MinimServer comparison with Synology Media Server

[david]

(16-01-2014 22:32)simoncn Wrote:  

(16-01-2014 22:25)david Wrote:  The tagging and browsing system of Minimserver seems quite interesting, compared to Synology's server. However I currently run them in parallel on the same music library and streaming the same file to the same audio equipment results in a more detailed sound from the Synology server.

I disabled transcoding on both servers and most of my library is in ALAC format.

Does anyone have an explanation or solution? I'd like to switch to minim server, but not at the expense of sound quality.

Which renderer are you using? If the renderer doesn't have internal buffering, it's possible that buffering differences at the server end could have some effect on sound quality.

The nontranscoded path for streaming a disk file from MinimServer is currently unbuffered. All transcoded paths are buffered. Do you hear the same difference if you enable WAV transcoding on MinimServer and on the Synology server? If these sound the same, this would provide evidence that the difference could be related to the lack of buffering in the nontranscoded path.

I am using a Synology DS412+ as a renderer and a Cyrus Stream X2 as a player and just tested again. As the differences are small, my findings might be subjective...
When I switch on transcoding on both sides, the differences are smaller, so I guess this would support your theory indeed.
My order of preference would be:
Synology Media Server ALAC > Minimserver transcoding to WAV > Synology Media Server transcoding to WAV/Minimserver ALAC.

This would seem in line with advr's comment on Minimserver's transcoding quality.

Is there any way to enable buffering with unencoded streams, if only for testing purposes?

I tried if transcoding setting alac:alac would provide this result, but unfortunately it did not work...

thanks for your help!