I also had a Chord Qutest that supposedly has very good USB implementation but it still sounded poor compared to even a basic dvd player used as a transport connected via coaxial. Obviously I was comparing cd's to the actual rip, imported directly into the Melco so the mastering was identical.
Melco even claim you need 'audiophile' hard drives. When I contacted them and I suggested I might upgrade the drive they had a fit and said they modify the drives firmware for a better sound, which is strange as they are, afaik the only company that claim these magical audio qualities from hard drives. Also an SSD was at the time a big fat no, as they are electrically noisy. Jump forward a couple of years and of course they sell SSD based units at huge price increases.
Another suggestion they have for streaming is do. It connect it to a 'gigabit' internet and the data stream must be 'slow' so 10/100 and not 1000.
I guess it's just not for me! :D