Very informative and helpful review! Thanks. I just added a Keces P8 LPS to my Roon Nucleus Plus and it’s not a subtle improvement (even brand new). Really immediately better. Stored music already sounded good (consistency beating streaming) but I was shocked how much improvement there was in streamed music. Night and day. That’s with a new P8 and the stock power cord, and I just added a Valhalla2 power cord to the Keces to see where that takes the sound.
However, last night I listened to my business partner’s all MSB system, including Select2 DAC, Select transport, and S500 stereo amplifier. No streaming. His transport based system was significantly more dynamic, smooth, and lifelike than my K8/Nucleus+ with a stock power cord.
Of course (1) he wasn’t using a stock power cord on his transport, and (2) he was limited to his stack of music, and I can play almost anything (11 TB of music on my NAS, plus Tidal, plus Qobuz) and (3) that is comparing a $2500 music server to a $24,500 transport.
I share your enthusiasm for Roon. What a great way to listen to music, and I couldn’t imagine going back to changing every disc. I burned all my music to my NAS and sold all my discs about 3 years ago. But there is still a delta in sound comparing a Nucleus+ to a quality transport, at least with a stock power cord. I’ll listen with the upgraded power cord and see how much - if any - the gap closes. I’m breaking in the Keces this week as well. And I bought an upgraded cable from Ghent Audio to go from the P8 to the Nucleus+ (cable just shipped).
https://www.ghentaudio.com/part/dc-4s6g.html
A work in progress.