AudioLinux NUC

[Bartype]

@Confused 

Yes - I found that when I connected the other components back in - the sound was the same - very good. I have to say the sound quality wasn’t degraded by having, together or individually, the SOtM tXUSB and Mutec MC3 and REF-10 in the chain. And I want to be clear I have really enjoyed the SQ these components brought to my system. The surprise to me was that when I added these components with the NUC the sound quality didn’t get better. Being greedy I guess....

Low Cost - you mentioned low cost - I read about how one could check out this audiolinux approach for $30 US dollars - that definitely caught my attention. Why not eh? However, I’m not sure how that works at all - my experience is this is not accurate for those of us that need help implementing a AL NUC.

Hand Delivery - I agree that Larry is not coming to the UK to hand deliver NUCs - but I’m sure he has a post office near by.

In terms of you trying a USB direct - in the past I understood the XLR input was the best, I feel like recently Devialet have indicated that the USB is a very good input. You should give this a try - why not?

In terms of the cash windfall - I have begun selling my previous components - I do think they are great components and indeed people have been buying them. Some of the cash is going to buy the NUCs and the rest is there for the next purchase. You may not have noticed in my post but I did go from my 120 to a 1000pro a couple of years ago - kind of like 0 to 60 in a British sports car. Most damning of all though, the NUC was a bigger improvement than the move to the 1000 pro CI....sorry.

In terms of speakers - I have Magico S3 speakers.

Additionally, so far, I have been l been listening to music through ROON and not HQP - and it sounds really good. Previously my go to was listening to HQP through ROON with Convolution by Thierry. The magic I am hear now is just through ROON (up sampled to 192). No HQP. No Convolution. The NUC Server has a trial of HQP Embedded that I will try in a few days.

I have followed your posts with interests because we seem to have had similar approaches. The NUC approach is very interesting.

@midi
It is not necessary to do both an Endpoint and Server. In fact, I upgraded to the End Point for a few weeks before upgrading to the Server. I would definitely do the End Point first. There may be people providing the same products/service that NUCklehead provides near you but if not contact Larry and see if he can help you. 

Dan

This is all very interesting! I am considering to go the NUC way, building them myself. If i understand correctly, one NUC is running Roon Rock, the other Audiolinux with an usb with Roon Bridge? This second NUC is then directly connected to the Devialet with USB? Also, is it a good option to put enough storage within the Roon rock to put your music collection on, so you can leave the NAS (or other storage) out of the chain?