Roon Nucleus Audio Music Server

Nucleus is the center of your Roon music system. It’s the housekeeper, the traffic cop, and the brain that takes care of the music in your life. Using Nucleus, Roon manages all your music – on hard drives, NAS, and streaming content – and allows you to play it on all the audio devices around your home. Nucleus is the best way to run Roon, at any price.

Just plug Nucleus into your network, connect your hard drives, download Roon remote apps (iOS, Android, macOS, Windows) and you’ll be ready to play music using a wide variety of audio devices, including AirPlay, Sonos, Roon Ready, Devialet, KEF, Meridian, Squeezebox, and a huge variety of USB DACs.

Aside from being a powerful, fanless music server, what sets Nucleus apart is that it’s powered by Roon OS – a fast and lightweight operating system optimized to do just one thing: browse and play music. Roon is a multi-room, multi-user networked audio platform built to the exacting standards of audiophiles, so it offers features like bit-perfect playback, DSD and PCM upsampling, multichannel playback, and signal path display.

As well as distributing music throughout your home, Nucleus also offers the very finest performance possible when connected to a USB DAC. A computer source has never sounded this good before.

Nucleus or Nucleus+?

Both the Nucleus and Nucleus+ servers look and function in exactly the same way. Their difference is primarily down to the Intel^® processor used in each model, which shifts their speed and workload capacity.

The standard Nucleus is suited to smaller multi-room environments, or for installations where complex DSP processing is not required. It's also suited to smaller library sizes.

Nucleus+ is the more advanced solution, for complex or high-end environments and for lightning-fast handling of larger music libraries.

See our Technical Data for more information.

Key Features

• Manages your music stored on USB hard drives, NAS, and streamed content from TIDAL and Qobuz
• Runs Roon OS and is controlled by the Roon apps for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows
• Streams music to Sonos^®, AirPlay^®, Google^®, Roon Ready™, Roon Tested™ and many other audio devices
• Silent design with no fans or moving parts
• Requires a Roon subscription (available here)
• Roon OS boasts a string of features and enhancements that are only available to Nucleus customers

Learn more about what makes Roon Nucleus and Nucleus+ special in the UK Distributors 'Nucleus Explained' article.

Awards / Reviews

Hi-Fi World, May 2019

Score:	4/5 Globes
	EXCELLENT - Extremely capable.

Comments of Note:

"Roon’s Nucleus+ music server packs power for a home network."

This review was of the original Nucleus+, which has the same technical performance of the 2019 revision but a different look.

Read the full review here

Essential Install, Online Review

Comments of Note:
"Roon remains the most compelling music service for serious music enthusiasts and the Nucleus+ makes the concept super-slick, very fast and seriously robust."

This review was of the original Nucleus+, which has the same technical performance of the 2019 revision but a different look.

Read the full review here

HiFi Pig, November 2018

Reviewed By:	John Scott
Rating:	Outstanding
Build Quality:	Solidly built, the Nucleus/Nucleus+ is simultaneously elegant and unobtrusive
Sound Quality:	Sophisticated DSP and up-sampling ensured an improvement in sound quality in whatever system Nucleus + was used in

Comments of Note:
"The Nucleus+ provides an elegant, unparalleled plug and play one-box solution to digital library management, digital signal processing and multi room capability."

This review was of the original Nucleus+, which has the same technical performance of the 2019 revision but a different look.

Read the full review here.

Hi-Fi Plus, August 2018

Reviewed by: Chris Thomas

Comments of Note:
" the Nucleus is easily recommendable as it’s small, easy to accommodate and simply allows the software to work at its optimum."

This review was of the original Nucleus+, which has the same technical performance of the 2019 revision but a different look.

Read the full review here.

Hi-Fi Choice, July 2018

Sound Quality:	5 stars
Value for Money:	4 stars
Build Quality:	4.5 stars
Features:	5 stars
Overall:	4.5 Stars

Comments of Note:
"The Nucleus+ offers is peerless handling of large music libraries, coupled with a top-notch browsing experience that means you will almost certainly feel compelled to make considerable use of it."

This review was of the original Nucleus+, which has the same technical performance of the 2019 revision but a different look.

Read the full review here.

Hi-Fi News, April 2018

Reviewed By:	Andrew Everard
Labs By:	Paul Miller
Sound Quality:	87%

Comments of Note:
"It offers a solid platform on which your chosen DAC can strut its stuff. Its combination of style, joined-up thinking and sheer user appeal makes this an intriguing addition to any ‘computer audio’ system."

This review was of the original Nucleus+, which has the same technical performance of the 2019 revision but a different look.

 Read the full review here.

Specs