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After nearly five years of faithful service, my 2009 Mac Mini music server bit the dust. It was time to step up to a real music server. After reading endless reviews, I settled on the Melco N1A. I purchased my dealer’s demo unit so it was fully broken in and the dealer installed the latest firmware. Wow! Image localization was spot on. Stage height, width and depth are better than the Mac Mini. The noise floor was so far back as to be totally unperceivable. Music projected from a totally black background. Bass is slightly different from the Mac-not sure but it may be a tad tighter and deeper or the Mac may have had a bit of “bloom” making it feel fuller. I will do some more listening and perhaps up the subwoofer a smidge. If I have any criticism of the N1A it is the unit’s lack of high-end “air” or “ambiance.” On recordings that I have listened to for years that I know contain huge amounts of hall ambience it was as if the N1A but heavy drapery on the hall’s walls. The music was all there but it sounded as if it were being played in an anechoic chamber. The music became sterile and less involving. On small jazz recordings where bells floated in the air, the bell was there but the air around the bell was missing. Has anyone else noticed this? I plan to keep the N1A as it does everything else to my complete satisfaction but the more I listen, the more I miss this high-end ambiance. I know this ambiance was present in the music I recorded so I assume it was recorded in the N1A’s hard drive but it is missing from the USB output. Has anyone tried using the N1A’s Ethernet out to a MicroRendu or SOtM sMS-200 and then going USB to the DAC?

First off, I am not a computer guy (translated, "low knowledge") but having been a reader of CA for years thought I'd see if deep knowledge here can help me get to the end zone quicker (flailing about currently.) ISSUE: songs skip on a regular basis, can't isolate issue, but guy says to start with replacing the Drobo 5-Bay - sound is okay, but I've had this setup in place for 6+ years - time to solve the skipping and upgrade sound. Current equipment/setup: DROBO NAS --> Netgear Prosafe 8 port switch --> Mac Mini (Audirvana) --> Musical Fidelity V Link 192 --> Musical Fidelity M1 DAC to pre amp (Vincent pre amp and power amp out to Focal Electra 1008 BEs. Targeted equipment/setup: Based on lots of reading (understanding half of it), I'd like to consider adding the Melco N1A, the sonicTransporter and microRendu - but I have the feeling some of these may overlap? I am fine moving over to Roon as long as it will read 45k music files off the Melco N1A. Add'l questions - want to keep the MF M1 DAC if possible - will microRendu --> MF V Link 192 --> MF M1DAC work? Does it make sense? Is M1 DAC compatible with the hardware/software we are talking about here? Any need to keep the Mac Mini in the system or get rid of it? Again, thank you for your patience with the amateur nature of the question above, but it's been a challenge for me to plan the new system only half understanding what each piece does. Any/all help, suggestions, guidance, or even a "Just do this, and it will work/sound great" is hugely appreciated.

Has anyone on the forum tried taking the ethernet out of the Melco N1A and running it into a sMS-200 before converting back to USB to feed a DAC? SOtM claims this should work and should provide noticeable improvement in sound quality.