Background and setup

I purchased this device primarily as a way to stream audio from a NAS, to my AV Receiver. I had considered using a Raspberry Pi Model B (original one) but to get decent sound quality, it would've needed the cost of an additional piggyback board. For not much more money, I sourced the NMT on feeBay.

I use a hardwired network via a small 5-port switch, to interconnect the NMT, NAS and a Wi-Fi bridge/client. (Other devices are also connected to the switch.)

I connect both RCA analogue and optical outputs to my AV receiver and HDMI directly to my TV. It's interesting to hear the difference between the audio, from the built-in DAC audio and that of the AV receiver. The NMT produces more bass but lacks some "air" compared to my Arcam Receiver (set to PCM stereo mode). I use the TV to initially setup the NMT and for some tweaks, otherwise it is unused in daily operations.

I didn't get a remote control with the NMT, so good old Logitech came to the rescue and both my Harmony One and (backup) Harmony 900, plus Harmony 525 have been easily programmed for the NMT. I assume that other remote controls in the same range will be similar.

The top/lid and bottom/base of the NMT are the primary means of taking the heat away from the internals, with the side vents also helping. To help dissipate heat, I've added a little bit of Arctic Silver paste to the top of the heat sink, which then contacts with the underside of the lid. A thin thermal pad ( 1mm or thereabouts ) could serve the same and perhaps better purpose.

Originally, I had an ex-laptop 2.5" SATA 120GB Hard Disc Drive installed: I moved the disc rail from the 3.5" position, to secure the drive. I had wanted to use an old case-less 64GB SSD that I had lying around but it's long past its' operational life, with too many bad sectors. After playing around installing "bits & pieces", I fancied trying out a SSD again. I purchased a cheap "Magix SSD Alpha EVO SATA III" but couldn't get it to work properly, regardless of how I formatted it, nor with cloning the 120GB HDD. I suspect that it's too new and has a quirky 4k sector size, or something. I did try quite a few methods! I gave up after a few days and decided to swap it out with an older case-less Wave 256GB SSD (that I had retro-fitted in a Playstation 3).

The Wave 256GB SSD worked immediately and being case-less it's held in place by two blobs of Blu-Tack, in the corners furthest away from the SATA connector. Much more capacity than I had originally envisaged, though it's quick, quiet and adds little to power consumption.

4GB storage or larger is sufficient, if you don't intend to store media files on the NMT. This opens up scope for Compact Flash on an adapter, as mentioned in the wiki. Additionally, it's possible to use mSATA, ZIF SATA or perhaps even M.2 storage, with an appropriate adapter, though I'd stay clear of M.2 due to its' "newness".

The red power LED is super crazy bright, so I've put a little square of translucent thin black insulating tape over it. Ahh, that's better.