I’m getting a boot out of (as I’m sure many others here are) you talking about Roon as if it was just invented, we’re Stanley, and you are Dr. Livingstone, I presume ; )
And please, never mind if you’re Stanley rather than Livingstone. You know what I mean.
I get a hoot out of the fact that we’ve had Qobuz over here for about 10 years and it’s only just landing in the USA.
Audirvana does a lot of what Roon does plus it handles Qobuz, and it is a lot cheaper, so it is quite popular over here. Until yesterday, what proportion of Roon users were Tidal subscribers? Probably most of them.
So it is not that new compared to Audirvana, which I’ve had for some years, just a lot better.
I spoke to my no.2 dealer who does Devialet and Roon, he says it really needs a dedicated server, whether a NUC or the Roon Nucleus. It then sounds better than a QNAP, about the same as a good Melco. He sells both and uses both.
It has a processor, by the Core Infinity streaming card in a Devialet Expert could also be a computer, as could dCS and many other devices.
The earliest consumer servers were based Windows Media Server and had all the necessary stuff stripped out. They still ran off a standard desktop configuration. Mac mini then followed and again were not optimal, with a noisy power supply. The Nucleus, like Melco according to my dealer, have processors, electronics and a power supply optimised for audio frequencies, so they tend to sound better.
More to the point, they are plug and play and dedicated to audio, whereas my QNAP is busy doing other business things.
Other options include the QNAP HS-251+, which has been optimised for audio to some extent ads well as having lots of media software on it.
Awesome. Thanks, man! We’ve all been struggling with all of that for years now here in the Hinterlands, as we Amuricans are wont to do. Good to finally have it sorted…
Audirvana is also French, it works, but Roon makes it look like Pacman.
I bet not when it comes to sound quality - at least based on collective opinions.
Still not one issue with Qobuz on Roon.
I’ve enquired with a dealer about Nucleus. He uses it as standard but had not sold a huge number. I would run a similar set-up to you, I don’t need the “+” model, and I would use a LPS off a regenerator. I’ve got a local access point (ASUS RT-something-66?) acting as a switch powered by a LPS off the regenerator.
Even a Samsung 2TB SSD drive is only about $300 at the moment.
I couldn’t agree more and I wish I knew more to answer your question. I’ll try and do some digging.
That’s on our list of objectives though it may not make the first round.
Like Paul says “memory is cheap”. I like the Nucleus+ because I use the Convolution Filtering (DSP) and Nucleus+ has more HP then Nucleus and I never have to worry about processing power w/ I7 platform. Once I listened to this streaming set-up; man did my eyes open. Streaming is the future. In seconds I can listen to over 50M songs at excellent SQ. Listening vs. preparing to listen…
It is amazing how Roon launch and still crickets for complaints. A great SW engineering team is worth millions… it legitimizes that company’s conversation. Hope is different than excellent execution… 
Regarding SQ, two years ago yes.
The server and “endpoint” are both important (as you know, developing your own server right now).
If you have a chance to listen to the Nucleus Plus server (running their own Roon OS - which didn’t exist two years ago) and something like a ‘Roon Ready’ Sonore UltraRendu, your opinion on SQ may (or not) be different today.
But opinions based on SQ from 2 years or even 1 year ago, without Roon optimized gear like mentioned above, may not be up to date… especially the server end, running RoonOS.
I don’t imagine you’ll spend too much time and money testing this out, since you’re now going full throttle with your own solution. But things haven’t stood still in the Roon world from two years ago (even in terms of SQ).
And the highly optimized gear I mentioned above (even the server end), does make a world of difference (to my ears).
I don’t know about 2 years ago and doing Roon on a computer or other configurations… my idea of streaming changed when I went Nucleus+ w/ TIDAL and I now use my DMP once a week if that. The SQ of this system is amazing. Since I don’t have history streaming, I have nothing to compare except DMP and it is as good. Maybe on a good day DMP edges it… if you then kick in Nucleus+ Convolution Filtering, no contest.
I’m willing to stipulate that A+ does sound more dynamic that Roon, now that it finally actually plays to the Bridge (as of the latest Bridge update), but IMHO it has the worst user interface in history - like horrible designs from the 80s.
Yup completely different to your experience now with Nucleus Plus server.
As mentioned, RoonOS (which is what Roon’s Nucleus server runs) didn’t exist 2 years ago…
The entire OS is built and optimized to run Roon and nothing else. This didn’t exist 2 years ago when people were testing Roon Server/Core on a Mac/Windows or general Linux build.
So if someone’s opinion on Roon SQ is based on this pre-RoonOS experience, I can’t say it’s invalid obviously but it’s definitely not up to date…
Here is my system. The video stuff stays in the great room and music room is completely separate. The reason for the dotted line. My next move is dual BHK300 amps. The next move is PF 2.16 or flagship or Octave. We’ll see how PSA executes. I hope it is amazing!
I don’t care what others believe, I care what I hear. There are so many server configurations, power, interconnects… too much to decouple Roon in an SQ opinion. I will try Qobuz w/ Roon and if it is great, I will get rid of TIDAL… if not… I will get rid of Qobuz. Opinions are like %$%#, everyone has one and they… like mine… 
Roon is a very clever, but I have no doubt t what Paul is up to can be very clever as well, in terms of getting clean data from Point A to Point B.
The front end is very important and my experience of about 10 years streaming is that it just takes time. Octave OS v1 will have flaws, but the user base will result in improvements. If it sounds good, people will put up with sub-optimal functionality on the understanding that it is a work in progress.
Another one to Cher you up, Mark.
Another feature I like is that if you select an album from your library, Roon has attached a link to the booklet. It appears to have taken it from the library as the album is not in Qobuz so it won’t have found it online.
That is a feature that Paul could consider for Octave.
Indeed, this is all true. Thanks Steven.
I am currently using roon nucleus and the ps audio directstream with the bridge II…works great
Me too !! It sounds great.
