Hi All,
can I ask for some advice. I am planning a new hifi rack purchase to house my NDS 2 / Hugo running off a QNAP 250+, and I am wondering how much acoustic benefit there would be in housing the NAS and Router on the rack with an acoustic isolation shelf so as to minimise vibration right back to the source ??
I would put the NAS in another part of the house entirely, so there is no vibration as it’s out of range of the hifi. For example, the cupboard under the stairs, a distant study, the garage, anywhere that has ethernet and is out of earshot of the HiFi.
thanks for the feedback, points taken! I was working on the bases of keeping the nas/router/streamer/dac connections as short and simple as possible, and the router fairly close so as to make a good quality ethernet cable more cost effective - but it looks like consensus is against that strategy :-). I also saw comments that the routers are RF noisy, and so I guess that would be another reason to locate it somewhere else…
cheers
Alex
Indeed any changes in sound from an ethernet cable if you believe that kind of thing is even by the most ardent of loyalists, subtle. The sound of even one harddrive wizzing away let alone a bunch of wall worts is going to drown out that perceived improvement in no time
Best keep your router well away from your Hi-Fi equipment. If the router has wifi built in, then that is best placed well away from metal Hi-Fi boxes and cabling for best wifi performance.
NAS tend to be noisy to varying degrees, and a constant low level whirring can be intrusive into immersive listening. Best place away from your music room in a study or comms cupboard.