Roon - the next step?

[musialsuspect]

I'm running Roon using my Innuos ZENith Mk II as the core and using USB. No issues...but I'm running a basic setup, no DSP.

[Womaz]

Just an update for anyone who is interested or has contributed to this thread.
I have now ordered the Roon Nucleus. After a lot of deliberation and waiting for the Melco to be Roon ready my hand was forced really as I had another episode of Wifi problems.
If any of you have followed my posts (rants) on here you will know that I am keen to get a USB connection so this will now be achieved with the Nucleus.
My Roon Core has been running on my work lap top which was 5 years old. It was time to replace this and I did so with a Lenovo i7 8th gen model.
I transferred my Roon Core to this as it was a much higher spec machine. Or is it ? ;-)
This is where my problems started. Roon performance using wifi was poor .
I am having to press play in between 5 and 10 times to get an album playing , whether it is Tidal or my own music. I get the running blue line in the track playing section. Audio device being used is another message that pops up.
It had to be the new lap top as nothing else has changed. So I connected the new lap top by Ethernet to the router and yes it works great. So it’s a wifi issue. As you will know I am no expert but apparently newer lap tops sometimes have inferior parts to the older ones to keep costs down. It looks like my new laptop has a worse wifi adapter than my old one……..you could not make this up ;-)
I know Roon recommend a hard wired connection to the Roon Core , but I have never had this as in my set up this is impossible.
Also with my system I connect the lap top by USB when I do my serious listening. So with the new lap top it does not give me the USB zone. I need to persist with this as I just gave up last night.
Another thing I have noticed before the new lap top is I think Roon 1.6 has a lot more issues than previous versions, so it is maybe a combination of this and the new lap top that has caused these issues.
I am looking on the positive side though. This finally broke me and the Nucleus is on order. A wait time of 8 weeks though, so I may have to reinstall Roon on the old lap top if things do not improve.

What is your experience with the Nucleus? I’m at the point i want to ditch my iMac wich i use as a Roon Core and thinking about getting the Innuos ZenMini mk3 worh an wxternal power supply. What made you choose for the Nucleus in stead of the Innuos? And what is the difference in sound when you compare the Nucleus with your older laptop setup?


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk

My apologies for the late reply I am not as frequent a visitor to this forum anymore . I am not sure I noticed a difference in sound quality , but it’s stable and that was my main aim. It works more or less flawlessly

[K4680]

Very interesting!! 
The Silent Angel Rhein Z1 from Thunder Data (the silver device on the top right) is a server specially optimized for Roon Core with an integrated 1 TB SSD for data only and a 256 GB SSD for the OS.  The passively cooled device has about the form factor of a Mac mini, but weighs almost five times (!) As much due to the solid aluminum case and is slightly higher.  Technically, it should be clearly superior to the original Roon Nucleus (approx. 1,500 euros), but hardly costs (incl. 1 TB SSD), namely 1,700 euros.  (Fair report North German HiFi Days 2020)

https://www.mactechnews.de/news/article/...74288.html

[Flashman]

Very interesting!! 
The Silent Angel Rhein Z1 from Thunder Data (the silver device on the top right) is a server specially optimized for Roon Core with an integrated 1 TB SSD for data only and a 256 GB SSD for the OS.  The passively cooled device has about the form factor of a Mac mini, but weighs almost five times (!) As much due to the solid aluminum case and is slightly higher.  Technically, it should be clearly superior to the original Roon Nucleus (approx. 1,500 euros), but hardly costs (incl. 1 TB SSD), namely 1,700 euros.  (Fair report North German HiFi Days 2020)

https://www.mactechnews.de/news/article/...74288.html

You may wish to review this thread from the Roon forum.  According to Roon management, the Rhein Z1 is not an official Roon partner and is violating their terms.  The original thread ended with some information from Thunder Data indicating they had made changes to avoid a conflict.  Not sure where that stands right now.

[K4680]

Very interesting!! 
The Silent Angel Rhein Z1 from Thunder Data (the silver device on the top right) is a server specially optimized for Roon Core with an integrated 1 TB SSD for data only and a 256 GB SSD for the OS.  The passively cooled device has about the form factor of a Mac mini, but weighs almost five times (!) As much due to the solid aluminum case and is slightly higher.  Technically, it should be clearly superior to the original Roon Nucleus (approx. 1,500 euros), but hardly costs (incl. 1 TB SSD), namely 1,700 euros.  (Fair report North German HiFi Days 2020)

https://www.mactechnews.de/news/article/...74288.html

You may wish to review this thread from the Roon forum.  According to Roon management, the Rhein Z1 is not an official Roon partner and is violating their terms.  The original thread ended with some information from Thunder Data indicating they had made changes to avoid a conflict.  Not sure where that stands right now.

You may already be negotiating with Roon!

http://www.thunder-data.com/e-z5

[mdconnelly]

Their marketing strives to be detailed and specific yet does a lot of hand-waving about how Roon fits into their VitOS operating system nor does it expand on the processor or overall performance. The fact that it states it will support just 2 zones might imply a fairly low-end processor. I suspect VitOS is a stripped down version of linux that is capable of running Roon Server or ROCK, but that is not clear. Where they crossed the line was in stating that Roon would be included which is against Roon's policies. Perhaps it's similar to what Small Green Computer has done with their Sonic Transporter.

Still, an interesting alternative to a Nucleus that could run more then just Roon (assuming it has a sufficently robust processor to do so).

[Antoine]

@mdconnelly , they ‘forgot’ to remove the identifying model number from the CPU (SR2KS) which is a Celeron J3160 which is indeed a fairly low-end CPU. The 6W power usage they mention on their website corresponds to Intel’s specs.

http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SR/SR2KS.html

[mdconnelly]

@Antoine - nice catch! So if I had a sizable library, a desire to use DSP or to play to multiple zones, using Roon on the Rhein Z1 would not seem to be a good fit. It's yet to be seen (heard) how much better it may sound given it's design.

[K4680]

Roon 1.7/521

Hello just now, Roon 1.7 / 521 installed.  New subdivision for new releases (rock, jazz, ...).  Runs stably without problems.  It's impressive how quickly Roon implants new options!  Could other manufacturers take an example!

[K4680]

The new IOS Roon V1.700521 has just been released. Installation, even without problems. Super!!