Roon Nucleus One vs Roon PC

Roon is currently the leading manager in the sector and market for the playback of different audio sources, whether locally or via streaming. This company is currently part of the Harman group and operates independently of its parent company. However, this is not always the case. For example, the unit I used as a basis for writing this article is no longer manufactured in the United States but in Taiwan.

However, this is a matter of cost, not quality, so we will not delve into these issues and will leave it up to each individual to form their own opinion on the matter.

And, as always, we will provide context for everything so that it is clearly understood and can be of help to many other audio enthusiasts, based on this first-hand experience.

The owner of a high-end music system decides to enter the digital world as a means of expanding his musical knowledge and discovering new music without having to further saturate his extensive music collection, consisting of both vinyl and CDs. He didn't want to spend a lot of money, as he considered this option to be occasional and not essential to his listening experience. His trusted professional sells him a DAC that fits his musical tastes very well, and he decides to purchase a music server within a certain price range, the Roon Nucleus One. As a regular reader of the publication, he knows of my devotion to this product and purchases it. These are the basics.

When you buy a car, the dealer doesn't teach you how to drive; you have to know how to drive. When you buy a computer, they don't teach you basic office automation; you have to know that yourself. But when you buy a digital product with a certain degree of difficulty, who has to know how to use it?

Roon Nucleus One isn't working...

I receive a call asking for help to solve the problem. With the help of some screenshots from his iPhone, I get everything working and start it up for the first time. Then I explain what the problems were. A new digital world opens up to the analog enthusiast. And I say analog to the owner of a large CD collection, because the mentality of compact disc and vinyl owners is exactly the same. You look for the album in question, take it out of its protective sleeve, put it in the player, and press "Play." That's it. When you're done, you retrieve the physical format, put it back in its protective sleeve, and store it in its place on the shelf. The analog and digital formats move and work in the same way, using the same method. There is no change or difficulty.

But when you buy a music server of the quality of Roon and fill it with music from Qobuz, there's no turning back. And this is what happened to the analog enthusiast. He'll surely continue to enjoy his vinyl collection, but there's no turning back now. And now that music is flowing everywhere, the room seems to have been rejuvenated and filled with new air and sounds, until...

Roon Nucleus One has stopped working again...

I receive another call. This time the issue is very complicated, and although I'm getting closer to a solution, I can't quite figure out why the server isn't starting up properly. After quite some time and feeling very lost, I tell him to send the device to my house and I'll check it out.

I receive the Nucleus One in the afternoon and get to work on it the next morning. After ruling out internal problems with the machine, I perform some recovery work and the system is working perfectly again.

Here is a list of the problems that arose with this installation to serve as a guide for new users in the future:

The Roon system is based on two components: the server with the Roon OS operating system and the music manager.

Roon OS server manager. This is an application that can be installed on Android or Apple phones or their tablet versions. There is also a version for Windows and Mac. This is where we manage all the music and interact with the server. It is our virtual music shelf, where we have all our recordings, either locally, i.e., on a USB hard drive connected to Nucleus, a USB stick, a NAS, etc. The list is getting longer every day. And if we add a music streaming service such as Qobuz, we will never run out of the quantity and variety of music and styles.

But not everyone who uses and pays for a Roon license has a Nucleus One or its superior version, Nucleus Titan. There are people, like me, who have a dedicated PC to perform this server function. And this is where the confusion begins. Roon OS is not the same as the server manager. But people confuse them and install them together on their PC, and then we have two Roon OS servers in the same place with a license that only allows one...

So, with the knowledge gained from this situation, I am going to detail all the problems that can arise and their extremely easy solutions.

1. Roon OS and the server manager (APP or software) must be connected to the same data network. In my house, I have two separate data networks working in parallel. Keep an eye on this point, especially if you have repeaters that generate a Wi-Fi network other than the main one from the operator's router.
2. If you use repeaters, make sure they are working properly and are connected. In the case of this article, the owner misconfigured the entire system by touching things he shouldn't have because he didn't realize that the repeater was not connected to the power supply (this was his second problem).
3. If you want to use the server manager from Windows or Mac, make sure that when you want to connect to Roon OS, you go to the Nucleus and not the one that the system may have installed.
4. A server is designed to run continuously and continuously. Therefore, my advice is simple: turn it on and never turn it off, unless there is a risk of electrical damage if you do not have an adequate protection system.
5. The server manager, or Roon remote control, as it is described on the manufacturer's website, is the only thing that should be connected/disconnected. Never the server.
6. It hardly heats up at all. Therefore, its generous metal core performs its function as a heat diffuser correctly.
7. There is an LED on the Ethernet cable connection that flashes constantly while it is managing data input. If your server is not responding correctly, don't break everything. It is probably updating its files and installing a new version. Wait for it to finish and you will see how everything returns to normal.
8. In carpentry, they say: Measure twice and cut once. If you think you have to do something unusual, you are probably wrong. Go over the basics; it is not a question of lack of knowledge, but of prudence.

Roon Nucleus One vs Roon PC

To be honest, I had a number of arguments for weighing the pros and cons of one over the other. But I just visited the official Roon website and saw the current price. I'll just say that I'm considering purchasing a Nucleus One (*) and using my dedicated PC for NAS services. Nothing more to add. Well, yes. Maintaining a server within a Windows system causes a lot of problems; I know how to solve them, but it causes a lot of problems.

(*)PS: Taking advantage of the Black Friday deals, I've already purchased one. Waiting for it to arrive.

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