Melco Audiophile NAS

[simoncn]

Your license for 3 devices will cover installing MinimServer on both Melcos and one more device if you ever need this. Each Melco could have one instance of MinimServer installed using the Melco front panel menus (but see below). I presume this is how you have installed MinimServer on your current N1A.

You should get better sound quality if you stream music from the Melco via UPnP. In my setup I have two Melcos with one acting as the UPnP server and the other acting as the UPnP renderer. Separating file scanning/reading from audio rendering in this way improves sound quality for me. In this setup, MinimServer is running on the server N1A but not on the renderer N1A.

You can connect the renderer N1A to the server N1A using the player port on the server N1A or you could connect them using an audio-grade switch such as the Melco S100 or DELA S50. Using optical links instead of RJ45 Ethernet cables can also be beneficial.

I suggest you start by trying this setup using the server N1A player port with standard RJ45 cables to see if you hear a difference in the sound compared with the sound you are getting from Audirvana.