Roon has launched a new flagship server at CES 2024. The impressively titled Nucleus Titan is designed to work with Roon's digital music management platform and brings several equally impressive features to the table, not to mention your choice of three snazzy new outer shells – metal, stone composite and wood.
The Nucleus Titan features a precision-machined billet aluminium enclosure made from a solid block of metal, with Roon citing advancements in "manufacturing processes and hardware customization" that have allowed it to deliver a stylish "statement piece" with three finish options for that interchangeable top plate.
Like Roon's previous flagship, the Nucleus Plus, the new Nucleus Titan is a dedicated server/streamer solution that has been optimised to work with Roon's OS to deliver "bit-perfect playback" of your hi-res digital music collection to a Roon-compatible hi-fi system. Where the new top-tier server surpasses its predecessor is in performance quality and a self-cooling design with "silent, fan-less operation".
The Titan also sports two USB-C and two USB-A inputs, along with two audio-only HDMI ports. We expect it has an ethernet port for wired connection to your home network as well, and the Titan's internal storage comes in three sizes: 2TB, 4TB and 8TB. Multiroom audio setups are also supported.
What's also impressive about the Nucleus Titan is its price tag. The server's pricing starts at $3699 for the base model (no storage), and we can only imagine how much of a premium the 2TB, 4TB and 8TB versions will attract. The original Nucleus was available starting from $1459, while the step-up Nucleus Plus model started at $2559. So we're talking about an ambitious step up in price (and hopefully performance) here. Both previous Nucleus models have now been discontinued.
The Roon software itself isn't cheap either, of course, costing $15 per month, or $12.49 per month if you pay the annual fee upfront. Want a lifetime subscription? A single $830 fee gives you full investment in what Roon can do.
Roon's co-founder Enno Vandermeer says: “Nucleus Titan continues our long-standing goal of providing customers with Roon server options that correspond with their specific needs and desires. CPU and SSD technology has evolved significantly since we first released Nucleus, and we’ve taken advantage of those innovations. With Titan, we’ve created a high-performance device that fuses precision manufacturing with aesthetics that evoke the interwoven nature of our music collections and Roon’s finesse for music exploration. We’re very excited with the results and our ability to provide our customers with the ultimate Roon software platform."
For the uninitiated, Roon is a streaming software that combines your stored digital music files with millions of tracks from Tidal and Qobuz (provided you have an account for those streaming services) into a single, searchable, dynamic interface that includes artist bio, liner notes and more. An impressive variety and number of hi-fi products are compatible with Roon, from the Award-winning KEF LSX II speaker system and Cambridge Audio MXN10 streamer to the newly announced FiiO R9 desktop system and Victrola Stream Sapphire wireless turntable.
Roon has recently also been acquired by Harman International, the parent company of audio brands Harman Kardon, JBL, Arcam, Mark Levinson, AKG and Revel.
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