Best Server To Run Roon Core

@kingbarbudaI 

My Zenith replaced a SonicTransporter i5, SGC LPS and Synology NAS.

In my humble opinion, the Zenith is audibly better. In all fairness, the SGC ran the Roon DSP features without issue. 

The other thing to note is that the SGC i5 is not a streamer, just a Roon Core server whereas the Zenith can act as either or both.

Spend your money on your DACs - not your Roon core.   Roon core can run on simple PC.    I run mine on a repurposed Dell Win10 with 16GB of memory.    The library is on a NAS outside the box.    The Roon core PC runs 'headless' and occasionally I access it using VNC from another PC.

I recently went with a fanless, noiseless Small Green Computer sonicTransporter and an opticalRendu with Roon and couldn't be happier.  It plays MQA, 32 / 768 PCM, and up to DSD 512.  And, of course, Roon with it's new 1.8 rollout is great to work with.  

I have a question. I’m using the Cary Audio DMS600 Streamer/DAC with a Roon Nucleus and a Audioquest Vodka Ethernet Cable. Is there any additional devices that will improve the sound even more like an OpticalRendu, UltraRendu or an EtherREGEN? Any other option available? I am thinking about the Cary Audio DMS700.

Thanks

Get a roon endpoint.  Raspberry pi is your starting point but with a small upgrade to include a well designed HAT (hardware attached on top) you are one step from unbelievable sound at a great price.

For me, the PI2AES was the way to go and beat my mac mini hands down.

https://www.pi2design.com/pi2aes.html

The PI2AES (the so-called pi-HAT) is the roon endpoint.  You can't install roon directly on a raspberry so instead you install an operating system that functions as an endpoint.  I used RoPIeee|XL which is pretty straightforward if you know anything about unix:

https://codexwilkes.com/downloads/ropieee-guide-for-beginners.pdf

The difference between this and running on my mac mini was like night and day.  I would say this was the biggest bang for the buck I have yet experienced on my system.  

I run this into an ADI-2-DAC FS and it sounds amazing.  Here's a great  article that does a showdown using the PI2AES:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/streamer-ddc-showdown-pi2aes-vs-sotm-sms200-ultra-neo.939706/