Roon - the next step?

[petrik]

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.

Thanks for the reply.
I really like the idea of the NUC option and I know someone who can build it for me. The bang for bucks here is attractive as i can get i7 processor and the Nucleus at this level is £2300. So the saving here is huge.
However I have to have the NUC in my Hifi rack and at this stage I will be connecting it by USB to the Devialet without the use of a music player, but thanks for the clarification on this point. My lap top sounds pretty damn good to me via USB so at this stage I am just looking to replace that I guess.

The i7 NUC will be a bit noisier... unless you can find a fanless case for it (I haven't found any).

Here's a review:
http://nucblog.net/2017/04/kaby-lake-i7-...nclusions/