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Dedicated NUC/Nucleaus vs shared PC (w Fiber Media Converter connected to Endpoint)

A Roon system of 2 devices includes:

- Music Server (NUC/Nucleaus/PC, etc...)

- Endpoint (SOtM, Sonore, etc..)

with Fiber Media Converter in between.

I think we all agree that a dedicated machine of NUC/Nucleaus will be better than a shared PC as a music server. But is there a big difference of sound quality if we have optical isolation between the shared PC and an endpoint ?

Here is the idea:

A shared PC creates 2 problems:

- Analog noises (from power, fan..). But most of them can be eliminated by optical isolation like Fiber Media Converter (according to Small Green Computer).

- Latency, jitter (because PC run many other tasks). But the endpoint and DAC have buffers. So all jitters before DAC can be ignored. Besides, if we don’t listen to too fast music, the issue (if happen) will not impact much.

So does a NUC really brings a difference, compared with a shared Pc connected with endpoint through FIber media converter ????

truongv0ky

Showing 1 response by rudyb

rudyb
141 posts
 

I've tried both, a dedicated fan less PC and a normal PC. I could not hear any difference. Even if a music player is the only running app, Windows still runs a plethora of background tasks. I would not worry about that. Besides, any 'dedicated' streamer or player that runs on an operating system does too.

I used a USB to USB galvanic isolator and that made a huge difference. It takes out literally all the PC noise. There also are USB to optical (toslink) converters on the market, 192kHz / 24 bit ... more than enough for normal music playback.

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