Sound quality differences between NAS units

[ac16161]

I will sign off from this debate with a final update. As implied earlier, I came to this with no axe to grind to say for example that my new higher-spec NAS sounds better, so I reject suggestions of placebo effect. I happened to observe differences, then sought to ascertain what they were attributable to. I've just done some careful listening against 3 Minimserver sources: a Win7 PC, my Synology DS and the MyBook. The observations are completely reproducible across material: in my home (it may be different elsewhere), the Synology has controlled bass-line but slightly shut-in vocals. The MyBook has better vocals but once you listen past that the bass-line is actually quite muddy and boomy. The PC has all the strengths and none of the weaknesses of the other two.

Yours in music everyone.