IMAGE: MONOPRICE DECEMBER 2019 MACWORLD 133
Roon Labs’ Roon music
server software is is
unparalleled in terms of its
performance, its robust
metadata support, and its flexibility. You
can integrate any AirPlay, Chromecast, or
native Roon RAAT (Roon Advanced Audio
Transport) speakers and other audio gear
for multi-room streaming. The high-end
music-streaming services Tidal and Qobuz
have integrated Roon so their subscribers
can benefit from the Roon’s user interface
and its deep well of metadata (reviews,
lyrics, artist bios, genre classifications,
album credits, release dates, recording
dates, and even live concert dates). And
that’s just scratching the surface of what
Roon is capable of.
Roon is software, so you’ll need
hardware to run it on. You can run it on a
headless (no display needed) Mac or a PC,
or you can set it up on a high-end NAS box
(Roon recommends having at least an Intel
Core i3 Ivy Bridge-architecture CPU, 4GB
of RAM, and an SSD to run the server
software). But none of those options areRoon Labs’ Nucleus music
server: Exquisite hardware for
exceptional software
The Nucleus is a superb—but very expensive—platform for running Roon Labs’
marvelous Roon music server software.
BY THEO NICOLAKIS