As Chris says. Remember historically, QNAP is a recent solution. Prior to that, Sooloos was a totally closed system (including hardware) that for most was plug and play.

As for cables. What noise are you talking about? Do you have any evidence that you suffer from noise? Remember, the signal is not audio, it is digital data, just like ever other data type, pictures, documents etc. that shares the same path. Do you see noise with that data, why do you think audio is any different?

Some people have tried different power supplies, some have tried isolation transformers. Most don't bother and just use stock correctly specified, designed and build cables. Some that have tried different solutions and removed them, some still believe in them.

A few years back I challenged anyone to show scientifically verifiable proof that these cables worked - just one bit of proof, not much to ask. I'm still waiting.

Meridian owner since 1992
Prime & PSU, Focal Elear headphones, Roon (ROCK 8Gi5 NUC), Explorer 1 & 2, F80. 200/203, various Sonos (via Roon).