Anyone used a Melco "Audiophile" NAS

I haven't actually heard one but I saw them at the Bristol Show and had a long talk to the guy on the stand. He certainly knows about the issues relating to optimising pc design for audio quality. IIRC the N1A has 2x2tb HDDs for around £1500 - for that price I'd want SSDs but in the context of a revealing system and for someone who doesn't want to get involved in pc optimisation it could make sense. Not everyone wants to build their own, though it's less than half the cost if you do!

You'll still need to get your music on there in the first place - how do you intend ripping your CDs ?.

If you want an off the shelf solution then the Unitiserve could be a better bet. 

What kind of connection from the Melco nas to the "player" is contemplated?  Not UPnP I suppose, as it's connected directly to the player in their diagrams.

Me 1000+ CDs at €0.00, take your time, save money, maybe have some fun (with the money obviously!)

I think Chord were using one if their devices to demonstrate their cables both at Bristol and at the recent Acoustica show. I guess that in the context of their high end cables the cost of a Melco is not so significant. 

The Chord man was asked about Melco and he did indicate their belief that it provides benefits over and above a normal NAS.

I agree with hafler30. That is a lot of cash to blow on ripping CDs which could be used to fund other elements of the system that you are thinking about.

My attention has been drawn to this thread a regular contributor.

I bought one of these about a month ago - it is a nice piece of kit that does improve the sound.  It also solves a number of other problems rather neatly.

In my enthusiasm I posted on the Linn forum - it got quite a panning from learned contributors who had not heard the unit, but do not see how it does what it claims to do.

So with permission of the owner, I put the same posting on the Lejonklou forum: no replies at all!

So I decided I was all forumed-out and decided just to sit back and listen to the music.

Partially to share my findings with various chums worldwide, I wrote a little bit, with some poor photos and have put it on my own band's website.

So feel free to see for yourself - I hope my efforts provide a little bit more information.

PS  I have no business interests with Melco - except having bought their product!

http://www.wedding-music-york....ifi-forum/melco.html

Cheers, donuk  beautiful downtown York

Ahh...a built-in switch.  That makes sense.

If you're going to pay to have your CDs ripped, it might be worth doing your homework first (if you haven't already?) A friend of a friend did this, and the sound quality was very poor. The company who did it eventually admitted that they had ripped everything to MP3, then converted it back to WAV, which of course gives you the worst of both worlds: MP3 sound quality at WAV file size. If you can't get a guarantee of decent quality, get a Unitiserve instead - ripping is only very slightly more hassle than playing a CD. 

The other thing I like about the US is that used CDs are ridiculously cheap, and buying them and ripping them is a great way to acquire music.

Having said that, this Melco NAS looks intriguing - it would be interesting to hear it in a dem against the US.

I used a UnitiServe to rip my CDs. I did over 2,000, and managed 80 on the busiest day. If you use a third party to do the ripping, I'm not sure how you'd know they had got all the metadata right, and got the right album art and track names for those albums that fail the online lookup. There has to be a risk that it takes longer to sort out the metadata retrospectively than ripping them yourself in the first place.

I've now sold the Serve and am using a bog standard Synology, which sounds just as good. I'd get a standard NAS, install dB Poweramp on the PC, set aside a few mornings and just get on with it. It's a great way to rediscover what you own.

If you buy a dedicated NAS thing, you are in their hands for support. Naim are superb in that respect, but who knows if others are?

Used a Melco a blah etc? No, and never will.  Come on, a couple of Seagate mechanical HDs (yes, mechanical) combined with a single port switch, and a puny switched mode power supply?  Mmm, I need that, take my £1500...please.

I don't have a Naim system, just a Naim product within it.  Believe me, I'm a complete lunatic, and hear differences from barmy tweaks such as mains leads, polishing fuses, use of blutak etc...but...they cost me nothing.  When it comes to a NAS drive, and I will admit, I am not sure that all methods of accessing the data are the same; I do not make use of UPnP for example, but for the way I access files, I cannot understand what Melco's approach can really offer over my current NAS.

There was a review of the 1Z version (6k, Internal 1TB SSD drives) in the Feb 15 HFN. Summary was that it didn't add much over a well sorted server / switch solution.

Best way is to demo and see if it's worth the money

I took delivery of a Melco NA1 yesterday and am currently, and very slowly, copying 1.14Tb over from my NAS.  Should take at least a week or so.....argh!

Anyway, before I began the copying, I played a couple of test tracks (and then several albums), using it effectively as a switch. Even with the Qnap NAS providing the files and connecting via the Netgear switch, it could easily have ended up as an all-night listening session.  

+1 Wat, although I wouldn't change the B&W 802s.

I've tried two nas and a PC serving my music via upnp and I can't hear any difference what so ever.  I did hear a difference when I put a switch in my living room though

HH, 

Please fill in the gaps. You ripped your CD's using US, but what did you do then, before you sold it? And what is your setup now, to play them?

The music was all converted to FLAC and backed up on a Synology NAS. As the latter sounds just as good, I installed Synology's Media Server and get the music from the NAS. That's it.