I know Wired vs Wireless shouldn't sound different but...

I'd say its a combination of not having a strong wireless signal (from the NDX) right next to the rest of your kit and less current draw (and noise) on the NDX's internal power rails with the wireless card powered down. 

James

James,

My NDX has always been wired to the router; the wireless signal previously went from laptop to router only...

If I read the original post correctly, SKDriver was not using the NDX's wireless card.  It was connected with cat 5e to an airport router.  The only difference is all items are now hard wired to the router whereas before the music files were on a laptop which connected wirelessly to the router?

Why the need to have the Synology transcode flac to wav, I thought the NDX supports flac natively?

Sorry SKDriver we must have posted at exactly the same time, but all is clear I think.

Whilst I never did a back to back test of FLAC vs WAV, I just thought that I may as well use the facility to transcode, just because it can really...

Ah yes - now i've read it correctly !

Just out of interest, have you tried the laptop wired (rather than wireless) to your router and compared it to your latest setup with the NAS ?

No I didn't hard wire the laptop, maybe I am then comparing apples and pears but the NDX should still see an identical digital signal?

Hard wiring the laptop would level the playing field between them. If they still sound different then you've eliminated the wireless link and another mechanism (transcoding settings ?) is making the difference.

I use Asset to transcode FLAC to WAV because my NDX is not the only network player in my home using its UPnP service, and my old Denon AVR only works with WAV.

If WAV brings some minuscule improvement in sound quality to the NDX (less processing == less noise), then that's fine by me!

Hook 

I guess the whole point of my comment at the start of this thread was that the NDX should be receiving identical WAV files from both the laptop and the NAS, albeit from different transcoding software.  The only other difference being the method of transfer from source (HDD) to router.

This difference, ie moving to wired from wireless has upgraded the output from the NDX significantly.

I agree - all things being equal It shouldn't make a difference - my question was to answer whether the change of transfer from the server to the router (wireless to wired) has made the difference or the change in storage and serving ?

James

Chaps, I think you'll find going to wired Ethernet disables the wifi board. I suspect this board generates extra load and noise (RFI) when operating, as well radio field strength. To me if it is disabled when not in use I can  see why the NDX performance might well improve with wired Ethernet.

Simon - start from the top...

ah yes - thanks.. sometimes easy to loose the thread on an ipad

Just one of those things. There are many things in hi-fi that in theory should not make a significant difference, but nevertheless they do. I guess that's one of the things that makes hi-fi so interesting and so frustrating!

Peter