Melco Audiophile NAS

[simoncn]

1) SSD, Crucial MX500. Not all SSDs sound good; some sound worse than HDD. It depends on the controller. I purchased my N1A and N1Z with HDDs fitted and changed them to SSDs myself. Make sure you format the drives as spanned (not RAID 0).

2) This is easy to do on MinimServer 2 using profile export and import.

3) Your assumptions are correct.

4) The N1Z is better but a lot more expensive. I use an N1A for serving and an N1Z for rendering. As you are using your LUMIN for rendering, you might be OK with an N1A for serving. Can you try both models on home demo before you decide? You could buy an N1A and spend the price difference on a Melco S100 switch. For serving, this combination might sound better than an N1Z.