Minim server + Synology NAS kills custom dedicated pc on music sound quality

[DavidHB]

What is interests me is that Steve and his friend got what they felt were significant audio improvements when the drive in the Synology was changed to an SSD. I'm at a loss to understand how this could be, unless, perhaps, the SSD firmware allows it to work better with the bus on the Synology, and thus feed a 'better' audio stream to its Ethernet port.

The other thought (which was implicit in some of the responses to Steve's report in the forum thread to which he linked) is that the results may have something to do with the architecture of his system. The PS Audio DAC with add-in network 'bridge' represents a very different approach from the Linn DS/DSM models which I think at least three of the responders on this thread are using; some posters on the other thread were even suggesting that there is an audible difference between different versions of the bridge firmware.

What is not in doubt (and Simon has been saying this all along) is that MinimServer, even when doing WAV24 transcoding, does not require massive hardware resources to run well - one of the many feathers in its cap.

David