John Darko
If you’ve considered building your own Roon server by adding an SSD and RAM to an Intel NUC and installing Roon’s ROCK operating system on top, you’ve almost missed the boat. Intel killed its NUC line last year and scratching around on the second-hand market can often take the shine off of doing it yourself.
All is not lost.
Today, Roon has announced the Nucleus One: a Roon server that doesn’t come with the Nucleus Titan’s multi-thousand dollar asking price. From the press release: the Nucleus One is “molded [sic] from high-quality polycarbonate with visual characteristics that echo the premium Nucleus Titan.”
The Nucleus One is a plug-and-play device. Connect it to the mains, hook a LAN cable into its rear and turn it on. Presto! Your Roon Core server is now up and running. The Nucleus One can be tucked away out of sight or placed in a hi-fi rack where one of its two USB-A ports (or single HDMI output) could feed an external DAC. There are also two ways to add a local library of songs to the Nucleus One: 1) connect an external USB storage device to the other USB port or 2) fit an SSD (up to 8TB) to the device’s undercarriage.
The Nucleus One has been priced at US$499, which makes it a more cost-effective solution for cash-rich/time-poor Roon users. Pre-orders are being taken now with shipping beginning in May.
Further information: Roon
