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What do I look for in a NUC?

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I reject your music, and substitute my own.

Not really. I believe Tom and Roscoe are using their NUCs like a Mini. That is, as a server feeding a dac via usb, and possibly even storing music on an internal drive. Tom doesn't use Roon. Not sure about Roscoe.

The Nucleus/NUC from Roon is strictly a place on your network for Roon software to be running so you don't need a PC running on your network all the time to fetch the metadata that makes Roon what it is. You don't want a server/streamer tasked with that job. It doesn't store music either. Generally speaking it would be on your network and attach to your server/streamer/or possibly your dac (PS Audio with Bridge as an example) via Ethernet, not usb.

Because the music library and NUC are all network attached, they don't need to be in the room and you only need the server and LPS (if you use one) on your rack. I'm putting together a secondary system that has to fit in a very tight space with a Charlie optimized pi, LPS and dac (Chord) that takes up less space than a shoe box and sounds really good.

The NUC that Roscoe helped me build is working great. I previously had built another PC from components and it did not work as well. The NUC running Daphile is simple and can be accessed from anything on the network. I use a small RCA tablet that was just over $100 only to act as a browser so I can see Daphile. My wife uses her iphone to access it.

It should probably be noted the importance of a high quality usb cable. I know, I know, but it is quite critical. USB could be the most important wire in the system. Split cables powered by the LPS sound better than single cables.

We didn't realize how good the cable someone suggested to Charlie a couple years ago is until we started listening to others recently, as his cable isn't being made any longer.

We have recently heard a couple that rival it, and several that sound awful. It's remarkable, and the better ones have also sounded better in multiple systems. YMMV, but the YFS usb cable, and Triode Wire labs are quite good. We have not sampled many, and none from Cardas or other large vendors.

Jim brought the unobtanium cable to my system and it handily bested my Curious cable, I now realize just how important a USB cable is to musical enjoyment.

I have one of Dave's split USB/Power cables and using an iFi iPower 5VDC regulate PS with connector to the Mini-XLR 4-pin connector I used with a battery power supply.

This works very well along with the Virtue Audio USB cables made awhile ago with my PC running Windows 10 and driving the DAC. Others cables not so much.

For folks running Win10 that do not want the big developers updates, just put the system in metered connection mode in the options. Still does the security updates.

Working with Dave on an update to another USB cable, so will see what happens.

I have tested a few high end USB cables and The differences if there were any were indistinguishable to me

Tom and I used this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSZTD8N/ You'll need RAM and a small SSD if your media is all on a NAS or the Internet, a larger SSD if you want to store music locally.

Roscoe

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I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.

I have used this since August. I have no idea if it is as good as a NUC but the principle is similar.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QY8LDGX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Since there are a limited number of USB ports I use a powered multi USB port extender.

ray

Probably just as good, although the one Tom & I are using has toslink out in case you have a non-USB DAC (or don't want to deal with USB decrapifiers )

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I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.