Sound quality differences between NAS units

[Martin H]

(30-08-2016 14:05)DavidL Wrote:  Martin H and ac16161, following my earlier post I urge you to invest less than $100 (£80) in adding optical isolation to the last ethernet leg of your systems (and please, please do not use USB connectivity to your DACs). I'm sure that this will level the playing field and you find it hard to tell the difference between NAS and server.

You can find a full parts list in this blog by Andrew Everard, which I used to set up my optical isolation:
https://andreweverard.com/2015/06/08/hig...ded-fibre/

David

Interesting and probably good timing. By coincidence I had a demo of the N1Z yesterday - I have the N1A currently. Again I was suitably sceptical about a meaningful difference between the two but there was enough for me to try this again. The environment here doesn't lend itself well to A vs B tests and I either need to temporarily change all of that in a further test or more likely go the shop for another session. The situation was slightly confused as we had just made some other changes (the point of the visit) and I need those to settle I think (in my head as much as the system).

I have for a while now surmised that this is likely a major element of the Melco's success but TBH don't know. I currently have a number of DS co-located with the servers that feed the various rooms in the house and they are connected via ethernet cable to the network/switches/router. I was wonder if it might make sense now to create their own mini network and bridge that to the main network via this type of setup. It may be a little over the top for anything other than the main DS though because the others are more casual listening in truth.

One thing that bothers me a little and I think it is briefly covered in that article is that the converters need power and by definition risk introducing a new problem as I try to fix another. TBH the article was interesting but I was a bit confused with the timeline and what looked like an incomplete shopping list?

It sounds as if you have been impressed by how this has helped you though?