new NAS

[skeptic Mike]

(19-02-2021 15:52)lyapounov Wrote:  

(15-02-2021 14:45)rompolompo Wrote:  

(15-02-2021 07:23)simoncn Wrote:  Yes, exactly as you say. Connecting the Melco directly to the Linn improves sound quality.

Why should the NAS brand contribute to the quality of the audio? Can you elaborate?

The quality of the clock.

Many people make a common mistake: "it is digital, therefore there is no loss, so why bother".

Well, it is digital streaming. Which is totally different to TCP, where there is a guarantee that the file received is exactly the file sent, but is not a real time protocol.

In digital streaming, the whole chain from your NAS reading the file to your DAC converting a flux of data in an analog signal should be highly synchronized.

Therefore, everything which sends and receive data (NAS, switch, router) should have a very rigorous clock. Which means, a very stable electric current. As it is not the case, this is where you a pay a price to improve quality.

I think that this is a misunderstanding of streaming and what the renderer is doing.

Streaming transfers enough of the file to enable you to start playing it, and then collects more of the file as required. The key feature is the buffer maintained by the renderer. Once the data has been sent to the DAC, it can be discarded, and provided the next required data is already in the buffer that can be sent to the DAC when required.

You can think of this as two processes, one collects the data from the server, decodes it and places it in the buffer. When the buffer is full it waits until there's enough space in the buffer before asking for the next chunk of data. The other process empties the buffer by sending it to the DAC. It doesn't matter how smoothly the buffer is filled, providing that the next data to be sent to the DAC is there when required. If there is no data in the buffer when required, you have complete failure.

The clocks in the server or the switch or the speed of the Ethernet connection don't make any difference. If the data gets to the buffer before it's required the system works, if the data isn't there the music stops.

All the available music data from your server should get to the renderer, it's digital, so if the renderer/DAC makes a mess of the sound it's probably the renderer that's at fault.

Mike