi at all for a Roon Core, that is why it is not offered.
However you could use possibly a USB wifi dongle but again it is not a Roon recommended method for Core connection, which the Nucleus is.
So there would be a good chance for you to suffer a sub par Roon experience which is not what Roon wants.
If you have a very good WiFi connection you can try using a WiFi access point that will convert WiFi to Ethernet. They usually work at around 300mb/s which is more than enough for Roon. So long as you can do it without introducing too much latency it should be transparent to Roon. Another method (which I use) is Ethernet over power. Again not recommended by Roon but if you have good in house wiring and modern high capacity power plugs then it works flawlessly as I can attest.
But as correctly pointed out, the best and the supported way is to make a direct Ethernet connection between your network and Nucleus.
Perhaps you don’t realize that the nucleus is the core and can be in your basement. Near your stereo you then need a roon streamer connected to your DAC. This streamer can be on WI-FI.
4 Likes
Roon (on Nucleus, Mac Mini, NUC, etc.) runs better on Ethernet. Assuming your interior walls aren’t brick or something similar, then any semi-competent electrician can run wire from your basement to anywhere in your house, second stories included.
I agree with the others that this shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The Nucleus’ primary job is to be your music server, and therefore it does not have to be colocated with any of your A/V gear. My ROCK (a DIY Nucleus) is in my network closet right in between my modem and router. It works wonderfully.
The only thing putting it in your AV rack really buys you is the ability to attach a DAC to it and also use it as an endpoint.
My Nucleus is in my office attached to the router. But I don’t use it for an endpoint. All of my music playing areas have Raspberry Pi’s running Ropieee as endpoints. So the Nucleus could be in my garage or on the roof. It doesn’t really matter where it is as long as it is connected to the network.
Not without using a WiFi mesh router that bridges ethernet to WiFi, and even then, we would not recommend that. The Nucleus does not support WiFi in software or hardware.
Additionally, we highly recommend you do not use WiFi as the Roon Core’s only connectivity. While it is possible to do, you will most likely have a poor experience.
2 Likes
Same here, my nucleus is in my garage, I cannot even remember how it looks like :), but I have ethernet cables wired throughout the house.
My Nucleus is connected to a Google WiFi point. Therefore, it is WiFi in my case.
Haha, I didn’t know about the strong recommendation for wired connection. I’ve been running Roon Core on my MacBook Pro for 2 years exclusively on wifi (and my RoPieee endpoint is also on wifi). I haven’t noticed any network issues, but everything is in the same room including the router.
However, it’s about to change next week because I don’t like having to keep my laptop up and running to play music. I will be setting up a NUC running Roon Rock, and this time it will be on Ethernet to my router.
Cool. Let us know how it goes. Good luck.
Why buy a posh looking component and hide it
?
Put loads of RAM in its relatively cheap
I just set up a 10i7 32gb runs like a dream
My Nucleus+ is connected via ethernet to a remote Eero node (mesh wifi) and it works perfectly. The Nucleus has >80K tracks on internal storage and 6K tracks from Tidal - no issues searching or streaming to multiple Sonos endpoints throughout the house.
I have outstanding wifi coverage throughout the house with 750/25Mbps internet at the router and I get at least 175/20 at the end points. That is on an original Eero Pro network. I’m considering upgrading to Eero Pro 6 which could increase that significantly.
1 Like
Yes, just connect the Nuclean to a good WIFI mesh device (node) and you are done. Is that simple?