My USB ports are starting to have issues on my 2011 Mac Mini. I’ve been researching alternatives to buying a new one. Been reading a lot about NUC’s & the sonicTransporter. Wondering if those solutions are better in terms of sound than moving Roon core to my QNAP.
Any suggestions? Currently have 40k tracks. Now running:
QNAP NAS (8gb Memory) -> Mac Mini running Roon -> Uptone Regen -> Hegel H160 -> Verity Rienzi’s
Thanks!
Moving your core to a NUCi5 is likely to be the cheapest solution. Not many QNAP’s are matching the minimal requirements for good Roon performance.
Use a network endpoint that will likely have better sound quality than a USB output and you can stick with your Mac mini for the Roon Server.
Thanks! Was thinking about Auralic Mini - any other suggestions?
The microrendu and sonicorbiter are alternatives worth looking into. For even less raspberry PI’s work pretty good.
Both of those only offer USB outputs. I’d prefer coaxial into the Hegel and not USB- Hegel only supports 24/96 on USB and 24/192 on coaxial. Thanks!
I’m running Roon core on my QNAP HS-251+ (2GB ram) and it works like a dream.
I think the only thing it can’t support is upsampling via HQPlayer (although not 100% sure) so if that’s on your wishlist the NUC route is maybe better. But I think your 8gb NAS would be more than sufficient.