Sound quality differences between NAS units

[winxi]

(20-08-2016 07:55)simoncn Wrote:  I have tried many renderers and I have heard a sonic difference from the Melco with all the renderers I have tried. One of the points that DanielE made was that when noise is introduced into the transmission chain, it cannot just be removed but has to go somewhere. This suggests that all renderers are likely to be affected to some extent, although some might be affected more than others.

The Melco N1 can be used as an audiophile high-end switch just in front of the renderer. I have tried doing this with the audio streamed by another server such as a QNAP NAS and I have noticed a sonic improvement when the Melco is in the chain. This seems to provide some scientific/experimental support for DanielE's explanation.

Perhaps one day someone will design a renderer than can fiilter out electrical noise from the server with no audible impact. I wonder how much such a renderer would cost. It might be more cost-effective to use a server that doesn't introduce the noise in the first place.

Just imagine a community forum discussing a high-end pc monitor. The users are typically willing to spend a lot of money to be able to view there photographs in high quality and store these photographs on a NAS.
Then a topic comes up: user A says that his images are much more vivid since he uses another NAS, the images of user B are sharper because o a new power supply for his NAS, user C observes a better contrast since he uses new cables in his home network, and so on.
Then a technician of the company selling the monitor comes in and tells the users this is because of noise generated in the NAS that makes it over the home newtwork into the monitor and 'the noise has to go somewhere'.
What would you think?

Quote:Before I tried the Melco, my opinion was the same as yours. I borrowed a unit not expecting to hear any difference as I had never heard any difference between any other server hardware. The sonic difference was a complete surprise and has caused me to change my opinion. This is a scientific approach, where theories are developed and revised in the light of real-world observations.

Sorry, individual observations do not convince me. I wouldn't even be convinced if I heard a subtle difference myself.
I'd be convincend by a peer-reviewed scientific study, where the analog output of a renderer is acquired and compared for different NAS using an oscilloscope with a high enough sample rate. But I highly doubt that such a paper, if it ever exists, will show a significant difference.

Quote:The DAC is converting one electrical signal into another. If something else upstream makes a difference to the input electrical signal, it is surely at least possible that the output electrical signal could be affected.

Do you mean affected by the DAC or affected 'by something else'?