Which flavor of Roon to install

I’m about to do my initial install of Roon, but am now confused over which flavor of Roon to install - Roon Core or Roon Server. My environment is

  1. Synology NAS where all my music files reside
  2. Mac Mini (headless) - where I planned to install the primary (core or sever) software
  3. Three other Apple computers that should have music access
  4. DAC/Headphone Amp (leading contender right now is Meridian Prime) to be purchased in coming weeks.

Also planned is eventual interface to my standalone audio system that I still need to figure out.

The Meridian Prime location is up in the air but was leaning towards having it directly connected to the headless Mac Mini. After pouring over the forum posts I’m now wondering if connecting the Prime to the headless Mac Mini is feasible.

So real main question here is do I install Roon Core or Roon Server on the Mini? Any other comments or ideas regarding my installation are greatly appreciated.

Can anyone provide some insight on when to install Roon Server and when to go with just Roon Core. I really only want to install it once and am reading a number of posts on the forum suggesting switch to Server version, but I can’t find any guidelines on which flavor works best in which situations. My concern is going down one route, having to undo it (number of posts say you must fully uninstall before installing the other) and then start all over. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

The standard Ronn apllication requires OpenGL graphics support. Many servers do not support this. So in most server installations and of course in headless server installations the Roon core is the only option.

The are other scenarios where the Roon Core makes sense. When you alway use a remote application to control and confirure the Roon server you could also use the core solution in order to save resources.

When you have a simpler installation with Roon on an iMac or desktop PC you will go most probably for the standard setup with GUI.