£200 streaming option beats all comers upto £5K

[Confused]

Why did I buy a Devialet system? Well, I did originally hear it at a HiFi show in Bristol about five years ago. In truth I have always liked Naim products but when looking for a compromise that would run with my AV setup I also did not want another pile of boxes. I also wanted something that was easily configurable and allowed me to exclude the irrelevant. My 250 fits that bill perfectly and sounds pretty good as well. I now have a two box solution. The MacBook on which I run Roon and the 250 itself.

Now, having achieved such a minimalist and controllable solution why would I want to enter the world of NUCs  and DIY? I admit I am not really a tweeker and have zero intention of getting down and dirty with Linux either. As it stands, my “clean” solution still comes with quite a lot of messy wires attached to the TV, AV amp, the router, the switch, the DVD player, the telephone, the Sky Q box and the speakers, all six of them. If Devialet are not delivering the shortest, cleanest and clearest delivery of music from source  then we are all being short changed. In essence what you are proposing seems to contradict the ethos of buying and owning a Pro.

Well, for those for whom the simplicity of the system and a "one box" solution are important, then clearly this thread is of no interest.  This may be stating the obvious, but anything like this is entirely optional.  Choices are good, and ignoring this thread will be reasonable option for many.  Indeed, I have no medium term plans to try it myself, my "work life balance" is appalling at the moment, so the last thing I want to with my free time is mess around trying to get an AudioLinux NUC working.  Plus, I am not familiar with Linux, so this would be quite a learning curve and very time consuming for me, so it is just not an option at the moment.  I'd rather wait for a robust "turn key" solution to emerge.

That said, for some the "one box" solution is not the most important aspect of a Devialet.  It was not a consideration when I bought mine, I would have been more than happy with a multiple box solution, the ethos for me was achieving the best sound quality possible for the money.  And here is the key point I think, there are some with Devialet's spending a lot of cash in an attempt to get sound quality improvements.  Some streaming solutions cost £1000's, mains conditioners cost £1000's, some cables cost £1000's, room treatments can cost £1000's.  Indeed, many of us got the Pro upgrade for the sound quality enhancements, not for the CI Board functionality, and that was £1000's.

This is why I think the NUC / AudioLinux solution is so interesting.  If reports are to be believed, this offers the potential for a significant increase in sound quality, and it costs £100's, not £1000's.  Plus, if a one box solution is important, the NUC itself is pretty small and could be hidden away. 

As I mentioned above, I have no medium term plans to try this option, but it is compelling enough for me to keep an eye on developments.  Indeed, for anyone who is about to spend a lot of cash on a new streamer, it might be worth considering the a "wait and see" approach in the short term. 

As an aside, I believe some of the AudioLinux NUC goodness might be available in this:

https://thelinearsolution.com/streamer.html

This is a very new product.  I have no idea if it is any good or not, there are very few technical details available and no reports or reviews regarding sound quality.  It does have potential though, running "Low Latency" Dream OS, and the case looks very much like an off the shelf NUC case.  So an interesting new product, something else I will be keeping an eye on.