750$ Intel NUC vs $6000 Aurender N200: I don't hear the difference

@essrand,

What a timely thread for me. I was thinking of posting one asking users here if they have compared a NUC to a streamer. I currently use an older Asus laptop and feel that a streamer might help my cause. But Roon themselves advice on a NUC if you don't use their Roon Nucleus.

Wonder what is the difference between a NUC and dedicated streamers. I know that NUCS can be fanless, but thats just one good reason to use them over the laptops. What do streamers "don't have" that NUCs "might have", that could introduce "noise" in an audio system. I am more interested in hearing about that.

I like these comparative reviews. Get the usb and Qobuz on equal footing and report back.

Since you have Tidal access, can you switch to Tidal in Roon on your NUC, to at least keep the source the same?    I know audiotroy and others say USB is generally always best, but I hear decent differences between USB and SPDIF in my system so comparing using the same interface and digital cable with your DAC would at least remove one primary variable.

That being said, and I'm a believer in tweaks making a relatively and worthwhile difference in my system, but at an almost 10x price difference in that price range if I didn't hear a BIG difference between the two, I know what my response would be; it wouldn't be trying to tweak the 10x product to sound a little better than the NUC.

@milpai, I also run a NUC with Roon and it sits with all of my noisy computer gear, but I end up running the audio stream over a MoCA 2.0 coax network and finally over fiber into the listening room right up to 1M to my endpoint and DAC (Bricasti then Mojo Audio).    Maybe a $6000 server sitting in my rack would sound better, but maybe it wouldn't and I haven't felt like trying the comparison the OP just did :)  If my NUC dies every few years, $500 to $700 grabs a new one with up to date hardware and my music is still carried by light before hitting my DAC...

Most streamers, not all, don't have the necessary CPU and memory to run roon core. That's the main difference. I keep my NUC in my office and a streamer in the audio rack, both on the same network.  I have used a NUC directly connected to a DAC via USB. As long as you have a good modern DAC using asynchronous USB,  for instance a Benchmark DAC 3, noise shouldn't be a problem. 

If you don't hear a difference then there's no difference to you. I wouldn't care about others opinions if I were you. I've tried streamers from about $4500 and down and heard no difference. Buy a streamer based on features (do you need AES, USB, etc.?) and usability. Someone is going to tell you it's your USB cable or your system (not revealing enough has already been covered above). Ignore them and enjoy the money you save.