Linear Power supply for ROCK

I had Roon Rock on a Nuc i3, HDD (rev 7) and added a Sbooster PS (300 Euros) and honestly I couldn’t recommend the Rock on a Nuc you others without getting a good power supply.

Posting the brand and model number would be nice.

Was your DAC connected directly to your Nuc or were you streaming via ethernet or wifi?

No wifi, ethernet only. My config:

Router/Modem --> Lan cable --> Nuc Rock (bridged nics) --> Lan cable --> SoTM SMS 200 --> USB cable --> Dac

I don’t stream. I only play (local) music on the Nuc Rock HDD

There are many LPS options in that price range from China. Which did you buy?

Considering there’s LAN cable on both sides of this, I’m wondering just what difference the LPS could be making. I just don’t know enough about this stuff. I wouldn’t think the NUC would be doing any processing on the bits in this configuration, it’s just doing bit twiddling, right? What diff would the power supply make?

Instead of my usual Allo DigiOne on the network for stereo listening (where a good LPS does make a difference), I use the HDMI output of my Roon Core NUC when I want to hear discrete 5.1 surround. So I’m interested in the OP’s experience.

I am also skeptical about this. I understand that if a DAC is directly connected to the Nuc via usb then there is an electrical connection and the Nuc power supply could affect DAC performance. Of course there are all sorts of USB decrapifiers that are meant to counteract this and DAC’s with good usb inputs shouldn’t be affected much by the computer’s noisy signal. I don’t know how ethernet cables work as far as galvanic isolation goes but if they go back to a router powered by a smps that would negate the improvement a linear power supply would provide no? And what about Wifi? If one uses a wireless connection then there should be no difference between what kind of power supply the Nuc and router use right?

To be honest I have no interest in any of the technicalities and my post was placed purely on my audible experience, for me my ears and the emotional experience of music are more important than any technical rational. Why a linear supply should have any benefit or not can only be explained by people who have a lot more technical expertise than myself, however it is interesting to note the development of some of the upmarket streamers is based on better linear ‘medical grade’ supplies.

The unit I bought had the eBay item number 122130576557 for those who may be interested.

Julian

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Just confirm in my system the connection between Roon Rock and Develiat is via USB. I have tried Develiat Air via Ethernet but prefer the sound of USB.

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good morning Roon Lovers!
I just ordered a NUC i3 to build my own Roon server.
That will be the above mentioned i3, a 64g B SSD, 8GB RAM and Akasa Plato case.
I also have a couple of LPS which I am not using and I was wondering if any of those can work with the NUC:

  • Teradak 12V/12A
  • Keces DC 116 12V/6A

Would any of these work with the NUC? Or am I going to damage it?
Thanks in advance for any advice
Ale

Nuc is 19v, 16v might work but 12v is too low.

12Vdc is fine, at 5Amps minimum, to cover all use cases…

Thanks both for the advice, I will use my 12V/6A then

@dabassgoesboomboom it is mainly “your fault” if I decided to build a roon server ;-).
I was very impressed by the pictures you posted

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Good for you if it works with 12V/6A! I have a spare 12V/5A and it was not powerful enough to power my NUC.

It worked OK for me. But I ran off lead acid gel batteries so there was a much higher current capability if the NUC required it. That was a gen 5 i5 so obviously its power demands were lower than a later i7.

That seems very odd if a 12V 5A cant drive a NUC.

I measured my NUC7i5 it has M.2 SSD for ROCK OS and second SSD for music.

This is with regular 44.1/16 no DSP

19Vdc average 0.57A (10.83W) and peak 1.5A
15Vdc average 0.69A (10.35W) and peak 2.1A
12Vdc average 0.81A (9.72W) and peak 2.8A

Average is during play to Roon endpoint. Peak was during start up.

I have not measured amp usage during a scan for example but if all cores are being used during a library scan I suppose we can see constant use high as peak is in my test.

Thanks all
Would I be on the safer side with 12v/12a?

If the bulk of your music has been analysed then it shouldn’t matter. If it doesn’t work you can always try the bigger supply but to be honest just choose the one you think is best based on sound and convenience.

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All good with 12v 6A so far.
I tried to stress the cpu by playing 4 zones simoultanously, converting MQA and powering an external drive at the same time and the NUC kept working smoothly.
I am very satisfied :slight_smile:

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