The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

displayname said:
I still love mine, and I still think it stands alone at it’s price point. Above the node 2i (not massively, but has some nice additions for the money).

Tidal connect will be icing on the cake once they roll out the update.
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Sorry not the CXN, the DAC in my Stellar is plenty good enough, I was referring to the Allo bridge that I had linked to above to allow for DSD playback in my system.
 
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Joe Mac said:
Sprry not the CXN, the DAC in my Stellar is plenty good enough, I was referring to the Allo bridge that I had linked to above to allow for DSD playback in my system.
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Ah. Well if you’ve got DSD files I think it’s certainly worth an experiment either way.
 
btw i did try in audirvana upsampling and.... tbh it kinda makes things sound wrong... like the PRaT is just wrong... it feels like the production is so much more chunky and calculated, like it was trying to play in a way that was off rhythm.. maybe that might be audirvana having weird sound settings but i dont remember these songs being so clunky in the way guitar plucks sound (and one of the songs tested is a high quality HD tracks remaster)

this could also probably be because my dac or PC is not great at upsampling, even with about a minutes worth of audio in the ram buffer there are noticable pauses on stuff upscaled too high
 
I know some of you use a NUC for Roon. Are there any recommendations on specs to go for? I'm debating buying one to mess with, but was wondering a few things....First off, I"m primarily a Mac household so is it silly to go for an Intel NUC and will there be any compatibility issues? I'm figuring there won't be, but then a Mac Mini is the other option for a small server so something to consider on my end...
 
MikeH said:
I know some of you use a NUC for Roon. Are there any recommendations on specs to go for? I'm debating buying one to mess with, but was wondering a few things....First off, I"m primarily a Mac household so is it silly to go for an Intel NUC and will there be any compatibility issues? I'm figuring there won't be, but then a Mac Mini is the other option for a small server so something to consider on my end...
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I've the I3. It has about 1000+ cds ripped to flac, a load of WAV downloads and it's great. Quick as you like. I'm using the WD SSD external hard drive to store my library on. I did have a NAS but the hard drive seems just as quick
 
MikeH said:
I know some of you use a NUC for Roon. Are there any recommendations on specs to go for? I'm debating buying one to mess with, but was wondering a few things....First off, I"m primarily a Mac household so is it silly to go for an Intel NUC and will there be any compatibility issues? I'm figuring there won't be, but then a Mac Mini is the other option for a small server so something to consider on my end...
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I'm guessing this is being used as roon server, I'm pretty sure a nuc can do it well as that's what tech YouTuber snazzy labs does for it with the i5 varient and 8 gigs of ram.
 
MikeH said:
I know some of you use a NUC for Roon. Are there any recommendations on specs to go for? I'm debating buying one to mess with, but was wondering a few things....First off, I"m primarily a Mac household so is it silly to go for an Intel NUC and will there be any compatibility issues? I'm figuring there won't be, but then a Mac Mini is the other option for a small server so something to consider on my end...
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No because it’s a more an always device more than a computer, rock is the OS so you’re not installing on top of windows etc. That’s great because you don’t have to keep checking it either remotely to update macOS or windows or whatever. It’s much more the equivalent of making your own cheaper nucleus than using a Mac mini etc. With a small library and mostly streaming an i3 may be enough, the larger the library gets the more you should look at an i5 or i7 for processing power. The bits I bought are:

Intel Nuc Baby Canyon Nuc7I7Bnh... Amazon product ASIN B01N0RL8Q4
Crucial CT8G4SFS824A 8 GB (DDR4,... Amazon product ASIN B01BIWKP58
TCSUNBOW M.2 SATAIII NGFF32 GB... Amazon product ASIN B078H763FF
Seagate FireCuda ST2000LX001... Amazon product ASIN B07H2F3741
That NUC May no longer be current but it will have been replaced by an equivalent.
 
duke86fan said:
I'm guessing this is being used as roon server, I'm pretty sure a nuc can do it well as that's what tech YouTuber snazzy labs does for it with the i5 varient and 8 gigs of ram.
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Yea--right now my Roon server is just on my iMac which is always on for work but I want to move it to a NUC or dedicated comp instead.
 
Joe Mac said:
No because it’s a more an always device more than a computer, rock is the OS so you’re not installing on top of windows etc. That’s great because you don’t have to keep checking it either remotely to update macOS or windows or whatever. It’s much more the equivalent of making your own cheaper nucleus than using a Mac mini etc. With a small library and mostly streaming an i3 may be enough, the larger the library gets the more you should look at an i5 or i7 for processing power. The bits I bought are:

Intel Nuc Baby Canyon Nuc7I7Bnh... Amazon product ASIN B01N0RL8Q4
Crucial CT8G4SFS824A 8 GB (DDR4,... Amazon product ASIN B01BIWKP58
TCSUNBOW M.2 SATAIII NGFF32 GB... Amazon product ASIN B078H763FF
Seagate FireCuda ST2000LX001... Amazon product ASIN B07H2F3741
That NUC May no longer be current but it will have been replaced by an equivalent.
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This is the key part really. For a 1000 ish library the I3 is perfect. If you're in to the multi thousands maybe not. I'm pretty sure my Teac Nt505 takes care of upscaling too so I don't think that puts pressure on the nucs processing power
 
Joe Mac said:
No because it’s a more an always device more than a computer, rock is the OS so you’re not installing on top of windows etc. That’s great because you don’t have to keep checking it either remotely to update macOS or windows or whatever. It’s much more the equivalent of making your own cheaper nucleus than using a Mac mini etc. With a small library and mostly streaming an i3 may be enough, the larger the library gets the more you should look at an i5 or i7 for processing power. The bits I bought are:

Intel Nuc Baby Canyon Nuc7I7Bnh... Amazon product ASIN B01N0RL8Q4
Crucial CT8G4SFS824A 8 GB (DDR4,... Amazon product ASIN B01BIWKP58
TCSUNBOW M.2 SATAIII NGFF32 GB... Amazon product ASIN B078H763FF
Seagate FireCuda ST2000LX001... Amazon product ASIN B07H2F3741
That NUC May no longer be current but it will have been replaced by an equivalent.
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Awesome--thanks for this! I have only started looking into it so am not SUPER familiar with it all but this list is greatly appreciated. I'll give it a look! The only thought with a Mac Mini instead is that it may have more use to me in the long run if i want to separately use it as a computer or another use later on. But the price differential might not make any sense. I need to research some more but this is super helpful so thanks!
 
Rowan said:
This is the key part really. For a 1000 ish library the I3 is perfect. If you're in to the multi thousands maybe not. I'm pretty sure my Teac Nt505 takes care of upscaling too so I don't think that puts pressure on the nucs processing power
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Yeah I agree. To be honest I think an i3 was enough for me but I got that from the warehouse cheaper than the i3 so ran with it. Couldn’t be happier!

MikeH said:
Awesome--thanks for this! I have only started looking into it so am not SUPER familiar with it all but this list is greatly appreciated. I'll give it a look! The only thought with a Mac Mini instead is that it may have more use to me in the long run if i want to separately use it as a computer or another use later on. But the price differential might not make any sense. I need to research some more but this is super helpful so thanks!
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I suppose it all depends what you want. I’m glad to have what is an effect a server or device that is always there and on when I want music and to have a computer that I can turn off when I don’t want it in use. it is still super easy to rip CDs on my MacBook and network copy them to my NUC which sits happily next to my router on top of a bookcase in the hallway!
 
Rowan said:
This is the key part really. For a 1000 ish library the I3 is perfect. If you're in to the multi thousands maybe not. I'm pretty sure my Teac Nt505 takes care of upscaling too so I don't think that puts pressure on the nucs processing power
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Yeah this is an important question

How many songs does @MikeH have that would have to be processed
 
MikeH said:
Awesome--thanks for this! I have only started looking into it so am not SUPER familiar with it all but this list is greatly appreciated. I'll give it a look! The only thought with a Mac Mini instead is that it may have more use to me in the long run if i want to separately use it as a computer or another use later on. But the price differential might not make any sense. I need to research some more but this is super helpful so thanks!
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I agree with everyone else, but I got the i5 NUC purely because I like spending money on needless hardware. If your library is like sub-1k, the i3 would be fine. I’m a huge fan of my NUC btw, made Roon seamless.
 
MikeH said:
I'm at about 400 ripped albums right now so around 200GB or so. I anticipate that number will only go up though.
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I've 1000 plus and the i3 isnt missing a beat. So basically you're probably solid whichever way you go. As Rafa would say, you have many possibilities
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
@MikeH I have a setup like yours, external drive attached to my iMac. It is in my office and always on pretty much. I have just broke the 2,000 albums mark. Roon and the 2i Node have no problems with this setup for now.
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Nice! Yea--I have my Aries Mini as an end point in another room and my iMac has no issues connecting to it and the streaming quality is great. The only thing with my current setup is that I do quite a lot of processor intensive work so I'd prefer not to run Roon Core off my iMac anymore. If my research is right though, I could still use my office comp as a Roon endpoint with the Roon software. Or I have a Chromecast Audio which could potentially be used as an endpoint in my office now? Not sure if that puts a cap on the audio quality or not (again...I'm fresh into doing research into this aspect of it but am just curious about my best potential move here). I like the idea of being able to control the music from my computer, just don't want to run the core on it as that seems to eat up way more processor power than if it was simply an end point...
 
MikeH said:
Nice! Yea--I have my Aries Mini as an end point in another room and my iMac has no issues connecting to it and the streaming quality is great. The only thing with my current setup is that I do quite a lot of processor intensive work so I'd prefer not to run Roon Core off my iMac anymore. If my research is right though, I could still use my office comp as a Roon endpoint with the Roon software. Or I have a Chromecast Audio which could potentially be used as an endpoint in my office now? Not sure if that puts a cap on the audio quality or not (again...I'm fresh into doing research into this aspect of it but am just curious about my best potential move here). I like the idea of being able to control the music from my computer, just don't want to run the core on it as that seems to eat up way more processor power than if it was simply an end point...
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Yeah so long as you have the roon app installed on it you can use it as a controller and also an endpoint.
 
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