Yes my NUC7i7DNHE (quad core) is very zippy. I have it in a fanless case. About half the price of Nucleus Plus. Some photos:
FS: Fanless NUC running ROCK - Intel NUC i7 - 8th Gen - NUC7i7DNHE [SOLD]
Like I said earlier though, it depends how comfortable you are with DIY. Not everyone is comfortable with that, so the Nucleus Plus is a great option for those people.
I also have a fanless sonicTransporter i7 that @Speed_Racer linked above. I’ve since given it to my old man (dad) and it is very quick (running both Roon Server and HQPlayer Embedded for up-sampling to DSD512). It looks like the new model is the 6 core i7-8700.
