Using Mac Mini as streamer plus music server

[awkaplan]

@roestano

Some of my observations listed below are using the Roon Nucleus unboxed with its supplied power supply which is a typical computer laptop PSU.

1. Streaming directly from the Roon Nucleus to the Devialets, the music is a lot more quieter. You can hear more into the low level details now than you would earlier with the Macbook Air setup.

2. The tonal characteristics too have changed ... its more rounded in a nice way that is more "real sounding" ... I'm a hobbyist violinist and now the violins are sounding soooo real and accurate. It's more analog ... but there's no masking of the sound. It's more organic ! The sound is more richer and warm.

3. The soundstage is better delineated ... better soundstage width, depth & height and more of 3-dimensionality ...

Since then, I built an oversized Linear Power Supply with choke using Audioquest powercords and Cardas internal wiring and once that was incorporated into my system, all the above 1-3 went a measure (or couple of measures) higher ...

Now, from here, I did try and go back to my Macbook Air but no way ... it just sounds anemic !!

Hope this helps !

Very interesting! 
Streaming directly from the Roon Nucleus to the Devialets. Do you use AIR or USB?

Would love to A/B with the 8th-gen i3 NUC from Intel.  The new i3 performs (allegedly) as well as the previous i7.  I kitted mine out with the suggested 8gb max RAM and a faster m.2 drive.  Will eventually get to dealing with the power situation, but so far my router is getting clean power.  At first I missed the sound of my MacBook Air as the core, but the double-WiFi setup proved too demanding at times, although this was before RAAT was available for the Devialet as an endpoint.

Either way, the ROCK NUC project was entertaining and worked without incident.  Just make sure the m.2 and RAM are all secure, use static IPs and force the use of a more robust DNS service (sped things up a touch), and you have a great little brain for your system with plenty of headroom for DSP etc.  You can shut off most of the unnecessary hardware in the easy-to-use visual BIOS.  Everything needed arrived next-day from Amazon for under $500.

I’ve been experimenting with different Ethernet cables between my fiber gateway, router, and NUC.  The cable between the wireless router and the NUC seems to impart a certain signature, albeit slight, on the sound.  I happened to have picked a router with a relatively low power draw, which may or may not make a difference.  It does have the power to get the bits to the Devialet without incident, and I like what I’m hearing.  Perhaps as my system becomes more resolving, I’ll need to make changes, but I don’t feel as if I’ve skimped.  If anything, I may have found a “sweet spot” on the transmission end of things. I do eventually want that entire cluster of hardware on clean power, though.