Roon Nucleus review in HiFi News

And I wager that only .001% of them would think the Nucleus is for them :slight_smile: itā€™s a niche product at this price - no way is it a mainstream device and I honestly donā€™t think itā€™s meant to be. Iā€™ve got nothing against it as a product. I just canā€™t see myself recommending it to my cash-rich, time-poor friendsā€¦

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For any of my friends that have spent more than $10,000 on their system, I would recommend Nucleus over ROCK+NUC. Except those that work in IT, but I do have civilian friends.

Coincidentally Iā€™m demoing a SuperLumina interconnect and a True Signal one and damn it but the SL is rather impressive, which is what I was hoping I wouldnā€™t think!

.sjb

Wow, I know living in Salisbury canā€™t be cheap but unless they pay their assembly staff Ā£1000 a day those prices are impossible to justify. What are they made from, purest Unobtainiumā€¦?
Must dig out those old DIN cables in the loft, must be worth a fortune.

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When I got the Nucleus last week, I set it up with the Pro-ject Prebox S2 Digital and SupraCable USB and SupraCable Cat8e, using Tidal source for the moment, it sounded very (I usaullly avoid to use this term for computer/ digital audio) analog. My wife came down from the upper etage of our condo and wondered , what vinyl Iā€™m using with so many varouis titel on. Iā€™ve heard a record via Tidal and then let the Nucleus play in Radio modus. A fine thing, by the way :slight_smile:

Best Armin

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I was gobsmacked by how much my old Naim connect cables went for on ebay.

They are relics you understand?

.sjb

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Reading the What HiFi review it says - ā€œThe intention is that the real music library should be stored externally.ā€ To me this goes against the pragmatic simplicity of the Nucleus. I am certainly intending to put a large capacity SSD in mine to store my music and use an external USB drive for back-up. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Why do they say that? Some (limited) internal storage space is available and this may be enough for many with modest music collections. A key point about Roon is its versatility ; it will work with storage wherever it is, internal, USB-external or on a NAS or other computer on your LAN.

There is no need for an SSD to store music, unless you want a completely silent, no moving parts Nucleus, which some might.

Iā€™m with you. I installed an internal SSD, precisely because I want a self contained unit.
And backup to a NAS, and offsite to the cloud.

Folks who know how to repair their cars canā€™t understand why the rest of us pay mechanics. But those of us who canā€™t ā€“ or choose not to ā€“ just want our cars to run. Paying someone else the price of maintenance is assumed.

Similarly those of us who want the best possible music setup we can afford ā€“ but just want to enjoy the music, not tinker with DIY or system maintenance or trouble shooting ā€“ are interested in this product.

A more informed review would be useful. Does anyone know of one? Iā€™ve read Roonā€™s own description of this product. The pros and cons could be more clearly stated.

Can anyone compare the two Roon models and offer pros and cons for that choice? Assume one does not have an unlimited budget. What does one get for buying the higher priced model?

We ā€“ those of us who need help ā€“ used to ask dealers these questions. But the Roon folks are right here, so Iā€™d rather hear from them.

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I have experience with

  1. NUC running Windows
  2. NUC running ROCK (I set this up for my son)
  3. Nucleus

The Windows NUC and the Nucleus had internal SSD, the ROCK machine had an external USB drive. Physically I nstalling the SSD was trivial, slight configuration on Windows, none on Nucleus and (likely) ROCK. In any case, you have to tell Roon where the music is stored, internal, USB, a network share or a NAS.

  1. The Windows machine was easy to install, but (a) it took a lot of clever tinkering to turn it into an appliance that just turns on and stays on. More cleverness two-three years ago than today, perhaps. And (b) you need to continually manage patching. And Ā© you have to deal with the Windows security model. A burden, but also very flexible and general, if you have the expertise and willingness, not terribly difficult, but not an audio appliance. As I have discussed elsewhere, this complexity is mostly due to Windows being a general purpose system; a general Linux system is equally complex, with slightly different trade offs on learning curve vs. control.
  2. The NUC-ROCK box was a little tricky to set up, requires a keyboard and monitor and loading the BIOS, the directions are clear, but you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves. Once set up, it is a fully automatic appliance.
  3. Nucleus: turn it on like an FM tuner.

The trend is clear: a general computer, an appliance once set up, an appliance.

How big a barrier are we talking about? Not huge. I certainly have lots of friends who competently use a computer, and I have some who cannot, and a few (including myself!) who can but do not want to.

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My view is somewhat different. Sure, it costs some money, but less than almost all the DACs discussed in the hifi press.

More fundamentally, it moves us away from the ā€œComputer Audiophileā€ meme. We used to talk about ā€œdigital photographyā€, today nobody does, it is the mainstream, you have to specify ā€œfilm photographyā€ if you are of that persuasion. And you car has dozens of computers, but we donā€™t talk of ā€œComputer Automotiveā€, we donā€™t tinker with the computers. The term ā€œComputer Audiophileā€ is a sign of immaturity, itā€™s obsolete.

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Here is the ā€œtruthā€, and yes itā€™s just a NUC.

I think Hans is wrong.
Or in the immortal words of Bill Clinton, it depends on what the meaning of ā€œisā€ is.

Iā€™m a behaviorist (see B. F. Skinner). I use the black box principle. When identifying what something is, I look at its behavior, its interfaces. I donā€™t take it apart.

A Windows machine, a MacOS machine, a general Linux machine, a ROCK machine and a Nucleus are different, because they have different behavior. They may have been built from related components, but their interesting characteristics are different.

Itā€™s like saying a Porsche Macan is really an Audi Q5, with higher profit margin. No, itā€™s not, not if you drive it. What its components are is not the point.

This is really about levels of abstraction. There was a book recently (and a geriatric American politician) that promoted that the internet is just a series of tubes. On a deep down technical level, this is sorta correct, but on any interesting level of abstraction it is completely wrong. Because the water distribution system, the electrical grid, the natural gas pipes are all just ā€œa series of pipesā€, just like the internet, but that misses the essence of the internet, the generalizability that has made the internet so much more universally powerful, and has created so much more wealth in 25 years, than the other pipes. At the interesting level of abstraction, it is different.

So is the Nucleus.

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Disagree :grinning:

Itā€™s the same motherboard. Period.

The Audi A8 has a Lamborghini V10 engine.
And a totally wrong way of comparing cars as well as computers.

I can even put a NUC inside a Atech case. Very sexy maybe. Still a NUC.

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Iā€™m not buying a motherboard.
Iā€™m buying a device.

When I say the interface, behavior, defines what a device is, the interface is not just the operational interface during playback. The interface includes installation and setup, and it includes servicing. Vastly different.

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The car analogy holds. VW, Skoda, Seat, Audiā€¦ They are all the same to me as a mechanic.
When I go to service them, I forget what they are for all intent and purpose. But to the customer, they reflect their aspirations and outlook and as such, are all different.

The customer buys an Audi, VW, Skoda, Seat and it is what it is for them. They buy the package, the image, the style, The Drive, the prestige or lack of it.
To me, they are all the same and I wouldnā€™t buy any of them.
Do they pay too much? From my POV, yes, but my POV is not relevant. They buy an appliance and are more than satisfied.
The Audi man could buy a Skoda, but he wonā€™t.
Nucleus is an appliance to the purchaser. Thatā€™s it, thatā€™s what they want and they can afford it more than they have the time and expertise for the financially cheaper alternatives.

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I get your point re appliances but disagree with your car analogy. I owned a lovely Octavia for 10 years and would quite happily buy another. I now drive an Audi and a Toyota. :slight_smile:

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Totally off topic, but what car would you recommend/buy?

.sjb

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