Audio Playback to Itunes AWEFUL via the EX2

Over the last 2 weeks I purchased the EX2 for our network to store 800 gb of audio and 200gb of pictures.  Thought this would be a great solution for the network to allow for a mirror system.  Now when we access those audio files in Itunes it is extremely choppy.  Doesnt matter if we play a 256KBPS or an apple lossles at 800KBPS.  EX2 is sitting 2 feet from the main mac and chops all day, forget about trying to play from the apple tv in the living room. 

Previously I was running a simple 3 TB seagate usb hard drive directly to the mac and every song played flawlessly.  Was trying to protect myself with this option, now its aweful.  Any suggestions would be truly appreciated.

Hello,

Is the unit connected on a gigabit network?

What firmware are you running on the EX2?

Does resetting the uni makes it any better?