Hi Gregg,
Happy New Year!
The most expensive streamer in the world, Wadax Atlantis at $76,000 USD, runs a Roon core. Maybe you should consider that one instead (below) ; )
Cheers,
R
TAS:
“This new music server features cutting-edge technologies never seen in an audio product” (!)
I think they have an exclusivity on ugly 
This looks interesting- indeed! too bad it’s not available yet…
I would suspect that internally, it’s made from commodity parts. That said any competent PC repair shop should be able to fix it. I’d suspect a motherboard. Then, worst case, reload with the ROCK install usb drive.
Mine was completely death for several days and then suddenly and unexpectedly came alive. I did nothing just left it disconnected on shelf. It was a mistery case indeed with no explaination at all. Since then it’s been working trouble free.
Give it a try once again after some time.
You might want to look at Small Green Computer. They have several options for Roon cores at different price points. I have owned one and it performs well.
Replacement for a Nucleus +? Virtually any modern Mac Mini will do it. RJ45 built in. Entry level configs are low powered and very quiet
My dealer (who also has a pretty good shop) just told me that my Roon Nucleus+ needs a new board. Something just killed it all of a sudden. Roon “support” was no help of course, so I took it over to have their repair guys see what they could do. Unfortunately, it’s DOA, so it’s now a $2500 door stop. Good thing I got an Aurender N20! 
I’m sorry to hear that. But, yes, the Aurender is really great.
I’ll chime in. I started off using Roon on a MacMini and moved several years ago to a Nucleus and later a Plus model as my library outgrew the initial version. Then about 4 months ago I brought in a Grimm MU1 to see how it might do. What a leap in musicality among many other sonic benefits. I’ve got it wired up AES/EBU to my Upsampler and it’s wonderful. Even though it’s based on the Intel i3 it comes with 8gb memory which seems quite capable of handling my library of over 100k songs. If you can find a dealer able to offer you a trial in-house that’s the best way to judge it.
That release focuses a lot on the outside and conveniently provides virtually no detail at all about what’s inside. Is this just a warmed over Nucleus+ in a pretty stone(!?) case? Looking forward to the reviews/teardowns. Even at the relative bargain price of 1/20 the price of a Taiko Olympus $3,699 is a lot to pay for a NUC.
This may in part be driven by Intel’s pending withdrawal of their own NUC line.
Missed that Stuart, thanks. It may have had some influence but I would be surprised if it were a “driving factor”. While the two are two different solutions to the same problem I doubt their target market overlaps at all in practice, iow in marketing terms they are “alternatives” rather than “competitors”.
One is aimed at the tech-savvy DIY:er, while the other, if we are to believe the launch spiel, is more of a “lifestyle statement”. I doubt any serious hobbyist would consider a product with so much focus on style and so little on substance. Really curious to learn how the Titan moves the ball forward compared to the Nucleus+.
ASUS will be developing and producing NUCs with Intel’s blessing going forward
ASUS Officially Takes Over Intel NUC Product Lines at Signing Ceremony | News｜ASUS Global
14th gen NUCs have been announced
The ASUS NUC 14 Pro and NUC 14 Pro+ boost productivity with 14th Gen Intel CPUs, AI, and high-end connectivity - Edge Up
I believe Roon says nothing about an improvement in sound quality because they are honest: there is none, and, beside following industry protocols, none is possible. It is a large, solid state storage device whose sole job is to push bits to the DAC.
It’s dCS’s job to make those bits sound like something, and fortunately, they do a very good job.
: )
Running a Bartok here. Subscribe to Roon, Qobuz and Tidal. Very little owned music.
My Nucleus has quit as well. Probably four years old. Roon has sent me an RMA to send it in. $199 to repair or $450 for a motherboard. Two day turnaround is claimed. I’ve moved the core Roon Server program to a MacBook Pro, and USB connection, with some loss of memory of favorites, etc. The Nucleus hooks up via ethernet, which is best sounding for we dCS users. Mosaic sounds terrific but lacks the ability to see all the metadata about the music which I enjoy. As to surfing new music, I do that at the Qobuz/Tidal sites and then add what I like to their favorites. Roon then picks them up. I was pissed about the Roon service process, through the various blogs. Slow with volunteers and IT stuff, “connect to a monitor with HDMI, get a USB keyboard hooked up”. They are certainly not Apple. I’ve considered dropping Roon and just using Mosaic. My dealer recommends Aurrender or Innuous, but they are yet another duplication and I think require USB connection. The Roon subscription conveniently comes up for me next month. Still thinking.
All you need tin order o see much of the metadata and, I would guess all of what you need, for free simply requires you to open the Qobuz desktop player on your PC or Mac. Use Mosaic for playing Tidal and Qobuz but Qobuz offers much curated text material if you use the app fully. I wonder if you really need a Roon subscription as you have little owned music unless you also use its DSP functions? However I can’t comment on Tidal not being a subscriber.BTW Ii further data is required about artist, album or track remember the internet - again for free.
Hey Pete,
Good points, thanks. The Meta Data at Qobuz is actually pretty good. While I’m deciding what to do, I’ve got the core Roon Streaming program running on my MacBook Pro. USB input is pretty good but I got a dongle to hook up ethernet and the sound quality and speed are about back to Nucleus levels. dCS really does work best with ethernet. Rather than toss it, will probably send the Nucleus in for repair.
Good news the Intel NUC is not dead. Asus released new NUCs.