Anyone have a Roon Nucleus One? Your experience positive or negative?

Since the RS 130 has no DAC, isn't it just something stuck in between that has no use. I am new to the thought of Roon, but wouldn't the Nucleus One simply connect to a DAC? what does the RS 130 do for your setup? Is the Nucleus One just a cheap streamer that requires another high quality streamer after it to improve the sound?

Yes you are correct the Roon does everything the Rose does. I bought the Nucleus to try Roon and consolidate my music from different sources and because I like the sound of the Rose just really not the user software as much. 

Would you say that having the Rose 130 after the Nucleus One improves the sound, or is that just the way it all worked out? I really like that Rose 130, but if the Nucleus One can sound similar going to my DAC, I may have to get over the beautiful looks. Thank you 2psyop.

@2psyop 

To your original question: I have had both a Nucleus Rev A and now a Nucleus One.  I purchased the Rev A in 2018 and was amazed at the sonic improvement over running Roon on a MBP I was using at the time (see other AG posts of mine for more details).  In 2024, it become flaky, shutting off by itself, not booting up unless it sat for a couple of days.  I took it apart and eventually installed a new CMOS battery, but that did solve the problem.  Roon thought it might need a new motherboard, weren’t even sure they had anymore, and replacing it would cost a couple hundred more dollars than a new Nucleus One . So I waited and bought a Nucleus One.  

In the meantime, my big system had been down due to needing new tubes for the ARC REF150SE, so I have not directly compared the sound of the two, but functionally the One is identical to the Rev A.  I laugh when I see Rev A, and Rev B’s priced more used, than a One, with a warranty, is new.  I would only buy a One at this point.  One trade-off the Rev’s have nice metal cases and the One’s case is plastic.  But it does not get hot.

-docknow

"Would you say that having the Rose 130 after the Nucleus One improves the sound, or is that just the way it all worked out? I really like that Rose 130, but if the Nucleus One can sound similar going to my DAC, I may have to get over the beautiful looks. Thank you 2psyop"

"To your original question: I have had both a Nucleus Rev A and now a Nucleus One.  I purchased the Rev A in 2018 and was amazed at the sonic improvement over running Roon on a MBP I was using at the time (see other AG posts of mine for more details).  In 2024, it become flaky, shutting off by itself, not booting up unless it sat for a couple of days.  I took it apart and eventually installed a new CMOS battery, but that did solve the problem.  Roon thought it might need a new motherboard, weren’t even sure they had anymore, and replacing it would cost a couple hundred more dollars than a new Nucleus One . So I waited and bought a Nucleus One.  

In the meantime, my big system had been down due to needing new tubes for the ARC REF150SE, so I have not directly compared the sound of the two, but functionally the One is identical to the Rev A.  I laugh when I see Rev A, and Rev B’s priced more used, than a One, with a warranty, is new.  I would only buy a One at this point.  One trade-off the Rev’s have nice metal cases and the One’s case is plastic.  But it does not get hot.

-docknow"

I have known other audiophiles who have built their own servers. That was not my desire at all. I bought the Rose to replace a Bluesound Node X and see if I could take up my source a couple notches. It did sound much better but the user software on the Rose was not great. I though it would be a good chance to try Roon, since the Rose was compatable. So yes it worked just fine but I didn’t try Roon on it’s own. Therefore I have not compared them. The Nucleus one has been very capable but I have not played with it much for various reasons... I think it can do much more than I am using it for. I have not really used it "by itself" to test sound quality.