Maximize Mini with Roon to match my system -- or new component?

But I have a question for the forum, why not keep the Mac Mini as the Roon core and invest in a lower cost streamer that can act as a Roon endpoint? 

I tell me story ...again.   I was streaming with a Bryston BDP-pi.  Its just a Raspberry Pi implementation with good components and Open Source MPD.  Totally satisfied with the SQ.  Frankly thought it sounded great.  

Then I spun up a Roon Core on a Mini with a trial just to check out the interface and used the Bryston as the endpoint.  The Bryston easily switches back forth from dedicated streamer to endpoint.  I wasn’t even really paying attention to SQ.    I had the Radio Paradise app going witch streams at 16/48 FLAC and has a reputation for sounding as good as any radio stream.   Cant remember what but I was fiddling with the set up and I realized something was different.  So I sat down and put an ear to it.  Thats when it became obvious the ROON’s sound stage was flat as a pancake, depthless.  Bummer. 

After researching on here I re hosted the Roon Core to and SGC ST i5.  Upgraded the network cables and hooked both the Bryston and ST to a mesh node. Bang, Roon sound close enough to the Bryston for everything but the most critical listening.  If I want to eek out that last little bit of SQ experience I simply revert the Bryston back to the MPD player and enjoy.  For most of my listening its ROON.  Total cost of the upgrade was ~$1.3K.

Note:  Typical experience.  Something pops on Radio Paradise I really like.  So I check out Qobuz version and see if its in HD.  Then give it a whirl.  If I really like it then I switch to the Bryston and listen on Qobuz.   Sometimes its yields those final SQ nuggets and sometimes it don’t.     

Per the PL upgrades the Duelund CAST coupling caps and I believe the VHAudio caps on bias board OP in that thread are A+ choices. These will provide the qualities you seek. By the way, the PL was part of my amp rotation along with Auralic Vega dac when I was playing with various Mac mini streamers, I could appreciate the difference with streaming mods with that setup.

With Roon the Core streamer is far more important than the Endpoint streamer, Core does all the heavy lifting, this has to manage the interface, indexing of sometimes huge libraries, interface with Qobuz, Tidal or some other stream provider, and it runs the actual Roon player. All this requires relatively high level of cpu, RAM compared to more basic/proprietary music player apps, so more powerful cpu, more RAM required for a quality Roon streamer. And then we have critical need of quality lps for thee streamer, this probably the most important aspect of any streamer. Running Roon core on a stock mini isn't much better than using any other general service computer, I know because I directly compared time and again, and I did many mods over many years with a number of minis. The highest possible mini I could possibly assemble didn't come close to competing with my present custom build streamer. I can decipher the design of these off the shelf streamers, the Lumin and Antipodes spoken of here will deem any mini, even fully modified, obsolete. Now, if your'e comparing $2-3K streamers to modded mini, the modded mini can compete, perhaps win here, but then you're likely $2-3K in on modded mini.

Ditch the Mini, not worth dumping a lot of money into it. Any streamer you purchase will require updates, and will have a EOL date. They are basically computers, will not last the test of time like other products. As soon as the "app" leaves the app store, the unit is a brick.

Buy your streamer of choice, then just plug in your external drive into that, enjoy your music. 

@jbuhl  @sns  Thanks for your commentary and experience regarding Roon core on a mini, very helpful. 

Update. 
Out of curiosity I got the clear Cardas usb cable, and just hooked it up between my mini and dac. 
 

this is just such a revealing system, feels dramatic compared to my cinnamon aq. 
 

I am waiting for the nagra streamer….