What is your music and/or media server?

[Sonnie Parker]

This could really fall under several forums... as there are so many different types of servers and approaches to maintain your library of music and movies, in addition to streaming.

I purchased my Lenovo laptop and loaded my music on it, but now I'm second guessing that decision and thinking I'd be better off loading it on a server so that every computer/phone in the house could have access to it.

I love my laptop and will continue to use it in my listening room, but I want to add a server as well. I'm not currently downloading and storing movies... and not sure I'll go that route with movies, but my music library will continue to grow.

It would need to be Roon ready.

The Roon Nucleus is too proprietary and cost more than I want to spend. I'm heavily considering the Small Green Computer SonicTransporter i5 unit, but the verdict is still out.

I will continue to use my M17 processor as the player, so I really don't need anything with a DAC, as it would be wasted. I don't know of a way to bypass the M17 DACs and still take advantage of Dirac Live and use my subs along with my two-channel listening, which is a must of course. I could probably build something, but truthfully I'm getting lazy and would rather just have something ready to roll and already Roon ready.

Curious as to what others are using and/or what I might need to consider.

 

[ddude003]

I use both a MacBook Pro and a custom built Intel Core i7-7700K DeLid Overclocked to 5.0GHz Windoz 10 PC as a Roon Core... I also have MinimServer on both systems that can be directly accessed from my Lumin U1 mini... We have a Asus i7 Windoz 10 touchscreen lappy around here somewhere... Its pretty nice... My girl uses it mostly for her iTunes...

Most major PC manufactures have a NUC product offering... Have a look at the Intel and Asus NUCs... Compare the specs of the Roon Nucleus with the other NUCS... You could run them as a Win 10 Roon Core or even as a Roon Rock...

 

[Sonnie Parker]

The problem with comparisons is you really don't know a lot about what these companies have under the hood... and they are not user serviceable. I was chatting with Andrew at Small Green Computers today and I can't even replace the hard drive in their server. I definitely don't want the Nucleus, as it seems too proprietary and it cost too much. The part I like about the Sonic i5 is all I have to do is plug it up to the network and load my music... and it's fanless.

I'll check out the NUC units.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Something like this is really all I need, is it not? Connect it to the network, load my music on it... point Roon to the music folder on it and I'd be all set.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm curious: with quality of streaming from Qobuz and Tidal, what's the advantage of also storing your music onsite? Are we talking about albums that the Hi-Res streaming services don't have?

 

[Sonnie Parker]

They have most of them, but there area few they don't have. My situation is that I don't always stay subscribed to those services. My subs are intermittent, and if I suspend my sub for a few months or so, I still have my local music cataloged.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I get it... it's definitely nice to have all your own music accessible whether or not you're paying for a service.

I'm curious to see what you dig up... especially if it's crazy affordable!

 

[ddude003]

The problem with comparisons is you really don't know a lot about what these companies have under the hood... and they are not user serviceable. I was chatting with Andrew at Small Green Computers today and I can't even replace the hard drive in their server. I definitely don't want the Nucleus, as it seems too proprietary and it cost too much. The part I like about the Sonic i5 is all I have to do is plug it up to the network and load my music... and it's fanless.

I'll check out the NUC units.

It is the same situation with audio/video gear and computing gear... There is no "Good Housekeeping" labs that test everything the same way and publish the results... Audio Science Review is a step in the right direction... It is not easy comparing apples to oranges to mangos... If you study long and hard you begin to recognize what's important and what the differences are between the important parts and how it effects the performance...

 

[ddude003]

Something like this is really all I need, is it not? Connect it to the network, load my music on it... point Roon to the music folder on it and I'd be all set.

View attachment 35781

You are on the right track here Sonnie... Looks like a Roon Nucleus with better performance at half the price...

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I use both a MacBook Pro and a custom built Intel Core i7-7700K DeLid Overclocked to 5.0GHz Windoz 10 PC as a Roon Core... I also have MinimServer on both systems that can be directly accessed from my Lumin U1 mini... We have a Asus i7 Windoz 10 touchscreen lappy around here somewhere... Its pretty nice... My girl uses it mostly for her iTunes...

Most major PC manufactures have a NUC product offering... Have a look at the Intel and Asus NUCs... Compare the specs of the Roon Nucleus with the other NUCS... You could run them as a Win 10 Roon Core or even as a Roon Rock...

What are the major differences in MinimServer and Roon?

 

[ddude003]

What are the major differences in MinimServer and Roon?

For my use case, it just acts as a file system server aka NAS to the Lumin App and my U1 mini... I am sure it does a lot of other things and have never directly compared to Roon... Roon pulls together a lot of parts of storage & streaming access along with various pieces of source and destination audio hardware along with a reasonable user interface to configure the various parts and finding and playing from the various sources to the various destination devices...

 

[Allan T.]

I currently use a NUC as spec'ed by Roon for large libraries and run ROCK (the Roon Optimized Core Kit) for the OS. This uses an i7 and costs $520 for everything you need except the hard drive. I use a 4 TB external WD Passport drive to store my music. I have also used a regular PC for the server as well. Sound quality was excellent for both. (Make sure the PC configuration for Roon is in exclusive mode if that is your choice . . .) If you are reasonably computer savvy, assembling a NUC will only take a few minutes. The advantage to ROCK is that it makes the device an appliance. Excluding loading new flac files on the hard drive, I have not touched the unit.

If you want to use the regular PC functions in addition to the server functionality, a PC or Mac makes more sense. The unit spec'd above should be fine for Roon.

More info on the NUC route can be found at the following link.

POPUP

help.roonlabs.com

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I currently use a NUC as spec'ed by Roon for large libraries and run ROCK (the Roon Optimized Core Kit) for the OS. This uses an i7 and costs $520 for everything you need except the hard drive. I use a 4 TB external WD Passport drive to store my music. I have also used a regular PC for the server as well. Sound quality was excellent for both. (Make sure the PC configuration for Roon is in exclusive mode if that is your choice . . .) If you are reasonably computer savvy, assembling a NUC will only take a few minutes. The advantage to ROCK is that it makes the device an appliance. Excluding loading new flac files on the hard drive, I have not touched the unit.

If you want to use the regular PC functions in addition to the server functionality, a PC or Mac makes more sense. The unit spec'd above should be fine for Roon.

More info on the NUC route can be found at the following link.

POPUP

help.roonlabs.com

Interesting... trying to wrap my head around the benefit of ROCK. My thinking was to park the NUC in another room next to (and connected to) my switch where my fiber optic comes into the house. That keeps it on a different circuit from my audio system. So it won't be used for anything other than a server. I have not convinced myself (yet) to buy a larger drive and load my movies on it, but who knows... I might get Plex and go that route later, so having a machine that I can customize could at some point be important.

Back to understanding ROCK. It needs its own SSD, so a small SSD to run the OS and then get a larger SSD for storing the music?

Something else I noticed is if I don't get one of their recommended systems, updates to ROCK may cause it not to work in the future. I prefer to get a fanless unit so I don't have to worry about cleaning it later on, so it sounds like not using ROCK might be my best choice. I don't really see where I would necessarily need it in my case.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Hmmm ... anyone ever used this: https://www.highend-audiopc.com/audiophile-optimizer

Might be something to help make the server more "exclusive".

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I currently use a PC-based almost fanless but silent streamer for the files stored on my NAS. I generally use JRiver to manage and play the library but, occasionally, I use Roon. My current setup will play any format/resolution in multiple channels and, if choose, video as well including BD.

The important features are library management (including metadata tagging), search/select options, wide format acceptance, useful and appealing display and support. I used miniServer a long time ago and found it kind of primitive. I also tried foobar2000 and it seemed quite capable but I couldn't really get into it. Others, like Audirvana, are worth trying.

I recommend PC-based platforms (Win, Mac or Linux) rather that proprietary streamer/players because the latter are usually constrained by puny CPUs and cannot be easily upgraded.

 

[Allan T.]

Back to understanding ROCK. It needs its own SSD, so a small SSD to run the OS and then get a larger SSD for storing the music?

Correct.
Note that the $500 i& configuration is for 12,000 (or more) albums and/or DSP. If your needs are less than that you can go for the cheaper i3 configuration.

If you wanted to run fanless, you might be able check on the roon forums to see if anyone had recommendations.

If you really want to run video as well as audio servers, you might want to consider running a NAS. You can run both Roon and Plex off off NAS but I'm not really familiar with the pros and cons of that option.

Finally, Roon has a lifetime subscription or a yearly. I think that they will eventually drop the lifetime so that is the other thing to consider. They offer a trial version and you can load that up on an existing PC/Laptop to see if Roon is for you.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I currently use a PC-based almost fanless but silent streamer for the files stored on my NAS. I generally use JRiver to manage and play the library but, occasionally, I use Roon. My current setup will play any format/resolution in multiple channels and, if choose, video as well including BD.

The important features are library management (including metadata tagging), search/select options, wide format acceptance, useful and appealing display and support. I used miniServer a long time ago and found it kind of primitive. I also tried foobar2000 and it seemed quite capable but I couldn't really get into it. Others, like Audirvana, are worth trying.

I recommend PC-based platforms (Win, Mac or Linux) rather that proprietary streamer/players because the latter are usually constrained by puny CPUs and cannot be easily upgraded.

I think I've pretty much settled on Roon for my personal music and for qobuz, although I really do like JRiver. I wish JRiver would get qobuz/Tidal integrated. I've tried Audirvana and it was okay, but Roon ended up being a better performer for me.

I'm with you on the PC-based systems... can't see dropping even more bucks on a proprietary system that is not as good and can't be upgraded. The only thing they are doing is stripping down the unneeded processing, which I can do myself.

Correct.
Note that the $500 i& configuration is for 12,000 (or more) albums and/or DSP. If your needs are less than that you can go for the cheaper i3 configuration.

If you wanted to run fanless, you might be able check on the roon forums to see if anyone had recommendations.

If you really want to run video as well as audio servers, you might want to consider running a NAS. You can run both Roon and Plex off off NAS but I'm not really familiar with the pros and cons of that option.

Finally, Roon has a lifetime subscription or a yearly. I think that they will eventually drop the lifetime so that is the other thing to consider. They offer a trial version and you can load that up on an existing PC/Laptop to see if Roon is for you.

I may grab that Roon lifetime before too much longer, and hopefully before they drop it. I'm on the annual program now.

The NUC would essentially act as a NAS, and initially I'll probably fine tune it for Roon, then I may add Plex later on. I don't figure I'll need a lot of processing power if the NUC is basically going to act as the storage device. I'll just point the Roon software on my laptop to the music folder on the NUC. That will keep the setup simple.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Back to understanding ROCK. It needs its own SSD, so a small SSD to run the OS and then get a larger SSD for storing the music?

Kind of limiting, I think. I have 2 SSDs on my streamer, a 500Gb one for OS and the other 1Tb one for local storage and utilities. The actual music files are in a 48Tb real NAS with room for expansion.

I'm with you on the PC-based systems... can't see dropping even more bucks on a proprietary system that is not as good and can't be upgraded. The only thing they are doing is stripping down the unneeded processing, which I can do myself.

Let me add that no proprietary streamer that I know of will support multichannel at high resolution and a wide choice of DSP operations.

 

[Allan T.]

Kind of limiting, I think. I have 2 SSDs on my streamer, a 500Gb one for OS and the other 1Tb one for local storage and utilities. The actual music files are in a 48Tb real NAS with room for expansion.

With Roon, you can connect to storage on multiple devices and shares. It does not have to be directly connected. I personally have only connected my roon core directly with a 4 TB drive. I back up on a synology and I also keep another copy of the drive on another machine on my network.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

With Roon, you can connect to storage on multiple devices and shares. It does not have to be directly connected. I personally have only connected my roon core directly with a 4 TB drive. I back up on a synology and I also keep another copy of the drive on another machine on my network.

Of course.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Looking at the 10th gen Intel NUC10i7FNH1 (NUC10i7FNx on the Roon approved list) with 16GB Ram and a SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 250GB - PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. Then I’ll get a separate USB SSD for music storage. Total about $725 without the storage SSD.

The question is should I run Roon ROCK or Win10 Pro? I’m only going to use it for music at this point, with Roon, but I may later add Plex and do movies as well. I suppose I could always start with ROCK and then later add an O/S that will support both. I suppose ROCK would also eliminate using JRiver, but either way, I'm using Roon more and more as my exclusive music software.

 

[ddude003]

If Roon ROCK is free then what could you loose besides some time trying it... If you are planning on doing other things with this NUC err PC then get Windoz 10 and run Roon Core on it...

 

[Sonnie Parker]

At this point I'm only going to use it for Roon, as I am not quite ready to delve into movie storage at this time. While I do watch a movie twice on occasion, it's relatively rare. There are probably less than 5 that I've seen 3+ times (if I exclude all the Elvis movies, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer and It's a Wonderful Life when I was a kid). Of the movies in my current library... I've not watched more than a few multiple times. Music on the other hand, I've listened to some songs 100+ times already, and will continue to listen to them. I get in that state of AV NIRVANA and can't stop listening for hours on end. If later on I do decide to go down that movie library road, I can always add Win 10 or whatever I need to run more than Roon.

I've tried really really hard to justify buying a pre-built dedicated server, but I can't justify the extra money. I was close on the Small Green Computer SonicTransporter i5, but it is nothing more than an older gen i5 with 8GB Ram and a 64GB SSD running a Linux OS... at a higher price, although it appears to be the lowest of the pre-built dedicated servers I found. I think they are a great company, nice folks, but that doesn't ring up to the extra cost for me. The key here is not being able to find any substantial proof of any sound quality improvements over building my own NUC server and buying the pre-built, especially if placed in another room on a different circuit.

After getting the server setup, I'm more interested in determining if there is any audio improvement in processors with better DACs... or using independent DACs vs. the DACs in processors.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

At this point I'm only going to use it for Roon, as I am not quite ready to delve into movie storage at this time. While I do watch a movie twice on occasion, it's relatively rare. There are probably less than 5 that I've seen 3+ times (if I exclude all the Elvis movies, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer and It's a Wonderful Life when I was a kid). Of the movies in my current library... I've not watched more than a few multiple times. Music on the other hand, I've listened to some songs 100+ times already, and will continue to listen to them.

Amen. I have ripped many concert BDs for the purpose of adding the audio to my music file collection but see no reason to put the full video on the NAS since I so rarely play the video more than once or twice. Besides, they take up a huge amount of space and I cannot justify that.

I've tried really really hard to justify buying a pre-built dedicated server, but I can't justify the extra money. .............................................The key here is not being able to find any substantial proof of any sound quality improvements over building my own NUC server and buying the pre-built, especially if placed in another room on a different circuit.

Agreed. All the server/streamer does is process data and, having played with proprietary boxes from $500 to $20,000, I conclude the same. The only consistent advantage of proprietary server/steamers is the convenience of having everything installed and configured for you. That is, in some cases, also a disadvantage.

After getting the server setup, I'm more interested in determining if there is any audio improvement in processors with better DACs... or using independent DACs vs. the DACs in processors.

And there's the fun.

 

[ddude003]

Definitely will be fun seeing where you go with all this... In my own experience, finding a nice Tubed PreAmp and DAC were the hardest parts...

Wishing you the best Sonnie...