David Neel wrote:Now fitted a Deltaco SATA cable to the music drive. I think there is an improvement, but it's marginal. Tried swapping back and forth, but no conclusive result so I will leave the Deltaco in place to burn in.
The Deltaco cables are no miracle cables, but they are the best that I have tested. Considering the cost of SATA cables (even with International shipping) I think they very worthwile to get. Please let them burn in for a while. (Let the DS play muted 24/7.) I think you will hear a bigger difference between cables when your LS NAS is further optimized.
David Neel wrote:I've also disconnected the fans, again a small improvement.
My tests indicate that a "good" fan is better to have connected than disconnected. I wonder if you had it connected to the CPU fan pin header? That is the the correct one, even if you have a case/chassies fan. Can you try this? If it's better without fan, this indicates that the Node 304 fan is not good (for music).
David Neel wrote:But the LSNAS has now reached the point where I can hear what all the fuss is about. A very worthwhile upgrade indeed!
Great! I'm very happy for you. It's not going to stop either, it will just get better and better!
David Neel wrote:It does have an external drive slot, though, so I could add my Samsung SH224, load EAC, and have an onboard ripper. Would this affect the LSNAS performance when the drive was unused and the software not running? I would have thought not, but if switching off the fans can make a small difference....
One indication is that a Swedish user has his external Plextor 950 BR drive connected all the time. That is OK, when connecting with eSATA, but it's not OK having it connected with USB3... So SATA connections may be well isolated and therefore OK to use for a rip drive.