Roon - the next step?

[baddog]

OK the NUC option, I have been doing a bit of research and you guys who use this method is it noisy as I will have to have it on my hifi rack or close to it.

Another basic question is why is a Microrendu or any other music player necessary or am I missing a basic point here?

My NUC makes no noise at all, not enough load on it to even power on the fans such that you can hear them. Also if you are using the NUC to send data down to another device connected to the Devialet you could place it anywhere in your home, and just connect it via ethernet. Once set up the only time you would ever have to physically touch it is to power it on. Power off can be done remotely via a web browser. There are other options too such that you could leave it powered on, or use WAKE ON LAN to wake it up remotely.

As to your second question, you could, in fact, connect the NUC via USB to the Devialet, many folks use a device such as the SoTM or microRendu because they feel it offers better sound quality than a straight USB output from the NUC.