If your NAS is old...

I do belief you that there can be a difference. Just improve power supply and cabling and you can see what you can improve. I haven't just moved to my Melco as it fits in my rack, but definitely because of advantages in sound...

I have also found on the current ND streamer my simpler and more basic specc'd NASs sound better than my larger more complex ones... further investigation shows difference in packet timings and TCP flow control patterns are affecting SQ. However I understand with the new Uniti products the sensitivity to data transfer dynamics is significantly reduced if not elimated entirely.

We have a Qnap 253A and it's certainly zippy. Before getting it we had a Synology, which sounded better than a UnitiServe. It seems that digital has not entirely eliminated source-first. 

I was using a Synology which was about 4 years old and recently purchased and Qnap ts251 and a big difference .

It's a very neat little NAS IMHO, how much RAM do you have in yours? 

Whilst different NAS's give different result, I have heard no difference with gold plated Ethernet cables.

I recently upgraded to a QNAP HS251+ and with SSDs it's silent so that I can keep it in the living room next to the hi-fi. Much better spec than my old QNAP NAS and it supports 'containers' so that I can run the latest version of LMS for my SB Touch without any security issues. It's great that QNAP continues to evolve its kit whilst still supporting old NAS versions.

I switched to use Chord ethernet cables. Not sure if its the gold plate but the system does seem to sound a little smoother with a quieter background (can't explain why as 'bits' are 'bits'). I could even hear a difference in which way around the cables were orientated and I ended up with one the 'wrong way' around according to Chord's recommendation. Sometimes I think I'm slowly just going mad... 

I built a vortexbox with enough HP to run Roon on it (quad core i5 with 8GB Ram).  I swear streaming to my Qute it sounds better than the intel atom and ReadyNAS Duo I used previously.  

Also Minimserver is great.

I was going to with HS 251 myself but since installing the SSDs in the older NAS I realised the Fans virtually inaudible. I have the TS 251 about 3m away from where i sit, can't even hear it from 30cm away so figure I'd get a NAS with upgrade RAM as I heard this makes a reasonable difference.

Brubacca posted:

I built a vortexbox with enough HP to run Roon on it (quad core i5 with 8GB Ram).  I swear streaming to my Qute it sounds better than the intel atom and ReadyNAS Duo I used previously.  

Also Minimserver is great.

My vortexbox seems to work better than my Netgear ReadyNAS. Perhaps the rest of my system just isn't up to making me hear a difference, or perhaps my ears are just getting too old!!

Try a melco.

According to my dealer it can't be beaten as a server.when he told me the price I told him I'll stick with my qnap.

A couple of weeks ago I made the mistake of upgrading the firmware on my Qnap T112. (1.25ghz and 256mb ram).

Apart from the fact the user interface is now far more complicated, I discovered the NAS had suddenly become very busy. Previously the CPU usage was minimal.

The main culprit was the media library, switching it off calmed thing down considerably.

 If your old nas is struggling, might be worth checking if it’s performing any unnecessary tasks.

Agree on not running unnecessary progs Fatcat.   I have a Synology DS214 (1.066GHz & 512MB) & as it's only a music store I only ran Syn's 'Media Server' & Back Up.    I'm beta testing new software & am 'forced' to run 4 other non-audio progs (not able to switch off or uninstall)  & its increased RAM usage from less than 18% to 30% .............  OK its nowhere near a concern,  but it does take up resources,  I'm sure its not affecting SQ or anything on the NAS operation,  but your point is well made. 

Mike-B posted:

Agree on not running unnecessary progs Fatcat.   I have a Synology DS214 (1.066GHz & 512MB) & as it's only a music store I only ran Syn's 'Media Server' & Back Up.    I'm beta testing new software & am 'forced' to run 4 other non-audio progs (not able to switch off or uninstall)  & its increased RAM usage from less than 18% to 30% .............  OK its nowhere near a concern,  but it does take up resources,  I'm sure its not affecting SQ or anything on the NAS operation,  but your point is well made. 

I concur, my old 32bit/256mb NAS was running absolutely nothing but Asset 5.1 & file system. The RAM and CPU usage never peaked above 20-25% but still the difference in sound quality is probably the best I've had in comparison to a £2-3K system upgrade.

Granted the NAS is £300, and the SSDs £300 each, making it a £900 adventure... fortunately and a bit of internet discount shopping I bought everything (brand new boxed) for; NAS was £260 and the SSDs £145 each = £550. but that's still not overly expensive to 2TB of SSD storage.