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  #11  
Old 05-14-2019, 02:13 PM
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Puma Cat Puma Cat is offline
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TBH, I don't see where an LPS or super-clean SMPS power supply would benefit a Roon Nucleus or a NUC (or Mac Mini) serving as a Roon Core. All its doing is running the Roon Core and pulling digital files and sending the biitstream them via Ethernet, Wifi or fiber to a streamer or network bridge. I think the most important and beneficial thing is to have the Nucleus, NUC or Mac Mini in another part of the house, and nowhere near the audio rack.

The Sonore "Rendus" Auralic, etc., don't function as the Roon core, they only function as an Roon "endpoint" in their role as the streamer/network bridge. Those DO benefit from a clean power supply. The Sonore SonicTransporter, OTOH, does function as a Roon Core server.
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Lumin P1 streamer/DAC/preamp, Constellation Inspiration integrated TT: Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V, Koetsu Urushi Vermilion, EAR324. Harbeth 30.2s, REL R-305, Shunyata Alpha V2 ICs, Alpha V2 SPs, Sigma XC, Sigma NRv2, Omega QR-s & Alpha NRv2 PCs, segmented Altaira SG stack w/ Alpha & Omega CGCs, Everest 8000 PD. Remote Server Room: Uptone EtherREGEN, AfterDark Master Clock & LPS, Alita, Battle Angel, (Akasa NUC Roon Core), iFi DC Purifiers (for SMPS used for Alita & router), Shunyata Gemini combo power distributor & Altaira-type CG GP-NR hub, Venom & Alpha CGCs, Shunyata NRv14 power cords for digital components.
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  #12  
Old 05-14-2019, 02:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1KW View Post
This may end up being my best option , I’ll have to configure one and see the price. You don’t hear about too many people making Mac mini into dedicated music servers these days. I thought about upgrading to 8 gig of ram as mine is only 6 gig. and putting a ssd hd in to replace the mechanical one but then I think putting money into a 8 year old machine doesn’t make sense.
I looked into this a few weeks back when the logic board of my 7-year old Mac Mini died.

The most value-added thing to do is to buy an Intel NUC Gen 7 Quad-core i5 2.3 GHz with 64 or 128 Gb M.2 SSD and 8 GB of RAM. You can do this for <$500. Put the Roon Core on the NUC using ROCK (Roon OS Core Kit) and all your music file metadata will easily fit on on 64GB as well; the only issue here is its hard to find 64 GB M.2 SSDs any more, so you might have to buy a 128 GB M.2 SSD, which is way more than you need. The Roon Core would now be reside on an SSD for fast data I/O. Connect an external HD with your music files, or if you buy a full-height (tall) NUC, you can install up to 4 TB 2.5" HD and have a nice all-in-one-box solution for about $300-$350 less than an entry-level Mac Mini. You don't need a 6-core, high-bandwidth i7 processor or 16GB RAM to run Roon Core; this is supported by Roon's own documentation.
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Lumin P1 streamer/DAC/preamp, Constellation Inspiration integrated TT: Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V, Koetsu Urushi Vermilion, EAR324. Harbeth 30.2s, REL R-305, Shunyata Alpha V2 ICs, Alpha V2 SPs, Sigma XC, Sigma NRv2, Omega QR-s & Alpha NRv2 PCs, segmented Altaira SG stack w/ Alpha & Omega CGCs, Everest 8000 PD. Remote Server Room: Uptone EtherREGEN, AfterDark Master Clock & LPS, Alita, Battle Angel, (Akasa NUC Roon Core), iFi DC Purifiers (for SMPS used for Alita & router), Shunyata Gemini combo power distributor & Altaira-type CG GP-NR hub, Venom & Alpha CGCs, Shunyata NRv14 power cords for digital components.

Last edited by Puma Cat; 05-14-2019 at 03:24 PM.
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  #13  
Old 05-14-2019, 02:45 PM
2fastdriving 2fastdriving is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Puma Cat View Post
I looked into this a few weeks back when the logic board of my 7-year old Mac Mini died.

The most value-added thing to do is to buy an Intel NUC Gen 7 Quad-core i5 2.3 GHz with 64 or 128 Gb M.2 SSD and 8 GB of RAM. You can do this for <$500. Put the Roon Core on the NUC using ROCK (Roon OS Core Kit) and all your music file metadata will easily fit on on 64GB as well; the only issue here is its hard to find 64 GB M.2 SSDs any more, so you might have to buy a 128 GB M.2 SSD, wihich is way more than you need. The Roon Core would now be reside on an SSD for fast data I/O. Connect an external HD with your music files, or if you buy a full-height (tall) NUC, you can install up to 4 TB 2.5" HD and have a nice all-in-one-box solution for about $300-$350 less than an entry-level Mac Mini. You don't need a 6-core, high-bandwidth i7 processor or 16GB RAM to run Roon Core; this is supported by Roon's own documentation.
+1 this is what i've been saying...great solution.
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  #14  
Old 05-14-2019, 03:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2fastdriving View Post
+1 this is what i've been saying...great solution.
Yup, I did a complete "competitive benchmarking" of what it takes to put a Roon Core Server together, and this was the most value-added configuration. Having Roon Nucleus is fine as a "turn-key" solution, but you're paying about 3X what it would cost you to spend a short amount of time to install the SSD, RAM, update the BIOS, install ROCK and add a hard drive.
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Lumin P1 streamer/DAC/preamp, Constellation Inspiration integrated TT: Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V, Koetsu Urushi Vermilion, EAR324. Harbeth 30.2s, REL R-305, Shunyata Alpha V2 ICs, Alpha V2 SPs, Sigma XC, Sigma NRv2, Omega QR-s & Alpha NRv2 PCs, segmented Altaira SG stack w/ Alpha & Omega CGCs, Everest 8000 PD. Remote Server Room: Uptone EtherREGEN, AfterDark Master Clock & LPS, Alita, Battle Angel, (Akasa NUC Roon Core), iFi DC Purifiers (for SMPS used for Alita & router), Shunyata Gemini combo power distributor & Altaira-type CG GP-NR hub, Venom & Alpha CGCs, Shunyata NRv14 power cords for digital components.
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  #15  
Old 05-14-2019, 03:26 PM
2fastdriving 2fastdriving is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Puma Cat View Post
Yup, I did a complete "competitive benchmarking" of what it takes to put a Roon Core Server together, and this was the most value-added configuration. Having Roon Nucleus is fine as a "turn-key" solution, but you're paying about 3X what it would cost you to spend a short amount of time to install the SSD, RAM, update the BIOS, install ROCK and add a hard drive.
My only "mistake" is that I did get the i7 with the fan case. It's a little bit noisy, but honestly the fans on my GS150 are louder anyway. I can't hear either from my seating position.

For someone new to this, i'd suggest the i5 and a fanless case if you can find one.
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  #16  
Old 05-14-2019, 03:33 PM
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Here's some links about ROCK and installing ROCK on a NUC or similar Roon Core server:
General Guide:
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Optimized_Core_Kit
ROCK Install Guide
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Optimized_Core_Kit
__________________
Lumin P1 streamer/DAC/preamp, Constellation Inspiration integrated TT: Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V, Koetsu Urushi Vermilion, EAR324. Harbeth 30.2s, REL R-305, Shunyata Alpha V2 ICs, Alpha V2 SPs, Sigma XC, Sigma NRv2, Omega QR-s & Alpha NRv2 PCs, segmented Altaira SG stack w/ Alpha & Omega CGCs, Everest 8000 PD. Remote Server Room: Uptone EtherREGEN, AfterDark Master Clock & LPS, Alita, Battle Angel, (Akasa NUC Roon Core), iFi DC Purifiers (for SMPS used for Alita & router), Shunyata Gemini combo power distributor & Altaira-type CG GP-NR hub, Venom & Alpha CGCs, Shunyata NRv14 power cords for digital components.
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  #17  
Old 05-14-2019, 03:35 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2fastdriving View Post
My only "mistake" is that I did get the i7 with the fan case. It's a little bit noisy, but honestly the fans on my GS150 are louder anyway. I can't hear either from my seating position.

For someone new to this, i'd suggest the i5 and a fanless case if you can find one.
Yup. And...if you can put the NUC in another part of the house, the fan noise wouldn't be an issue, anyway. But, I agree that with the relatively low CPU requirements for Roon Core, a NUC with a fan is not necessary.

If/When my Mac Mini dies again (like it did about a month ago), I'll be building a little Intel NUC Roon Server. Should be fun.
__________________
Lumin P1 streamer/DAC/preamp, Constellation Inspiration integrated TT: Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V, Koetsu Urushi Vermilion, EAR324. Harbeth 30.2s, REL R-305, Shunyata Alpha V2 ICs, Alpha V2 SPs, Sigma XC, Sigma NRv2, Omega QR-s & Alpha NRv2 PCs, segmented Altaira SG stack w/ Alpha & Omega CGCs, Everest 8000 PD. Remote Server Room: Uptone EtherREGEN, AfterDark Master Clock & LPS, Alita, Battle Angel, (Akasa NUC Roon Core), iFi DC Purifiers (for SMPS used for Alita & router), Shunyata Gemini combo power distributor & Altaira-type CG GP-NR hub, Venom & Alpha CGCs, Shunyata NRv14 power cords for digital components.
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  #18  
Old 05-14-2019, 04:02 PM
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Default I Love Roon But... No Wallwart Thank You Very Much

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2fastdriving View Post



... a fanless case if you can find one.

One of the advantages of the SonicTransporter from Small Green Computer is that they’re fanless and very quiet. You can add internal storage, or use NAS or attached USB drive, and they’re dedicated “set it and forget it” boxes. I went back and forth on one of these versus a Mac Mini or a Nuc and eventually went for the bulletproof simplicity of the SonicTransporter.
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D'Agostino Momentum S250 MxV & HD pre; Linn Klimax Organik DSM, SonicTransporter, EtherRegen; Acoustic Signature Typhoon Neo, Koetsu RSP, Boulder 1108; Sf Il Cremonese; Shunyata Everest, Altaira, Sigma & Alpha v2

Last edited by Antonmb; 05-14-2019 at 04:04 PM.
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  #19  
Old 05-14-2019, 04:39 PM
1KW 1KW is offline
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This is all great information guys, thanks. I’m still amazed how good this 2011 macmini sounds , it is a bit slow searching on occasion (honestly we’re talking a few seconds rather than instantaneous) on Roon . I have my macmini on the opposite side of the room connected to my dac with a wire world platinum 3m usb cable as I don’t have the bridge installed in my DirectStream, sound quality is excellent as I never hear any fan noise. When you compare the price of a nicely equipped Mac mini to a Roon Nucleus plus the Mac mini is a much better value as it has more hp , includes a ssd already installed and is less expensive .
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  #20  
Old 05-14-2019, 04:59 PM
Higgens Higgens is offline
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My CPU utilization running Roon on my Mac Mini is only 9-10%. Memory utilization is under 20%. The real bottleneck in most Roon installations is network utilization. Roon is a network resource hog as the Core communicates with the endpoints and external services like Tidal. When my Roon setup seems sluggish, I check the Activity Monitor and it’s almost always the network slowing things down.

Sometimes I know what’s causing the slowdown, e.g. Netflix. Other times, the Tidal servers seem to be overloaded.
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