Don’t think about an iOS to learn, because you don’t need to learn anything. Think of it as just a device to run the app
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Ahhh… Sadly not possible for me. I can’t resist dorking around. It’s a blessing and a curse!
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Fair enough.
By the way, it is worth testing the Nucleus+ with an external server and disconnecting the internal SSD. I did several A/B tests and ended up disconnecting the internal SSD altogether. I am probably fortunate to have a Naim Uniti Core with 4TB SSD to do these comparisons.
Vince
The Lumin app has been available for Android for several years
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Damn!t I keep confusing Aurelic and Lumin.
Thanks!
Is there anything that suggests Roon sounds bad? Roon but not Qobuz?
I’m gonna stick with my set-up that probs seems like nostalgia already to some of you, and focus my understanding on all the wonderful music I bought the gear for. I don’t particularly enjoy selling gear, tearing things down, shipping, rebuilding. It’s a slippery slope my bank account prefers I avoid.
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To sum:
Silent Angel Munich M1T is interesting as it does output i2s meaning I can eliminate the Matrix SPDIF/2, but it’s limited to DSD128 (and the DSS can accept a DSD256). Not sure that really matters much, but I do have some downloads that I’ve bought in DSD256.
Stack Link2 doesn’t offer i2s output, so I may or may not still use the Matrix. It does support DSD256 over USB (which in fairness, so does the Munich).
The Mano Ultra 2 is limited to DSD64, which I don’t know if I really want to be limited to… but it does offer the i2s out.
A Cappella 3 seems to be the best solution, but it does come at a price… by FAR the most expensive solution.
I guess I will live with my Nucleus+ to Matrix for a bit longer. The PS Audio AirLens might be the best option (when that is released…)
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Well this is the $64k question. Just to discuss Roon - it is a tough thing to parse as, if you want to use Roon, you have to run a Roon core. It appears to me from various tests off and on over a 6-7 year period that the Roon core OS has a sonic signature. Much as I feel Macs do, though they have a different signature.
My most current experience is getting a Nucleus, which had just come out around the time I got an Auralic 3+ years ago. I got the Auralic to not have to subscribe to Roon (I hate subscription models, and yeah - definitely regret not getting a Lifetime for $350🤷🏻♂️) and to not use a Mini as a server. I have very minimal needs as far as database functionality is concerned compared with many Roon users.
So in my more resolving system, I’ve compared the Nucleus running Roon and a Mini running Roon to the Auralic running their Lightning server. Using the Auralic as a Roon endpoint compared with no Roon (i.e., ostensibly the only difference is that you’re listening through Roon OS vs. Lightning OS, both with Qobuz as a source or files on a drive) the Lightning is clearly more open and detailed. And you can hear differences between the Mini and the Nucleus, but running something else on the Mini, like Logitech Server (see below) is less “dull” sounding than the purpose-built Nucleus.
In my 2nd system, I have an old Transporter with the AKM “Miracle DAC” chip, which while old, has a lot “right” about it, or at least that works well in that system. Though it is fairly “shiny” sounding compared with a PS DAC, for example. In this instance the Mini running Roon or LMS tends to accentuate that shinyness somewhat, and you could say that Roon on the Nucleus rounds it off in a pleasant way.
I won’t get into my former tests (before I’d ever heard an Auralic or any non-Mac based server) that resulted in the move away from Roon for the past three years (up to three months ago) except to say that my feelings about the “sound of Roon” from that time were consistent with this.
FWIW, grain of salt, one’ man’s opinion, YMMV.
Again, if you want to use Roon, in a sense there’s no point in worrying about it. Is what it is. I do personally believe it has a sound.
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There are days that I can completely empathize with you. And there are other days that with a change, hard fought or relatively simple, that when complete, I sit back and think “why did you wait so long to do this?”.
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Think you’re likely onto something here after doing some A/B work with a newer album that only has one digital version (and one that I know very well). My PST was slightly louder, and clearer.
Decided to give Stack Link II a try and not night and day but definitely an improvement over Nucleus+/Matrix SPDIF2. Darker background, more space and just “cleaner” overall.
Also tried Stack with Matrix and it actually made it sound worse. So much for i2s being superior to USB… or maybe it’s just that the Matrix interfering…
I use a Rendu Signature SE w/USB out to DS. It’s much better than any of the i2S I have tried.
When you used the Stack with the Matrix, where you using the stack in an attempt to decrapify the USB?
Yes, pretty much. And also isolate the signal path from the noisy Nucleus
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