Melco Audiophile NAS

[simoncn]

(16-01-2015 18:41)Martin H Wrote:  So I will update further but keen to hear any other experiences in the meantime.

Thanks very much for sharing this. Were you listening to the N1A or N1Z?

I don't think the difference with the Melco is caused by "closeness" or by any difference in the 1s and 0s. The player port on the Melco provides full optical isolation for the LAN connection to the player and I think this is the main reason for the difference.

My setup is considerably different from yours:
1) I have a KDS/1, not any kind of DSM
2) I don't have Exakt
3) I am still on Davaar 4.1.10 firmware
4) I am using MinimStreamer to transcode FLAC to WAV with padding to 24 bits
5) Nearly all my listening is to classical music

Any or all of these could make a difference to the "Melco effect". My guess is that the most significant difference is that you have Exakt, which means the Melco isolated output isn't connected directly to the the box containing the DAC, as it is in my system.