Roon Nucleus as a Streamer

@navyachts, I use a ROON Nucleus Rev B with an Sbooster LPS in my system because it is totally plug and play, it works seamlessly with all of my Apple devices, and it gives me access to tens of millions of tracks of recorded music with the touch of my finger. I stream music using Tidal and Qobuz 100% of the time, so for me getting one was a no brainer.

But before you jump in too deep I think that you should look at where you’re wanting to end up with your listening chain. It’s important that you get the best DAC that you can afford first because it will dictate how you system is going to sound over time. The Nucleus is a really neat convenience if you know exactly why you would want one. Since I listen to music a couple hours most days, the cost of the Nucleus + Tidal and Qobuz works out to be less than $0.50 per day.

As a second hand testimonial, my audio gear dealer routinely puts together and sells systems costing upwards of $200,000 plus. And because he’s in the trade he can use any music streamer/server on the market today. When I asked him if he had an Antipodes K50 at home like he does on his showroom floor, he said absolutely not. He uses a Roon Nucleus at his home and at his store for demoing different equipment because it has the best user interface.

adasdad  Great post, thanks, but I'm I ready this correctly? You and your dealer are using the Nucleus only, as a music server, then I presume, USB to your DAC and that's it?

@navyachts I'm not the previous poster, but I use my Nucleus exactly as you described it.  Ethernet connection to the nucleus.  My DAC (which is NOT Roon Ready) connects to it via USB allowing me to stream to it using Roon.  I have two other systems connected to Roon with the Nucleus sitting on my network and handling Core duties.  This allows me to use Ethernet to connect my two other systems instead of a USB connection.

big_greg - Thanks Greg. I tried to pull up your system, but it wouldn't load for me? I just wanted to check it out.

Off the subject, when you reply on these thread how do you get the @ in front of the members handle when you reply, like this:

@big_greg

I do like the idea of SGC option as the Sonic Transporter is a Roon core, that allows you to connect optically to your DAC rather than USB, thus giving you complete galvanic isolating, in turn giving you the best black background, I would think.

This is a much more costly option than Nucleus direct to DAC. Without out hearing it first, I'm not sure if it's worth the additional costs. Maybe more money should be spent on a better quality DAC?