Ordered end of May, delivered first week of September. Will this diminutive, elegantly shaped box deliver on its promise? Was it worth the wait?
As much as I like and enjoy the Weiss MAN301, my 2013 model is showing its age. For one, re-indexing the library takes ages. As to be expected from a very small company, some "nice to have" features will never materialise due to limited resources and the simple fact that others (e.g. ROON) have reached a level of accomplishment that is just economically not viable to equal for a company like Weiss. Possibly the MAN301 will receive a firmware upgrade promoting it to a ROON End Point which would substantially prolong its longevity as its soundboard with AES/EBU XLR output is outstanding.
Having read and viewed all that I could find on the web, I was surprised the Nucleus+ was not as heavy as I anticipated. It has a nice minimalistic design morphing function into form. However, my one niggle is the flimsy power on button on the back. Yes I know it is supposed to be an "always on device", but as far as I experienced, the Nucleus is constantly talking to the NAS preventing it from going into deep sleep mode. If ever the dedicated linear power supply comes to market it would be great if a 12V trigger and/or a robust front panel power on switch are provided.
Considering the size of my library, the + version is overkill...or maybe not. Anyway, deducing from interviews with the ROON Team, the + version is expected to be more future proof, although in this day and age of breakneck technological advancements that is a very relative notion.
For the record, ROON provides all the specs, bill of materials and ROON Optimized Core Kit (ROCK for short) for free so one can build one’s own budget friendly version. My PC building days are a thing of the past and if not for the Nucleus hardware I would never have become part of the ROON family. Clearly their strategy worked for me.
Connecting the Nucleus was a no brainer, just had to plug in a network cable, the lead from the power supply and a USB cable to connect to my Analog Domain DAC1. That was it.
The sound quality over USB is definitely different than that of the MAN301 AES/EBU XLR output. First impression (meh) is that it is adequate as a stopgap until I decide on what ROON End Point(s) I will adopt.
I opted for the Lifetime Membership as (I think) one can cancel within 30 days anyway.
Next step is to point the ROON software to the location of your library or libraries, in my case a shared folder on a NAS. Let's say one has to make sure to use the correct names of the folder(s) as I found out in a rather embarrassing fashion.
Once that was done, the software starts indexing said shared folder. Now here is the moment my jaw dropped to the floor. This, tweaked for speed NUC with stripped Linux OS is blistering fast. So fast it might as well be instant. My library holds 29.667 tracks and the Nucleus made it feel very, very small. Until I had to dig up one out of 2.345 CD’s stashed away in some unreachable closet that is. That one CD had to be ripped again as one track produced an I/O error during indexing. A second attempt required merging of two albums as the rip somehow became split. This brings me to the online manual and ROON community website. They really will be your guide and especially the manual is required reading. I encountered the I/O failure with a second freshly made rip from a newly bought CD and once again re-ripping solved the issue. However those I/O failures remain a mystery to me as the files worked just fine with the MAN301. Hmm, a bit unsettling, and I would love to understand what exactly is going on.
When using the ROON Remote software, on a Windows PC and iPad it becomes obvious pretty quickly a fine balance is struck between mouse point and click dynamics and swipe and tap dynamics. Job well done, only in "Setting/General" is it very easy to inadvertently change a setting when your finger strays to close to a toggle control. Mildly annoying at best.
The user interface is multi layered as to offer more complex or detailed actions at deeper levels. The idea being that more specialised actions will be used less frequent. It works but the manual could do a better job at setting the stage and in providing an overview of what actions require which particular screen and especially how to get to them. Truth be told, the search function of the manual and the community pages will be your best friend during the first days of ROON immersion. Case in point, I noticed that the track count between the MAN301 and Nucleus was about 50 tracks off. After some digging I found out that albums starting with points in the title (e.g. ...and justice for all) are not imported. Easily remedied by changing a setting but it did require some detective work. Now both track counts match.
I have no idea how fast the regular Nucleus is versus the Nucleus+ but “more power is good” certainly applies when one wants to play around with the DSP features and, like in my case, forced rescans are required to update indexed data so as to compare with legacy data on the fly.
For those applying ROON to existing libraries, rest assured, at any point, at any time and at any level one can overrule ROON metadata with file data. A feature I gratefully used as I preferred some metadata compiled by the MAN301 (my main rip engine) over the ROON metadata.
What more is there to like? For me, two features stand out and make the Nucleus+ deliver on its promise.
First, all the AirPlay and Chromecast devices in my network are now accessible by ROON and act like End Points. Sound quality is not the best possible, but for casual listening purposes it expanded my playground instantly. I can now play music from my NAS on my Naim MU-SO and on an Apple TV located in the Man Cave using one and the same user interface and I absolutely love it.
Second, all persons found in credits will appear in the Artist list and as clickable links in content provided in some views. This feature weaves a tapestry of information discovered from your library you never knew was dormant within it. The actual content, like bio’s and reviews are less abundant and thorough as I would like, but they serve as vehicles to make this tapestry accessible. Dare I say; ROON shines a light on your library built over many years that will pleasantly surprise if not astound.
One thing is for sure; any player, renderer whatever you want to call it, that is not accessible by ROON will simply no longer be up for consideration.
And to answer the opening questions, yes, most assuredly yes.
Compared to other offerings, the ROON Nucleus+ with lifetime membership is an expensive one. These few days I have played around with it made me forget the price of admission. It just put a smile on my face and the Radio feature made me aware of tracks I had long since forgotten.
It is like all the music I have collected over many years is now displayed in this virtual shining renaissance palace, easily accessible for those roaming its grand halls.