How to stream from a mac mini/Synology NAS into 2 rooms

Posted by: Foot tapper on 14 January 2012

Situation:

Living room has a mid-high range Naim system for vinyl & CD.  I want to add streaming, while also popping a unitiqute in the dining room.

 

I now have a Synology NAS drive and a mac mini, both of which are in the study, away from the living room.

 

The plan is to have all the "computing stuff" in the study, with music stuff in the living room (ndac or NDX) & dining room (Unitiqute).  The mac mini would be connected to both the living room and dining room systems via CAT5e ethernet cable. 

 

Question:

Would it make sense to link the mac mini to a Naim ndac (or NDX streamer) via ethernet cable?  All the installations that I have read about have the mac mini next to the music system and connected via a good optical cable (Toslink?) to the ndac.  The living room system is powered off a dedicated mains spur (this may be the incorrect electric term but you know what I mean) and I am concerned about earth loops/mains interference if the mac mini is connected to the living room system electrically rather than optically when it is on a separate ring main.

 

Apologies to the more experienced streamers if this is all a bit basic for you.

 

Thank you in anticipation, FT

Posted on: 14 January 2012 by murkku
I've a Mac Mini + external storage in one room and NDX is happily streaming everything into the living room's system. I hate non-wall-integrated ethernet cabling between rooms (kids, you know) so Airport Extreme is used to connect various gadgets wirelessly. Previously I had Airport Express as a wireless bridge for NDX, but with the new upgrade streaming board AE's no longer required.
Anyway, ethernet is much less prone to network problems, but properly configured wireless network is the way to go for me.

Btw. Mini's running Asset UPnP (with CrossOver) as it's the best transcoding UPnP server for NDX I've come across. And believe me, I've tried most of them...
Posted on: 14 January 2012 by Rich27
Murkku

Do you find your NDX runs much hotter using wireless rather than when wired to the AE as a bridge?

Cheers

R
Posted on: 14 January 2012 by murkku

Rich,

 

Not anymore.

The original streamer board run much hotter than the new 24/192 upgrade. It must've been quite a current hog...  Increased power consumption could also explain the reported SQ differences between the operation modes.

 

With the upgrade board installed, I can't feel temperature difference between wireless or ethernet usage, even with hi-res tracks.