Roon Rock on a NUC used a a streamer?

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
1

Hi All,

I use Roon Rock on a NUC i5 icw a Lumin U2 streamer and a Copland DAC. I works all flawlessly and I like it very much. So much, that a good friend of me considers to also start with Roon. He chose in the past a different path in ‘digital music’ (XXHighend on a dedicated PC and DAC), so he has to pay a lot to get on the new digital track. He asked me on a certain moment: ‘can a Roon Nucleus One be used as a streamer?’ I answered that by my nowledge that was not the case. But he showed me an article from Steve Huff, who used a Nucleus as a streamer… So I was confused.
Okay, with a Nucleus one could indeed stream and with good results according the article. Even better than his Innuos Zen Mini MKII streamer…
So new questions:

  • Would it also be better than streaming with a Lumin U2, which is in a considerly higher streamer league
  • Can a Nucleus One also be used as a streamer?
  • Can my NUC with Roon Rock also be used as a streamer??? And if so, how, and will it be of a good sq, thus at least as good as my Lumin U2?
    Best regards,
    Henk-Willem
2

Using a NUC11 i5 as a streamer to my Dan D’agostino progression integrated for over a year. Compared it to Lumin and Auralic streamers I couldn’t hear any difference. Nuc was €600.
NUC never failed on Roon whilst servers in Windows and Mac are much more unstable.

3

OK. My thoughts

This question will get lots of different answers and oppinions. I can’t comment from experience (I have never owned a Lumin device) but I suspect that, with a DAC with a modern USB architecture, there will not be a significant difference - at least when USB is used to connect the DAC.

However, the recommended use is to separate the server and streamer using a network connection. In this respect, a Roon Server connected to a Roon Ready network streamer like the Lumin U2 conforms more closely to the recomended setup - at least for stereo. Multi-channel has fewer options available.

Of course, the Lumin U2 also has a wider set of options for connecting to a DAC (Coax or optical sp/dif, AES etc). If these connection methods are important to you, the Nucleus One (or any RoonOS device) will not be an option.

Yes. It can act as a Roon Server (obviously), a Roon Endpoint (streamer) or both at the same time.
To use the Nucleus One as a streamer you will only need to connect a DAC (or a [pre-]amp with integrated DAC) via:

  • USB (The DAC should support USB Audio Class 2)
  • HDMI (audio only) - also supports multi-channel audio when connected to an AVR.

Everything that I have said above in relation to the Nucleus One applies equally to a NUC running RoonOS (as installed using ROCK). Such a device can be used as a streamer using a USB or HDMI connected DAC subject to the same caviats.

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I use a NUC (10th generation) and have two roon ready streamers. I use mainly the streamers as end points because of features that come with roon integration but soundwise the NUC (over USB) works just fine. Sometimes I connect to it a USB dongle DAC/AMP and works really well with headphones.

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Interesting set of questions!

The obvious ones first:
Nucleus (or ROCK devices) can absolutely be used as a streamer. They are both library managers and manager of audio endpoints connected to the device, either physically (USB, built in) or logically (avalable on the network, RAAT devices, Sonoms, Bluesound etc)

With that one out of the way, the more difficult one is whether it’s better to use a dedicated streamer or go directly.
Both methods have their Pro’s and Cons (of hitch hiking… sorry, i digress… :nerd_face:)

I have gone through a few myself, Auralic Aries (Femto), Aries G1, Aries G2.1, Lumin U1 Mini, various raspberry Pi’s and the best streamer in my experience so far is the IAN Canada based TransportPi AES (with FiFoPi Q7, Accusilicon clocks and a PurePi II as power supply).

I have, however, never been able to make an USB connection sound as good as these SPDIF (incl AES/EBU) prioritized transports. And i have previously discarded those due to wanting to play untranscoded content from my librar. But, most modern DACs accept DSD over SPDIF (as DoP) so everything in my lib (except for a few audiophile fine recordings of crap music) plays fine and sounds the best the ever have in my setup.
No matter what DAC i use, from Topping E50 to Nagra HD DAC+Power supply…

And to my ears, the transports make a bigger and fundamental difference, whereas DAC’s just do their thing and sound very similar (given a hygiene level of engineering)

Basically, audio designers are retards when it comes to networking, since many needs cables in the €5.000-class or switches in the same price league to sound their best.
I call… …a pile of crap…

6

Yes for Roon. Other streamers will have other software to connect to other streaming services besides Roon. Apple Music, Amazon Music, Calm, Deezer, etc. If that makes a difference to your decision.

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Hi All,

sorry I was off-line for some days.
Thanks a lot for your answers.
So Roon on my NUC can be used for streaming.
I’ll give it a try, so my ears can decide which solution sounds best: with the Lumin U2 or stand-alone… I secretly really hope the Lumin sounds better, because of the price I paid for this beautiful apparatus, but than again: less gear is not that bad…
I assume that my Qobuz-account can still be used without using the Lumin streamer, since it is in the settings of Roon?
Than remains 1 question:
How must I have to make re-arrangements in the settings of Roon to use it as a streamer? (aside from the obvious thing: to connect the NUC directly via USB to my (not Roon-ready) Copland DAC)

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You don’t have to do anything. The Nucleus should show as one Zone, just as your lumin does. And you operate Roon in exactly the same manner with your remotes (phone, tablet, computer). My guess is that you may find slight differences in sound, if any, nothing night and day. Good luck.

9

Agree with @Vitor_Goncalves here. Any Roon Core machine will show up in Roon as a Zone, and is therefore a streamer. Not sure - you may have to have a DAC connected to it for it to show up. It’s up to you if you think a dedicated streamer will make a difference in your system.

Note - nothing special in this regard about a Nucleus or a NUC. Any machine that will run the Roon server software will do. Nothing special here about ROCK, for that matter. Any OS that will run the Roon server software will do. Having said that, I like ROCK because I never have to worry about security updates etc. Roon handles that behind the scenes. I’m running ROCK on a (non-NUC) micro fanless PC I got for cheap refurbished. Not a single bit of trouble for a long time.

If you want a Core system that Roon will support, of course, you’ll need a Nucleus or one of the NUCs on their list. Anyway, you’ve got lots of options here and other people in the community have shared their experiences with the various approaches. Good luck!

1 Like
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Thank you all for your support and advice
I’ll get back to you with my results, hopefully soon

11

Put it in a Akasa fanless case and you have a really beautiful streamer.
I have done this for years, streamer feeds my DDC via USB for stereo and my AVR via HDMI for MCH.