Not accurate. The .NET you are talking about isn’t what Roon uses. Roon uses .NET Core which is “a free and open source framework for developing cross-platform applications targeting Windows, Linux and macOS.”
So no, not Windows-based.
It was originally Microsoft Dot Net that was a proprietary development environment for Windows only development. Mono was an Open Source framework ground up build of that so that it would work on Linux and Mac.
Microsoft bought the developer of mono and it’s tools to Microsoft and in their new enlightened thinking they rebuild dotnet Core to no longer be Microsoft only and open sourced the runtime.
So they now are filling this out and adding the missing pieces to all platforms, so hopefully soon there will be a native build of Roon for M1 Mac’s that takes advantage of the M1 technology.
Then it might be a good competitor to Roon Rock.
Some might think it already is, but the number of forum post’s suggest otherwise.
Anyway I am looking forward to comparing them in a few years when my Nuc might need replacement
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Not at all. Roon runs on .NET Core, which is a cross-platform framework first introduced less than six years ago, which received its most recent major version five months ago. It has had full support for Windows and Linux containers since launch, and the current version (6.0) runtime has native support for the M1.
What is your definition of a “state of the art platform”?
Anything based on C/C++/Linux can outperform such dated technology. I know that it has to run on different OSes, computers, so what Apple do for their products can be accepted as a solution, or use the same techniques as developing the Chrome browsers, which can be run almost everywhere.
Thanks!
What technology is outdated? .NET?
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So a 50 Year old technology is not dated but a 20 year old technology is 
You choose a technology like Dotnet for all the supporting libraries available for it along with it being thread safe and having garbage collection.
Don’t get me wrong I love the C language, but you would not start a new project the size of Roon with it and so many libraries would not be cross platform, even if performance was a bit better.
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So not a post in the #support category then, but a comment addressed to @brian and @enno in the C4 category… OK, it’s not for the Support team to follow up on it, I think.
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I didn’t realize I hadn’t included support. I suppose I was more concerned about a lack of response from those who guided me in my decision. The lack of response is trust eroding.
Exactly. There are no real reasons to do UX in native code. Performance is not an issue there. Fancy effects are handled by the GPU anyway. Integrated GPUs can handle the task very well.
Anyway, it’s up to Roon devs to make these kind of decisions, I don’t think we need to tell them how to do their jobs. It’s a bit like fretting about the internals of a DAC or a power amp. If it does the job, it doesn’t really matter.
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Spot on, it’s all about the quality of the tools to drive the development and runtime.
Dot net is improving with each release, and hopefully Roon for Mac M1 will get there once they have it fully tested and debugged on M1
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2018 Mac Mini | 3.2GHZ i7 6-CORE | 32GB RAM | 512GB PCIe. Under $1000 on eBay.
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That’s the wrong Mac Mini to get…the M1 is much much better! You can get an 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for less than $1000 refurbished from Apple. Get one with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD for least than $800…
I get one with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD for $759, but Roon M1 can’t see my music on Nas. I returned stick with my Sonic Transporter old i7 8gb
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That is a user knowledge problem and not a M1 Mac mini problem…I would never use a NAS for storing my music. All that does is create a ton more network traffic for zero gain. It’s best to use local storage. I use a 2TB m.2 SSD in an external case. It’s Thunderbolt bus powered and is fast and makes zero noise.
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You go right ahead and believe that.
Thread cleaned up and off topic posts moved to a new relevant thread.
Thank you for your patience and understanding
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I would get the M1. It’s relatively inexpensive when compared to your options and will consume less power than any other option (even an Intel NUC). I replaced a Ryzen 5/GTX 1050 desktop server with an M1 Mini which handles a variety of server tasks my Pi4 isn’t up to. My power bill dropped, Plex/Roon’s performance jumped, and it’s perfectly silent.
Some thoughts here.
- It consumes less than 4W idle where your average NUC can be in excess of 10W. Under any load the Intel chips can spike well past 30W. While that might not sound like much this translates into a much more quiet, cool experience and will allow the M1 to stay clocked higher at rest. This means it will response faster when going from rest to use (not to mention the insane IPC advantage, even while translating x86 instruction sets).
- The fan is rated for about 5 dBA at idle which I find to be accurate. Even transcoding multiple 4K, the fan is inaudible even when I place my head next to the machine. Transcoding multiple 4K streams is definitely a more power consuming task than playing music, regardless of your DSP settings.
- The M1 is a beast. I am not a fan of Apple but the M1 is a dream of an SoC and proves that ARM is capable of taking on X86. It sips power while crossing blades with CPU’s it has no right to do so with - like my workstation Ryzen 9 5950X.
- Apple’s translation layer does a perfect job. I have found no issues running any software on the Mini - Plex, Roon, Docker, Parsec, and others all run just fine on the 8GB model with room to spare and no audible fan noise. I was worried about 8GB but my partner and I were not a fan of spending more money on a server. I am not disappointed at all.
Some of the comments I don’t understand. Many/most NUC’s also have fans, consume a decent amount of power, are fairly weak on the IPC front, and buying them used would leave me worried about the longevity of the device. Plus that involves messing with an OS install which, while relatively simple, is definitely not plug and play. It’s easy to set the Mini to boot on power failure loss (just an option in the settings) so you know it will always be on when you need it. NUC’s generally require (to my knowledge) a BIOS setting tweak which, again, isn’t hard but definitely not plug and play.
Any way you go you can always rip the SSD out from the Nucleus and place it in a SATA → USB enclosure to make sure you aren’t needlessly buying more storage.
I run Roon Core in a TrueNAS virtual machine hosted on a TrueNAS Mini+. This arrangement offers some significant advantages.
- The ZFS file system and is redundant and bulletproof.
- Backup by replication to a second TrueNAS system or internal pool is easily set up and managed.
- The Roon Core mounts the music library as a CIFS share.
- The TrueNAS system makes the share available
- The Roon Core always starts after the shares are ready
- ZFS and TrueNAS can host more storage than you’ll ever need.
- ZFS pools can be expanded by adding devices or by rolling device replacement.
- ZFS is copy on write making it largely bullet-proof
- ZFS snapshots serve as check points and make error recovery relatively easy.
- The TrueNAS system’s real job is to host an Apple Time Machine spool volume which it does without fuss.
- the cost of disks dominates the cost of a TrueNAS system.
- Small packaged systems sell at DIY from new parts prices.
I’ve been running this configuration for about 6 years, and have had to replace a couple of poorly disks.
I run an instance of System 76’s POP_OS Linux in the Roon Virtual machine.
Depending on how handy you are, you can buy a System 76 Meerkat (System 76 branded NUC). System 76 insures proper memory and storage are in the box for you and can make the system available with POP_OS installed. You just add Roon Core.
POP_OS is a version of Ubuntu Linux with desktop and packages tailored to the arts, engineering, and science. It requires limited attention to apply updates a couple of times a year.
Installing Roon Core on Ubuntu Linux is a matter of following the excellent instructions at [https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/linux-install](https://RoonLabs Roon Core Linux Installation Procedure)
The advantages of Nucleus are as follows:
- First, it is an Intel NUC in a pretty Silverstone case.
- Roon has picked a good power supply, memory, and SSD that it includes.
- Roon has done all the screwdriver work.
- Roon has installed ROCK and tested the build
- Rock handles Linux updates and package updates for you. No need to run apt update and apt upgrade yourself.
Roon has developed Nucleus for non-DIY people. Minimal setup is required. But you still have to back up your local music files.