Best Server To Run Roon Core

A linear power supply and an upgraded DC cable is a critical addition, if you want to maximize SQ. I also recommend resonance control. 

@jmarshak : congratulations on the Roon lifetime membership purchase. It is the best purchase I have ever made in audio back in March 2017

Thanks @thyname

So as an update,

I have the nuc running Rock OS headless, in a fanless case. Roon UI is flying! Also, SQ improved. But not sure if improvement is due to the new Core setup, or because the new DAC is continuing to break-in. Regardless,I am not complaining!

Next, I would like to ad an LPS. I don’t have much hope that SQ will improve further, mainly because the core is not connected to the DAC directly (its connected through network), but figure it’s worth a try.

Apart for speed and “bandwidth”, the other benefit of your fanless NUC is a dedicated machine that runs headless 24/7 with no interruptions.

From my experience, since your Roon Core is not directly linked to DAC (I.e via USB cable), the LPS will not bring much to the table. That’s just my experience with a NUC first then Nucleus+. Some other people experienced an improvement. So you can definitely try for yourself.

I am using a Mac M1 mini Running Roon and HQplayer only. 

I am upsampling  everything to DSD512/ASDM7/poly-sinc-xtrr-mp-2s via HQPlayer. Runs flawlessly.

The rest of my system: McIntosh Mx-150/MC312 B&W Nautilus 803's