The Nucleus and Nucleus+ audio servers have just landed, and for audiophiles, offer an exceptional way to enjoy computer audio, and possibly the best way to enjoy all the features the Roon software has to offer.

For the uninitiated, Roon is a great way to consume digital audio. Furthermore, your enjoyment is enhanced by having artist photos, credits, bios, reviews, lyrics, tour dates and composers right at your fingertips.

This additional information is located automatically within the software and then interconnected by links to build a surfable, searchable digital magazine for your music collection. Roon finds all the same links between your personal files and the millions of tracks available on TIDAL, so you can start with the music you know, then explore and discover new music beyond your own collection.

In addition to music browsing, Roon is also a multi-room, multi-user networked audio platform built to the exacting standards of audiophiles. It offers features like bit-perfect playback, DSD and PCM upsampling, multi-channel playback and signal path display. This is all achieved through a user-friendly app.

For these reasons, Roon has quickly developed into the ultimate high-performance software for audiophiles across the globe.

Roon Labs has decided that the next logical step is to produce the ultimate server for their software; enter the Nucleus and Nucleus+. Both models look and function in the same way, with the only difference being the feature abilities of the Intel Core i3 (Nucleus) and i7 (Nucleus+) processors employed.

Roon Nucleus audio servers

Nucleus and Nucleus+ want to be the centre of your Roon music system. Using Nucleus, Roon manages all your music – on hard drives, NAS, and streaming content – and allows you to play it on all the compatible audio devices around your home.

Just plug Nucleus or Nucleus+ into your network, connect your hard drives, download the Roon remote app (available for iOS, Android, macOS or Windows) and you’ll be ready to play music using a wide variety of audio devices from Roon’s hardware partners, a huge variety of USB DACs and other supported devices.

Nucleus and Nucleus+ are powerful, fanless (and therefore silent) servers and are the only ones to be running a specialised version of Roon OS. This is a fast and lightweight operating system optimised to do just one thing: browse and play music. Where so many audio servers fall down is in their need to run other operational processes – Nucleus and Nucleus+ do not have that problem.

For that reason, when you connect a USB DAC directly to a Nucleus or Nucleus+, you will experience computer audio playback through professional grade components and a dedicated operating system. This should provide you with an audio performance that’s unlike any other computer source.

Our friends over at StereoNET AU are already testing the Nucleus, remarking:

Roon was one small step for digital audio, but Nucleus is more like one giant leap.

Available now, Nucleus is SRP £1,500, while Nucleus+ sells for £2,500.

For more information visit Roon Labs.