Melco - a second opinion

Can you tell us in what situation you are using the Melco?  As a USB source or with UPnP to a streamer?

I use it together with my NDS streamer. 

//Jonas

Jonas;

Interesting indeed. Your signature suggests that you have been using US. I am assuming SSD. How does the N1Z compare to it beyond "black ins"? Have you had the chance to compare to a HD solution?

Chag -

Chag... posted:

Jonas;

Interesting indeed. Your signature suggests that you have been using US. I am assuming SSD. How does the N1Z compare to it beyond "black ins"? Have you had the chance to compare to a HD solution?

Chag -

Yes i was interested in how it was used. Are you using the Melco internal storage Jonas and just using the US to rip directly to the Melco ?

Great bit of kit. 

My second opinion is equal to my first opinion. It's a remarkable upgrade of my system. In multiple aspects: details, tonality, bass....

For no price I would like to go back to my old setup.

I have been using US now for appr  4 years, ripping music and store it to a ReadyNAS. These have been connected with a plastic switch and Chord Sarum Ethernet cables. 

Now the Melco N1Z is in the place instead with all the music now stored on the Melco, the plastic switch out of the system and the idea is to use the US as a ripper but now store it on the Melco. 

I do believe downloading high def files is the next step forward for many reasons.

And sound wise Im with Bert, found the same kind of improvements in my system.

//Jonas

Still don't understand the concept- does it replace NAS or is it NAS or does it work as a NAS "gateway"?

what happens if the internal SSD are full of music? I don't like USB drives as expansion units because the USB drives are not build for permanent load...

Ralf

Ok, just read the manual.... almost same functionality like an Aurender X...

Recent dealer mentioned that at a new show 25 of 29 Companies using Melco to demo kit from. It pulls media onto its internal drives as I witnessed it, took a long while too as it scans the files into the Melco, some form of digital verification as explained at them time. 64GB of test HiRes fils took well over 90mins to ingest.

Assume once in though thats it. Need to demo.

Audio and the experienced sound is of course very personal. Also to take into the considerations is convince and how user friendly something is and least but not last reliability  (both short and long term, will it be possible to service if needed)

I still love the sound of a good turntable but wouldn't use one for myself due to some of the reasons above. 

To me, Melco tick all the boxes and more.

//Jonas

Dan43 posted:

Recent dealer mentioned that at a new show 25 of 29 Companies using Melco to demo kit from. It pulls media onto its internal drives as I witnessed it, took a long while too as it scans the files into the Melco, some form of digital verification as explained at them time. 64GB of test HiRes fils took well over 90mins to ingest.

Assume once in though thats it. Need to demo.

Digital verification?  New one on me   Possibly it copies the files and then does a compare to ensure integrity, is that what you mean?

I suspect another reason that many companies use it for demos is the convenience factor.  You don't need a NAS, a switch, a gateway and assorted cables, you can just use the single device.

Dan43 posted:

Recent dealer mentioned that at a new show 25 of 29 Companies using Melco to demo kit from. It pulls media onto its internal drives as I witnessed it, took a long while too as it scans the files into the Melco, some form of digital verification as explained at them time. 64GB of test HiRes fils took well over 90mins to ingest.

Assume once in though thats it. Need to demo.

It can also be pointed at an external NAS if you so wish and can index and playback directly from that without copying the files across to the internal drives. although local playback is supposedly better. I just copied all my files across the network to the internal drive (28hrs !) and use it like that (albeit as a USB source) . I think in the UPnP server context driving a Naim network device, the main benefit comes from the isolated (and quieter from a network traffic point of view) network connection. How effective it is in that role depends on how well the 'audio' side of your network originally looked. As a USB source it works superbly and easily betters my well optimised Mac Mini setup - something i was quite surprised to find.  

James

James,

thanks for clarification. So if I have a NAS, Melco can scan it and present the content to my streamer?

Does it has Minimserv or Twonky or an UPNP server to do so?

Thanks!

T38.45 posted:

James,

thanks for clarification. So if I have a NAS, Melco can scan it and present the content to my streamer?

Does it has Minimserv or Twonky or an UPNP server to do so?

Thanks!

Twonky is standard installed. Soon Melco will come out with it's own UPNP Server..

..and you can install Minimserver (some seem to prefer it) but i don't think you can fully disable Twonky if you do (just stop it rescanning etc). I've not had issues with Twonky so will leave as is although firmware V2.21 should be out in a few weeks which will have Twonky 7.2.10. 

Thanks- sounds interesting....

I had the N1A at home for demo over the Christmas period, and used it as a UPnP renderer in the USB-DAC "mode", connected via USB to my Resonessence Invicta Mirus DAC. I also left my NDX hooked up to said DAC to enable comparison vi SP/DIF.

Using Bubble UPnP on an Android tablet it was a piece of cake to stream music from my existing NAS drive, Tidal, and Qobuz, and create playlists mixing all three on the fly.

Even when only used in this fashion as a transport to a DAC, and setting aside its NAS capabilities, the N1A is in a league of it's own when compared to the NDX. Music comes from a quieter place, is much more detailed, and basically sounds more musical, but not in any trivial way. It literally smoked the NDX - instantly.  At half the price of an NDX, and with TB's of internal storage, this should be selling in droves.

Although not the same use case as the OP (apologies), I thought I'd put it out there for anyone who doesn't realise this functionality is possible. 

A must audition IMHO  if you're in the market for a DAC-less streamer/server solution. The N1A will soon replace my NDX, and I'll learn to live without iRadio.

Out of interest has anyone compared Melco and Aurender servers connected via USB to a DAC?

Graham

Graham Russell posted:

Out of interest has anyone compared Melco and Aurender servers connected via USB to a DAC?

Graham

 

Graham, 

Yes - I also had an Aurender N100H on home demo last year in November. The first thing that struck me about the Melco and Aurender was the amazing lack of background noise when hooked up to a DAC via USB, especially compared to the NDX's digital output.  Until you hear them, you're not even aware of the additional mush that there is coming out of the SP/DIF output of the NDX. Whether this is "jitter" or something else, I couldn't tell you, but it's immediately noticeable with both the Melco and Aurender, and leads to hearing more detail whilst listening. 

The Aurender produced and incredibly smooth and detailed sound when fed into my DAC, although was just a tad lightweight in the bass department for my liking, with the Melco bettering it in this regard, and in overall musicality, and detail retrieval. 

Both are streets ahead of the NDX as digital transports /UPnP renderers from my experience, and totally shattered any "bits are bits" illusions I may have previously harboured.

To be fair to the NDX (which itself is a great S/PDIF source) your Resonessence DAC may also sound better via USB than S/PDIF, but i agree the Melco makes a great USB source. 

....amazing lack of backround noise describes it very good! I' m running an Aurender N100 w/2TB drive internally and USB output.

I say it again and again :-) please Naim build a HDX2 with USB out ....

The Buster posted:

Graham Russell posted:

Out of interest has anyone compared Melco and Aurender servers connected via USB to a DAC?

Graham

 

Graham, 

Yes - I also had an Aurender N100H on home demo last year in November. The first thing that struck me about the Melco and Aurender was the amazing lack of background noise when hooked up to a DAC via USB, especially compared to the NDX's digital output.  Until you hear them, you're not even aware of the additional mush that there is coming out of the SP/DIF output of the NDX. Whether this is "jitter" or something else, I couldn't tell you, but it's immediately noticeable with both the Melco and Aurender, and leads to hearing more detail whilst listening. 

The Aurender produced and incredibly smooth and detailed sound when fed into my DAC, although was just a tad lightweight in the bass department for my liking, with the Melco bettering it in this regard, and in overall musicality, and detail retrieval. 

Both are streets ahead of the NDX as digital transports /UPnP renderers from my experience, and totally shattered any "bits are bits" illusions I may have previously harboured.

I agree with your comments at least as far as the Aurender is concerned. I compared a bare NDX SP/DIF and Aurender N100 USB and the Aurender was clearly a lot better in terms of SQ. As you say the noise floor of the Aurender appears to be much lower and there was no digital 'edge' to the sound at all. I hope to try a Melco shortly. The only reason I didn't buy the Aurender is that it doesn't support Qobuz.

Philp, I found on the qobuz site some screenshots where they show qobuz with Aurender and Tidal as streaming services. Not sure if this is a beta ...

Very interesting. I also didn't get the Aurender purely because of the rather pants Android app which didn't support Tidal, and the lack of Qobuz support, which renders it pretty much iPad only, and obviously proprietary. I did contact Aurender who got back to me immediately, and confirmed that they do intend to bring the Android app up to the same level of functionality as the iOS App in 2016 at some point.

With the Melco, you can pick and choose your UPnP control point. I appreciate this probably  isn't much of deal breaker for most though 

T38.45 posted:

Philp, I found on the qobuz site some screenshots where they show qobuz with Aurender and Tidal as streaming services. Not sure if this is a beta ...

Ok, that does sound interesting, thanks.  I will e-mail Aurender and see what they say.

BTW, I thought the Aurender iOS app was good (hideous colour though) and the Tidal integration was excellent. I much prefer Qobuz to Tidal though.

EDIT: Aurender don't appear in the list of 'compatible partners' on the Qobuz site so maybe what you saw was beta and perhaps available soon??