Roon Announces the $499 Nucleus One Server

After 18 years in the IT business, the last thing I want to do when it comes to playing music is fuss with a computer. Give me plug and play and have a nice day.

But up ’till now, custom built computers that are meant to act as Roon a core and nothing more were more expensive than a DIY solution. The Intel NUC I use as my Roon server cost me a cool $360 all in with 2TBs of SSD storage and while it took a little time to get it setup and running, there was very little fuss involved and it’s been working like a charm ever since.

Which brings me Roon’s new Nucleus One that can handle up 8TBs of internal SSS or HDD storage via its 2.5″ drive tray (drive not included) and gets its good looks from Roon’s more costly Nucleus Titan (starting at $3,699 base price). While the provided specs for the Nucleus One don’t tell us anything about the computing power inside, we are told “certain combinations of functions using DSD, upsampling, or multichannel processing may not be possible” so power Roon users should look elsewhere. For me, the ability to handle 10,000 albums or 100k tracks sure does more than suffice.

The new Roon Nucleus One is available now for pre-order (with an expected release date of 15th May 2024) directly from Roon for $449.99.

Roon Nucleus One Specifications

Audio Outputs

| 2 x USB Type A
| HDMI (stereo and multi-channel audio)
| Networked audio devices

Audio zones

| Up to 6 simultaneous zones

DSP

| All DSP functions available in the PCM domain, certain combinations of functions using DSD, upsampling, or multichannel processing may not be possible

Internal Storage

| 2.5″ SATA SSD or HDD up to 15mm drive height
| (drive not included)

External Storage

| 2 x USB drives with USB Type A connector up to USB3.0 speeds

Library Capacity

| Up to 10,000 albums (100,000 tracks)

Network

| Gigabit Ethernet LAN

App

| Roon Remote (iOS and Android)

Control System

| Roon API, Crestron, Control4