Roon Nucleus verses Apple Mac Mini M1

I’ve been running Roon on an M1 Mac mini for several weeks now without any issues. Mac Big Sur automatically downloaded and installed Rosetta when I installed Roon which I thought was pretty good. The M1 Mac mini runs much cooler than it’s 2018 predecessor so I’m guessing is more efficient with memory and processor usage.

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Thank you @Eddy_Schouten that is awesome to hear. I have Roon and Plex on a Synology 918+ at the moment. I am moving closer and closer to setting these 2 up on an Apple M1. Great to hear that the 8gb M1 is sufficient. Welcome to the Roon community. too

Hmmm. I have a mid 2011 mac mini, 16GB RAM, 4 TB USB external (85% full/120K tracks), and no problems. I was wondering about the M1 but curious what stopped working on Roon OS for you to have to change?

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Hi Bryan, I am considering this option too as I now have my DAC connected to the 2012 i7 MacMini.
Does the ‘split’ improve sound quality?
Thanks, Wouter

Hi Wouter,

Pretty much everyone agrees that splitting up your Core and Roon app will sound better than running everything on a single machine. What is highly debated is how much “fire power” you need for your core machine. I ran it just fine on a Celeron-based NAS drive for years. The older Mac Mini should be more than enough to handle it unless you run a bunch of zones in different rooms using DSP, etc. But even then I bet it would be fine.

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Agreed with @Bryan_McElhaney, splitting up Core and Roon app will make sound better. It all comes down to your usage and how many files have in your library. If you don’t have a lot of files in your library and you stick with PCM then I think you’ll be fine with Celeron.
I had Celeron-based Core running on Linux and it was fine using DSP for PCMx2 or DSD64, it couldn’t do more than DSD64.

Just do your research and find out what you can get with your budget. If you can get an i-series processor, even an older one … get it.

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Thanks Bryan,
Wouter

My Roon playback is my main music playback. It already improves over a high end CD player with well over 1200 CDs and high res files on an external SSD.

I guess the notion of splitting the Core and endpoint strongly depends on the components used in this type of architecture.
I don’t have much experience with state-of-the-art endpoint streamers but at least in two systems I clearly prefer direct USB connection over having a Raspi 4B (running RooieeeXL or VitOS fed with a decent LPS) as endpoint:
a MacBook Pro running quietly off it’s internal battery (WiFi enabled) and an i5 computer.
In both cases, switching the Raspi 4B into the signal chain (Ethernet/USB) audibly increases the noise level and makes the sound more nervous.
Similar observations, though no in-depth analysis, has been done with Nucleus, see

I admit, though, using higher-end streamers might give a different picture.

So nostalgic… I love the photos… 1.7 layout pics… ah… it’s like curling up in a cozy nook… :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Good article and no reason to disagree with his findings either

Considering M1 MacMini as an endpoint and leaving Core on my 2012 i7 MacMini with SSD

That’s an expensive endpoint. You’re better off the other way around. that 2012 i7, even though it is an i7, is still an old mobile chip. I’m willing to bet the geekbench score on that is quite low. The only problem with the M1 mac is it’s new and you have to use macOS 11 which is also new. so 2 points against the M1. it’ll improve at some point, you’d be an apple guinea pig… but as it stands we are all roon 1.8 guinea pigs.

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A MacBook Pro doesn’t run “quietly” off its battery or when plugged in…they are very noisy computers.

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Well, at least, there’s no noisy switching power supply involved :grinning:

To me, my MBP sounds fine, but I know, there’s the crowd wailing how much better a trimmed-down setup, super quiet, cooled with glacier water from the farthest corners of Greenland sounds :rofl:

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Then again using a good Denafrips DAC via USB.
The i7 just ticks over at around 8-10% CPU.

Laptops and most other computers have internal high-frequency switching power regulators built onto the motherboard. They take the power from the battery and change it to the various voltages required by the various components of the computer. It’s one of the reasons talking about using linear power supplies to power computers is so funny.

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When I think about this: all those highly acclaimed i3/i5/i7, etc. NUC designs for Rock will be noisy, correct? Any ,silent‘ SBCs, like Raspberry Pi, etc. must have voltage regulators as well. So is there any ‚silent‘ design at all?

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Strange topic - comparing a multi-use computer (Mac Mini) to a single-use computer (Nucleus).

I have found the best Roon experience to be having a Core that is just that - a core. Running ROCK, it does nothing else, needs no maintenance and is the very defenition of ‘set it and forget it’.

If you already have a computer/server doing other things such as Plex etc. then adding Roon Core to its duties is a good idea - leveraging hardware you already have saves you money.

But if you are purposely buying a machine that will only ever be a Roon Core, go ROCK if you’re happy to set it up yourself or purchase the Nucleus for a pre-built solution.

Of course the new M1 Mini is more powerful than any NUC. If you want a SFF computer for your desk that will act as your desktop and a Roon core on the side, go for it. But if you want a truly headless machine with no other overhead than Roon Core duties, the money can be better spent elsewhere.