I think a Nucleus will be better for me than a NUC due to placement in my home. I only stream Tidal or Qoboz. I currently don’t have my CD’s stored on anything. I have 8 BluOs Zones. I really only need to send signal to up to 6 zones simultaneously.
Will the Nucleus work for me?
Do I need storage in the Nucleus if I don’t have my own music files?
Will the Nucleus work? vs the +?
Sounds like the Nucleus will be enough for what you mentioned. You can use a USB SSD or add the internal SSD later after you rip your cd’s. The Nucleus would be under powered If you start playing around with the DSP functions or play DSD files that get converted to PCM.
I"m not sure what that means. A NUC will work anywhere a Nucleus will work and visa versa. You can purchase a Nucleus if you do not want to or are not comfortable putting together a NUC and loading RoonOS.
Sure.
No.
That depends on the size of your library. Anything you add to your Roon library, even if it is a streamed source, counts in terms of database size and processing needs. So, how many streaming tracks are you planning on adding to your Roon library?
The difference is between the i3 cpu in the Nucleus and the i7 cpu in the Nucleus +. Larger libraries, more zones playing at once, and especially, any DSP that is being used on those zones, are all factors that might point you at one or the other.
Thank you Daniel. I can only put the Nucleus or the NUC on top of my NAD M33 Int amp. I have heard its better to keep the NUC further away from your audio equipment vs the Nucleus.
Over 90% of the time I want to play 4 zones at the same time w the same Tidal or Qoboz track or playlist.
I have an NAD M33, a Powernode 2i, a Node 2i connected via a Dig Coax cable to a pair of KEF LS50 W2’s and finally one Bluesound Pulse 2i.
I have 4 other BLuesound products but dont have to connect to the same zone.
What Nucleus w how much storage would you buy?
I use a similar NUC (the older 8th-gen i7) and it doesn’t break a sweat with any streaming duties, so that setup will be more than powerful enough.
I would, however, recommend getting another stick of RAM. Not because ROCK necessarily needs 16GB, but because dual-channel memory may help with performance in the future. It would be a shame not to when to stumping up the cash for an i7!
Once you install ROCK on the NVME drive in your NUC you will need to store your music on a separate (internal or external) drive, as that drive will be used to store the internal database and cannot be used for music storage. I went for a Samsung 870 Evo.
Just me but I would go with a 16gb kit for the memory. Otherwise it looks right.
Can that NUC handle 2 8’s of RAM or is 1 16 of RAM going to do the same thing?
You have two RAM slots in the machine, with 2 x 8GB giving you dual-channel.
Well the NUC will have a fan and the Nucleus won’t, so there’s that to take into account. FWIW, the best place for either is hard-wired to your router, not on top of your amp.
If your endpoints aren’t hardwired, you need to make sure your WiFi signal is extremely good.
Where my router is I can’t fit the NUC. I have an ethernet line going from router to back of amp. I can put a switch there and run one line to my amp the other to my NUC. My endpoints aren’t wired w the exception of my NAD M33 amp.
Sorry, if I was not clear. I absolutely will be hard-wiring the NUC or Nucleus.
Yes it will take 16 GB (2 8GB sticks). I have 16 GB in my NUC8I7BEH. The reason I recommended a kit, instead of 2 single sticks, is because the kits are matched and tested to work together. And the 16 GB kit is probably cheaper than 2 single sticks.
There are now fanless NUCs available and after-market fanless cases. But if your chosen NUC has a fan, it needs to be positioned apart from the listening area.
Thank you and for that reason I ordered a Nucleus and will see how it goes.
