Any difference in SQ from USB drive storage to NAS playback?

For Melco (and I believe for Innous as well) a good part of the game is jitter reduction. There is both an ethernet line in as well as an ethernet player port out. Everything gets reclocked by the Melco. So in effect devices such as the Melco function as an ethernet line conditioner.

Jitter is relevant to the digital to analog sound conversion process between music streaming source and DAC downstream but not here in the case of either usb disk storage or NAS. Neither has anything directly to do with sound quality, just digital data transfer from computer storage to computer memory, audio being just another kind of data file accessed. Bits are assured of being transferred accurately in all cases if things are in proper working order else nothing loaded from a usb drive or network adapter could work reliably.

This is why I started this thread.
We have plausible reasons both for and against a possible difference in SQ from the two sources but it seems that nobody truly knows definitively.

In this case, there is only one plausible answer. USB or NAS storage alone has nothing to do with sound quality for the reason I explained.

If you hear a difference there is another reason for that.

Mapman
With all due respect that is your opinion and great that you have shared it but please do not become like some here who assume their opinion is law and gospel and cannot be argued against.

You could well be correct but an open mind never hurt anyone.