NAS Drive - upgrade worth it?

My advice would be “if it ain’t bust, don’t fix it!”

You may find some subtle differences between NAS drives, and between different server software running on them, as well as other network components, but to my ears, these are quite small differences. On the other hand, I would recommend running a second NAS alongside the first as a backup. If the first one fails, you then have another that can immediately take over. 

I'm afraid there will be a difference SQ wise...just google for Melco or Innuos or even Naim Core as a central NAS....

I'm with Chris. The differences are going to be subtle between two NAS solutions and you would do better spending the money on a good backup solution.

best

David

It is said that minimserver sounds better than streaming via the synology media server from the same NAS. Especially with transcoding on the fly to wav or lpcm. The minimserver developer wrote that he did not believe it in advance but was astonished that the Melco (running minimserver) did sound clearly better than minimserver running on a normal NAS. So I think the only way to know is to try differente solutions yourself. Especially expensive hifi servers should be no problem to test them before buying from a dealer.

I am lucky with a fast Synology NAS currently. Maybe because I do not know what I am missing.

Thanks all for your replies - I will do a little experimenting.

Regarding backups - I have auto backups to a separate hard drive and to another hard drive which is plugged into my car hifi. 

This kills 2 birds with one stone - one backup drive away from the rest and provides music to play in the car.

gert posted:

It is said that minimserver sounds better than streaming via the synology media server from the same NAS. Especially with transcoding on the fly to wav or lpcm. The minimserver developer wrote that he did not believe it in advance but was astonished that the Melco (running minimserver) did sound clearly better than minimserver running on a normal NAS. So I think the only way to know is to try differente solutions yourself. Especially expensive hifi servers should be no problem to test them before buying from a dealer.

I am lucky with a fast Synology NAS currently. Maybe because I do not know what I am missing.

I have never been convinced that UPnP software can affect the sound,  but since I've moved to Asset UPnP (beta) on my Synology I'm surprised it is different to the Synology 'Media Server' - NB I did say different.    I fully expect transcoding to be affected,  thats the difference between codec (formats) when transcoded to WAV. But I'm all WAV & DSD so not bothered by that.     

I will know what I'm missing as I will be demo'ing a Melco in the future,  but at the moment I am hesitating because it looks like data storage will be going into new technology with NVMe,  I don't want to jump until I see where that is going & when it will be on the market.   

ive have two servers qnap and zoneripper ,both faultless for years. loaned a melco 1 for awhile . and couldnt detect any difference listening to albums ive listened to many times

The major difference will be additional functionality provided by a different upnp server such as Asset or minimserver, and there's a limited set of NASs that these will run on.

I have 3 different NAS boxes running, Zyxel 310, Synology 215 and Qnap 431.

I dont run any server software on any of them as I use a Mac Mini with various software for that.

My main library is on the Qnap and the others serve varying purposes including backups.

I have swapped them over to see if I can notice any difference in SQ and the short answer is no.

So I guess it would really boil down to which, if any, run the server software you want to use. 

If in all three cases (with all three NASs) the Mac Mini does the serving it would be even more astonishing if there was a difference in sound than it is when using different NASs as UPnP server.

It would be interesting if you can hear a difference between Mac Mini and minimserver (and/or assets) on one of the NASs. (Or all three of them compared as minimserver source)

There is a difference, some notice it more than others. Demo time maybe? On the other hand, if you don't notice a difference or you're satisfied with what you have and your back ups sorted then buy more music. Rich

I went to a Melco day at my local shop a few weeks back as I fancied buying one. 

To be honest I could not hear any benefit over my Synology system and neither could my wife.

There were lots of downsides in terms of lost functionality in moving from Synology to Melco however.

Personally I believe the Nas is too far away from the Streamer/DAC to have any real SQ impact. So called timing benefits provided by the Melco are likely to be overtaken by the Streamer/DAC processing so not really needed.