Roon Nucleus

you have a lot of topics for roon.  Some use bridges like sonore, allo digi one...to have roon.

You can go to the search part of the forum, tap roon or allo digi one.   Or wait some answers.

Personally i have no interest in roon....

My dealer has only just got his demo unit, so perhaps not many people have the Roon nucleus.

Roon nucleus is an expensive option to run Roon but one that is designed well to be incorporated in with the hifi kit with little knowledge to set it up. If you looking to run DSP functions then you would need to look at the i7 Nucleus + as it takes a bit of grunt to achieve this and they don't recommend standard Nucleus for this. You cant avoid having a computer to run Roon run. The nucleus is still just a computer albeit in a nice box with passive cooling. But if want to store music on it you'll need big drives that are also silent.

You can however not bother with the Nucleus at all and run Roon core ( the brain and library) on windows, Mac, Linux computer, dedicated servers such as the sonic transporter, vortexbox, some models by innuous or some models of NAS. The key to all of this is to decide what you want to achieve with Roon. If your going to run heavy DSP and upsampling with a large library then a system with an  i5 or i7 would be recommended. For normal use an i3 works just fine. I have a custom i3 for mine and it can handle upsampling to 24/384 with no sweat and everythingtuns smooth on my moderate library I have about 30000 songs on it currently. Some people run on QNAP Nas systems and it runs well but you need an SSD for the library. If you you want it local in your hifi rack though you need to build a silent pc and one that is low on RF emissions, which brings you back to the nucleus again. 

After this you can get Roon into you current system a number of ways using an off the shelf  roon ready enpoint these come as full systems like the Naims Atom, Star or Nova, or streamers, like Aurillias Aries, DACs  and usb transports like the Sonore micorendu. Or you can build your own endpoints on a micro computer like the raspberry pi and add-on a quality output board such as the Allo Digi for little outlay. If you go through Nucleus route then you can use the nucleus as an endpoint but will need a usb to spdif bridge or usb DAC.

I have a mixture of endpoints in my house ranging from Naim Atom, Squeezeboxes and 3 x Raspberry pi systems. I can't see myself changing to anything else as its gives me everything I need is easy to use in one app.

All this is all on the Roon site with all the partners Roon works with and the forum is very helpfull. 

If you are going to run REW, I would do it first, and make any changes you can to your room. Sometimes it only takes very small changes to, say, speaker positioning, to make significant improvements, and I would always do this first, and only use DSP as a last resort afterwards. 

I have also found that source and preamp upgrades can give big improvements to bass control, so I would consider that too. 

If you do go for Roon, some NAS drives and most computers can run it, but using resource hungry functions of Roon like DSP will need a reasonably powerful device. With a 272, you will need a workaround solution to use Roon. If you only play 16/44 files, the simplest is probably Airplay with an Airport Express. 

Given Naim will be changing the DSP with each firmware change (intertwined supposedly), then I would tread carefully.

I have been looking closer at Linn and it's space optimisation.

Hi Mungochatney,

If you want to run Roon with DSP, you may find that you need the Roon Nucleus+ which has the extra processing capacity, rather than the cheaper Roon Nucleus. 

It might be worth a chat with the Audiostore if you are in the UK.  They do an Audiostore Prestige 2 (internet search at this point...) which should do the job really rather well for you.  

If I don't go deliriously spend happy later this year and buy an Antipodes CX Roon server, then I'll probably go for the Prestige 2 myself.  Best to call them first, as they are amazingly helpful and will recommend the optimum configuration for you.  If you subsequently go for one of the new Naim streamers, then you can just plug it in.

There are many, many alternatives, such as buying an Intel NUC on that big on-line shop but think carefully about whether you can tolerate the fan noise that a simple NUC generates, especially when it's doing all that mental arithmetic that Roon DSP requires.

Hope this helps, FT

Foot tapper posted:

Hi Mungochatney,

If you want to run Roon with DSP, you may find that you need the Roon Nucleus+ which has the extra processing capacity, rather than the cheaper Roon Nucleus. 

It might be worth a chat with the Audiostore if you are in the UK.  They do an Audiostore Prestige 2 (internet search at this point...) which should do the job really rather well for you.  

If I don't go deliriously spend happy later this year and buy an Antipodes CX Roon server, then I'll probably go for the Prestige 2 myself.  Best to call them first, as they are amazingly helpful and will recommend the optimum configuration for you.  If you subsequently go for one of the new Naim streamers, then you can just plug it in.

There are many, many alternatives, such as buying an Intel NUC on that big on-line shop but think carefully about whether you can tolerate the fan noise that a simple NUC generates, especially when it's doing all that mental arithmetic that Roon DSP requires.

Hope this helps, FT

Hey Foot taper,

i read you will perhaps take the antipodes cx.  If yes, with what dac or streamer will you associate it?  i am curious.  thanks 

Look at the Sonore UPnP Bridge solution, which runs on the Rendu line.

This is a transparent bridge between Roon and UPnP based Network player such as Naim, be the 272, NDS, NDX, ND5 and you just select it as an Endpoint in Roon Remote and the playback stream is through the UPnP input, which is auto-selected.

This is the best method of making the existing Naim streamers ‘Roon Ready’ IMO.

No format conversion to S/PDIF as with Allo Player, or converting Aynsnc USB. FLAC/ALAC/AAC/MP3 files are played as WAV, DSF as DSD64 by the Naim

You can then start adding DSP for Room Coorection, Upsampling, converting everything to DSD64 (if you wish), on the Roon Core.

Moving the Roon Core from one machine to another is easy - I was using ROCK with an early i3 NUC and then moved to a NUC5i3, both with 8GB RAM & SSD and they run Roon Core just fine with my 80k library, but I am not adding any DSP. 

Also with Roon 1.5 you get MQA support, for 1st unfold, for local & Tidal Masters. The NUC5i3 handles just fine too.

Simon

French Rooster posted:

Hey Foot taper,

i read you will perhaps take the antipodes cx.  If yes, with what dac or streamer will you associate it?  i am curious.  thanks 

Hi French Rooster,

I'm looking forward to this autumn, when the auditions take place.  The Antipodes CX was supposed to be launched at the Munich Hi End show earlier this month, yet I've seen no news to the effect that it has happened.  By the time autumn comes around, I would not be surprised if both Innuos and Melco have launched servers capable of working as Roon servers.

For streamers & dacs, as I already have a 555PS, Naim's new streamers will be on the audition list, as will dacs from Chord. 

Should be interesting.

Best regards, FT

a lot of choices for you Foot Taper.  Servers with dacs on usb or spdif, or servers used as nas with ndx2 or nd555.   The innuos zenith se seems to have a lot of praise in press or forums today.   For myself, if i had money, i would choose nd555 with uniticore, for the synergy and prat.  Some have tried high end melco and found the involvement was not present with the nds.

Antipodes/ chord dave is tempting also, but different from naim presentation.

I found no reviews here for nds/ innuos or antipodes combo.  Perhaps a dealer would be able to lend one of this for your home....

https://metrumacoustics.com/ho...he-ambre-by-lexicom/

David02 posted:

https://metrumacoustics.com/ho...he-ambre-by-lexicom/

My Ambre is on the way 

https://www.google.be/amp/s/ww...iding-naar-roon/amp/

This is a dutch review,

maybe Google translate can be helpfull...

I have no opinion on this dac, I have not heared it. But, if a dealer selling a certain product writes a review, you should not be surprised that the dealer is positive about it. There is a lot of exaggerated hifi talk in that review which makes me not to trust the product. It still can be ok, but if someone writes that the bass goes one octave deeper, than it is utter incompetence or marketing BS.

thank you ardbeg10y, I am aware that a dealer opinion isn't the most objective voice.

I don't have any more information about this Ambre and I have not heared it either...

Ardbeg10y posted:

I have no opinion on this dac, I have not heared it. But, if a dealer selling a certain product writes a review, you should not be surprised that the dealer is positive about it. There is a lot of exaggerated hifi talk in that review which makes me not to trust the product. It still can be ok, but if someone writes that the bass goes one octave deeper, than it is utter incompetence or marketing BS.

there is a lot products like that, sonore micro rendu, allo digi one, jcat, .....more tweaks than real streamers or servers/dac combos.   

Ardbeg10y posted:

I have no opinion on this dac, I have not heared it. But, if a dealer selling a certain product writes a review, you should not be surprised that the dealer is positive about it. There is a lot of exaggerated hifi talk in that review which makes me not to trust the product. It still can be ok, but if someone writes that the bass goes one octave deeper, than it is utter incompetence or marketing BS.

It‘s not a dac.

French Rooster posted:

 

there is a lot products like that, sonore micro rendu, allo digi one, jcat, .....more tweaks than real streamers or servers/dac combos.   

 Curious to know what a real streamer is...

After a weekend with the Metrum Ambre I can say that the reviews are correct. It’s awesome in my set up, i.e. connected via i2s to Pavane into 252/300DR.