OK, personal opinion follows; doubtless many here would disagree (although many would possibly also agree).
Question: what should I use to run my Roon Core? The options open to me are:
- general purpose PC / Mac (used for other things besides Roon Core)
- QNAP/Synology NAS
- PC using ROCK (a so-called MOCK system)
- self-build Intel NUC using ROCK on a supported NUC model
- self-build fanless NUC using ROCK
- Turnkey Nucleus appliance
- Roon Partner Roon Core Server (e.g. Innuous)
My answer: First choice: the Nucleus - ready to go and fully supported by Roon Labs. Alternatively, if you are comfortable about assembling an Intel NUC, go for an Intel NUC that is on Roon Labs supported list and use ROCK. You’ll get the equivalent of a Nucleus (although without the feature of Home Automation support and it won’t be fanless), and because it’s DIY, it will be cheaper. No difference in SQ whatsoever (in my opinion)
The other options have a variety of drawbacks (in my opinion).
- A PC or Mac is great for trialling Roon, but I feel that the Roon Core is at its best in a Roon appliance, such as a Nucleus or an Intel NUC using ROCK
- QNAP/Synology NAS - I feel that a NAS should remain a NAS, and not try and become a general purpose compute server.
- PC using ROCK - great if you like tinkering, but it won’t be supported by Roon Labs if a future release of Roon causes issues.
- self-build fanless NUC using ROCK. This is almost like a DIY version of the Nucleus, but because the motherboard of an Intel NUC has been transplanted into a fanless case, then it is not officially supported by Roon Labs. However, many of us (including myself!) are prepared to take the risk (should be much lower than a MOCK system) and get as close as we can to having a Nucleus at less cost…
- Roon Partner Roon Core Server - these come at a wide variety of price points; some at similar cost to the Nucleus models, and some considerably more. Personally, I am not convinced that the SQ difference (if there is any - which is debated ad nauseam in HiFi forums) justifies the higher cost of some of these systems. You mentioned the Innuous Zen in your initial post. My personal view is that I would not choose one of these models for myself. I get the impression that Innuous have rather “bolted-on” Roon to their existing player software, and offer Roon as an alternative environment. It may not be where their heart is, and their designers have different views on hardware requirements for Roon than those held by the designers of Roon Labs.