So, for now at least, I’m planning on going with the Yggy and Ragnorak and a pair of Elac’s as my main listening station. Even if that set-up is in the same room as the PC running my Roon core, I’d still optimally want to deliver the music over ethernet to a renderer / streamer to make it as clean as possible going in. The microrendu looks like the best option for this purpose. Are there others? What’s the difference between the microrendu and the sonictransporter?
Seeing as it appears you’re not Fulla Schiit you should feel free to use any number of SOC devices like a RPi, Odroid, Beaglebone etc. Consider one supported by DietPi (see http://dietpi.com/#download) and the whole setup to create a Roon endpoint is turnkey . If you still feel kinda uneasy thereafter, add a linear PSU. FWIW I’m using a Yggy into active ATC’s and a Joty into Sennheiser HD800’s … both apparently pretty good in the details department and fed by an ODROID C2. I don’t lose any time worrying about whether I’m missing out on something because I’m not using a so-called audiophile usb transport. The sonictransporter is a pc that runs Roon Server. For that I use an i5 mini-itx. 8GB RAM is recommended, as is a SSD drive for the Roon Server installation.
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Thanks for the response. I see many users going that route and being happy. Maybe it’s just the lack of a pretty box but those look a little more diy than plug and play to me. Especially when I see users on here posting clips of linux code. Am I seeing problems that don’t exist - are those SOC things really plug and play? When I get back to the states maybe i’ll have a chance for some eyes/ears-on experience before I start spending money.
[quote=“Michael_Keefe, post:3, topic:20726”]
Am I seeing problems that don’t exist - are those SOC things really plug and play?[/quote]They’re plug and play if you install a turnkey operating system like DietPi. It even installs Roon Bridge for you.
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Seeing as you’re not doing things right away you could also use Roon Optimized Core Kit as your turnkey OS to setup Roon Core and host your music. I don’t think its release is too far away and it’ll allow you to use an Intel NUC as hardware … don’t purchase one till Roon Optimized Core Kit is made available and provides info re which NUC models will best meet your needs.
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Yeah, I’m looking at October-ish – folding the cost of the audio gear into that of moving into a new house so it doesn’t look so large. Plus it’ll be a retirement present to myself 
You’ve given me a couple of new lines of research though - thanks again.