Melco - your experiences please

I'm using my N1A as a USB source rather than a UPnP server (the mode you would use with the NDS).

Very happy with mine -  Faultless operation, excellent support (Alan Ainslie) and a lot of additional features introduced (all via 'over the air' updates) over the year or so i've owned mine. 

James

Thanks James. That’s a good point - most of the magazine reviews are positive about the USB mode feeding a DAC, but don’t talk so much about UPnP mode. Who here is using one to feed an NDS?

I had a good chat with Alan Ainslie at Audio Show East. Clever guy and very helpful. 

Hi Kevin - i think Bert Schurink and Jonas Olofsson use their Melcos in UPnP server mode so hopefully they will chip in if they see this thread. I'll be interested in your experiences if you try one out. 

James

Rejected because not Roon Ready.

Hi Kevin, I've had my Melco N1-Z for a fair while now and, apart from an early one that decided to send its power supply west (a unique occurrence according to those wot know), and quickly replaced, I've found it an excellent device, feeding my Chord DAC via USB. I previously ran a Mac mini, optimised for audio output and running Amarra symphony with Dirac room correction. The Melco N1-A I tried first easily bettered this arrangement, even without room correction. As you no doubt noticed at the Signals show, it's a beautifully made device, and the firmware receives regular updates, improving its functionality even further (the latest beta gives you internet radio).

You'll only know by trying in your own system; in my smaller system the Melco gives a modest improvement, not worth going for in the context of the rest of the componentry, but with your calibre of system I'd be most surprised if it didn't offer a worthwhile sound improvement. Good luck!

As already indicated by James, I am running the Melco in UPnP mode. 

I started the Melco journey with the base model and exchanged it for the mid model with 6TB in the meanwhile. 

I am running the Melco with Mimeserver which enables me to listen in Wav and store in Flac. I do also have also improved connection with Vodka Ethernetcables from router to Melco and Melco to NDS. 

The Melco is a considerable upgrade from other regular NAS options you might have. So if you would go for the base Melco which has a somewhat reasonable price, the one I have is another audible step up. And the top model is again audible better. And when I made the upgrade to the base Melco I already had an improved NAS setup with a separate improved powersupply, so it was already not a standard one. 

As to the question on PRAT - there is definitely not a negative effect on Naim qualities what so ever..... 

What according to my ears the improvements with a Melco. Less noise (more black), better sound stage, more musical, better tonality.  I would suggest this upgrade for anybody. It’s perhaps not equal to a black box upgrade, but the audible benefits are considerable and especially significant when you have a great Naim setup as a base. I am going so far to say it’s a must have.......

I would second all that Tony and Bert say.  I am using the NDS connected directly to the Melco’s dedicated network connection (Under Upnp) and I am using Roon. I could not go back to any other interface!

Bert Schurink posted:

As already indicated by James, I am running the Melco in UPnP mode. 

I started the Melco journey with the base model and exchanged it for the mid model with 6TB in the meanwhile. 

I am running the Melco with Mimeserver which enables me to listen in Wav and store in Flac. I do also have also improved connection with Vodka Ethernetcables from router to Melco and Melco to NDS. 

The Melco is a considerable upgrade from other regular NAS options you might have. So if you would go for the base Melco which has a somewhat reasonable price, the one I have is another audible step up. And the top model is again audible better. And when I made the upgrade to the base Melco I already had an improved NAS setup with a separate improved powersupply, so it was already not a standard one. 

As to the question on PRAT - there is definitely not a negative effect on Naim qualities what so ever..... 

 

What according to my ears the improvements with a Melco. Less noise (more black), better sound stage, more musical, better tonality.  I would suggest this upgrade for anybody. It’s perhaps not equal to a black box upgrade, but the audible benefits are considerable and especially significant when you have a great Naim setup as a base. I am going so far to say it’s a must have.......

i am tempted in the future by the melco.  I see you had unitserve before, as me. Vs the unitserve in upnp, the melco with nds is a worthwhile improvement?

Did you have problems with the metadata, using naim app ?    you transferred your rips and downloads from the serve or from the nas?  I am curious 

Thanks to all. Very encouraging. I have asked my dealer to get an N1Z in for me to try at home. 

A few questions if I may:

What do you use to rip CD’s into the Melco?

Do you leave the Melco connected to the switch/router permanently? Does it make any difference to SQ if you disconnect it and just use the Melco as a (network disconnected) player? Or does it make no difference? One of my amateur rationales for thinking the Melco is a good concept is the ability to take any network problems out of the equation, but that could just be my muddled thinking...

Do you have the Melco sitting in the main System rack - any mechanical noise?

Thanks again, Kevin

French Rooster posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

As already indicated by James, I am running the Melco in UPnP mode. 

I started the Melco journey with the base model and exchanged it for the mid model with 6TB in the meanwhile. 

I am running the Melco with Mimeserver which enables me to listen in Wav and store in Flac. I do also have also improved connection with Vodka Ethernetcables from router to Melco and Melco to NDS. 

The Melco is a considerable upgrade from other regular NAS options you might have. So if you would go for the base Melco which has a somewhat reasonable price, the one I have is another audible step up. And the top model is again audible better. And when I made the upgrade to the base Melco I already had an improved NAS setup with a separate improved powersupply, so it was already not a standard one. 

As to the question on PRAT - there is definitely not a negative effect on Naim qualities what so ever..... 

 

What according to my ears the improvements with a Melco. Less noise (more black), better sound stage, more musical, better tonality.  I would suggest this upgrade for anybody. It’s perhaps not equal to a black box upgrade, but the audible benefits are considerable and especially significant when you have a great Naim setup as a base. I am going so far to say it’s a must have.......

i am tempted in the future by the melco.  I see you had unitserve before, as me. Vs the unitserve in upnp, the melco with nds is a worthwhile improvement?

Did you have problems with the metadata, using naim app ?    you transferred your rips and downloads from the serve or from the nas?  I am curious 

I didn’t have problems. Didn’t use unitiserve but QNAP but story is the same. With regards to the metadata no change as the mimeserver is the determining factor. If I would have used the standard provided Twonky at that point in time it would have been different. But that’s more a topic of the chosen renderer than of the Melco itself.

kevin J Carden posted:

Thanks to all. Very encouraging. I have asked my dealer to get an N1Z in for me to try at home. 

A few questions if I may:

What do you use to rip CD’s into the Melco?

Do you leave the Melco connected to the switch/router permanently? Does it make any difference to SQ if you disconnect it and just use the Melco as a (network disconnected) player? Or does it make no difference? One of my amateur rationales for thinking the Melco is a good concept is the ability to take any network problems out of the equation, but that could just be my muddled thinking...

Do you have the Melco sitting in the main System rack - any mechanical noise?

Thanks again, Kevin

I rip and download music. I don’t use the direct download capabilities of the Melco as I anyhow need to adapt the tags to fit my organization of music. For ripping I use EAC, MP3 for changing tags. I rip and download on my Windows pc and move the music on a stick which I plug into the Melco.

I have the Melco always connected - otherwise i couldn’t use the Naim app with the NDS and would loose too much in comfort. I know without connection to the network it would be even better, but I want to be able to switch between the Melco stored music and Tidal f.i. The two Ethernet slot at least ensure a considerable decoupling of the network noise. I do however have the setting disabled to have the Melco visible in the network, this improves the sound slightly.

I have the Melco on top of the stack. This to avoid issues with the cables at the back. Without removing the Fraim backpannel you couldn’t put the Melco on a lower Fraim level. So not 100 percent optimal but the best for my situation. So mechanical noise is either absent or not audible in my setup. I assume you refer to potential noise of the disks.

Hope this answers sufficiently your questions.

Ps I will now connect an additional 4tb disk to the Melco as I was running out of space on my 6tb..... still have to see how that will work sound wise. Out of security I will put the least attractive music on the separate disk.

Bert Schurink posted:

French Rooster posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

As already indicated by James, I am running the Melco in UPnP mode. 

I started the Melco journey with the base model and exchanged it for the mid model with 6TB in the meanwhile. 

I am running the Melco with Mimeserver which enables me to listen in Wav and store in Flac. I do also have also improved connection with Vodka Ethernetcables from router to Melco and Melco to NDS. 

The Melco is a considerable upgrade from other regular NAS options you might have. So if you would go for the base Melco which has a somewhat reasonable price, the one I have is another audible step up. And the top model is again audible better. And when I made the upgrade to the base Melco I already had an improved NAS setup with a separate improved powersupply, so it was already not a standard one. 

As to the question on PRAT - there is definitely not a negative effect on Naim qualities what so ever..... 

 

What according to my ears the improvements with a Melco. Less noise (more black), better sound stage, more musical, better tonality.  I would suggest this upgrade for anybody. It’s perhaps not equal to a black box upgrade, but the audible benefits are considerable and especially significant when you have a great Naim setup as a base. I am going so far to say it’s a must have.......

i am tempted in the future by the melco.  I see you had unitserve before, as me. Vs the unitserve in upnp, the melco with nds is a worthwhile improvement?

Did you have problems with the metadata, using naim app ?    you transferred your rips and downloads from the serve or from the nas?  I am curious 

I didn’t have problems. Didn’t use unitiserve but QNAP but story is the same. With regards to the metadata no change as the mimeserver is the determining factor. If I would have used the standard provided Twonky at that point in time it would have been different. But that’s more a topic of the chosen renderer than of the Melco itself.

do you think transfer from the unitserve to the melco is easy and without metadata bugs or blanks?    perhaps it is better to rip again the cds with the melco?  i have only 400 cds, so not a big deal.  I have no nas. My downloads are on my pc ( back up) and i still have my cds.

Bert Schurink posted:

kevin J Carden posted:

Thanks to all. Very encouraging. I have asked my dealer to get an N1Z in for me to try at home. 

A few questions if I may:

What do you use to rip CD’s into the Melco?

Do you leave the Melco connected to the switch/router permanently? Does it make any difference to SQ if you disconnect it and just use the Melco as a (network disconnected) player? Or does it make no difference? One of my amateur rationales for thinking the Melco is a good concept is the ability to take any network problems out of the equation, but that could just be my muddled thinking...

Do you have the Melco sitting in the main System rack - any mechanical noise?

Thanks again, Kevin

I rip and download music. I don’t use the direct download capabilities of the Melco as I anyhow need to adapt the tags to fit my organization of music. For ripping I use EAC, MP3 for changing tags. I rip and download on my Windows pc and move the music on a stick which I plug into the Melco.

I have the Melco always connected - otherwise i couldn’t use the Naim app with the NDS and would loose too much in comfort. I know without connection to the network it would be even better, but I want to be able to switch between the Melco stored music and Tidal f.i. The two Ethernet slot at least ensure a considerable decoupling of the network noise. I do however have the setting disabled to have the Melco visible in the network, this improves the sound slightly.

I have the Melco on top of the stack. This to avoid issues with the cables at the back. Without removing the Fraim backpannel you couldn’t put the Melco on a lower Fraim level. So not 100 percent optimal but the best for my situation. So mechanical noise is either absent or not audible in my setup. I assume you refer to potential noise of the disks.

Hope this answers sufficiently your questions.

It does indeed Bert - very helpfully so.  Thanks ???? 

French Rooster posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

French Rooster posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

As already indicated by James, I am running the Melco in UPnP mode. 

I started the Melco journey with the base model and exchanged it for the mid model with 6TB in the meanwhile. 

I am running the Melco with Mimeserver which enables me to listen in Wav and store in Flac. I do also have also improved connection with Vodka Ethernetcables from router to Melco and Melco to NDS. 

The Melco is a considerable upgrade from other regular NAS options you might have. So if you would go for the base Melco which has a somewhat reasonable price, the one I have is another audible step up. And the top model is again audible better. And when I made the upgrade to the base Melco I already had an improved NAS setup with a separate improved powersupply, so it was already not a standard one. 

As to the question on PRAT - there is definitely not a negative effect on Naim qualities what so ever..... 

 

What according to my ears the improvements with a Melco. Less noise (more black), better sound stage, more musical, better tonality.  I would suggest this upgrade for anybody. It’s perhaps not equal to a black box upgrade, but the audible benefits are considerable and especially significant when you have a great Naim setup as a base. I am going so far to say it’s a must have.......

i am tempted in the future by the melco.  I see you had unitserve before, as me. Vs the unitserve in upnp, the melco with nds is a worthwhile improvement?

Did you have problems with the metadata, using naim app ?    you transferred your rips and downloads from the serve or from the nas?  I am curious 

I didn’t have problems. Didn’t use unitiserve but QNAP but story is the same. With regards to the metadata no change as the mimeserver is the determining factor. If I would have used the standard provided Twonky at that point in time it would have been different. But that’s more a topic of the chosen renderer than of the Melco itself.

do you think transfer from the unitserve to the melco is easy and without metadata bugs or blanks?    perhaps it is better to rip again the cds with the melco?  i have only 400 cds, so not a big deal.  I have no nas. My downloads are on my pc ( back up) and i still have my cds.

I don’t know exactly with the unitiserve. But I belief it’s storing it in Wav. But I guess that it’s quicker to potentially adress Tag problems than rerip everything. Another aspect is that I would belief the unitiserve has ensured a high quality rip, something which is not automatically guaranteed with a re-rip.

I’m not an expert Kevin, but I don’t think you can transfer your Unitiserve WAV rips to the Melco. Alan converted my library to FLAC for me, before I transferred them. 

I would not recommend ripping a large library via the Melco - it is nowhere near as slick to use as the Unitiserve and N-Serve app. I buy my downloads on my PC and then copy them to Melco, to Qnap and to a USB key, to be sure to be sure to be sure. I would only use the Melco as a ripper very occasionally.

Kevin - the guide to ripping with the Unitiserve to the Melco might be a useful read for you.

You'll find it on the support page of the Melco site under the downloads section ( see 3/4 down the page)

James

Bert Schurink posted:

French Rooster posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

French Rooster posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

As already indicated by James, I am running the Melco in UPnP mode. 

I started the Melco journey with the base model and exchanged it for the mid model with 6TB in the meanwhile. 

I am running the Melco with Mimeserver which enables me to listen in Wav and store in Flac. I do also have also improved connection with Vodka Ethernetcables from router to Melco and Melco to NDS. 

The Melco is a considerable upgrade from other regular NAS options you might have. So if you would go for the base Melco which has a somewhat reasonable price, the one I have is another audible step up. And the top model is again audible better. And when I made the upgrade to the base Melco I already had an improved NAS setup with a separate improved powersupply, so it was already not a standard one. 

As to the question on PRAT - there is definitely not a negative effect on Naim qualities what so ever..... 

 

What according to my ears the improvements with a Melco. Less noise (more black), better sound stage, more musical, better tonality.  I would suggest this upgrade for anybody. It’s perhaps not equal to a black box upgrade, but the audible benefits are considerable and especially significant when you have a great Naim setup as a base. I am going so far to say it’s a must have.......

i am tempted in the future by the melco.  I see you had unitserve before, as me. Vs the unitserve in upnp, the melco with nds is a worthwhile improvement?

Did you have problems with the metadata, using naim app ?    you transferred your rips and downloads from the serve or from the nas?  I am curious 

I didn’t have problems. Didn’t use unitiserve but QNAP but story is the same. With regards to the metadata no change as the mimeserver is the determining factor. If I would have used the standard provided Twonky at that point in time it would have been different. But that’s more a topic of the chosen renderer than of the Melco itself.

do you think transfer from the unitserve to the melco is easy and without metadata bugs or blanks?    perhaps it is better to rip again the cds with the melco?  i have only 400 cds, so not a big deal.  I have no nas. My downloads are on my pc ( back up) and i still have my cds.

I don’t know exactly with the unitiserve. But I belief it’s storing it in Wav. But I guess that it’s quicker to potentially adress Tag problems than rerip everything. Another aspect is that I would belief the unitiserve has ensured a high quality rip, something which is not automatically guaranteed with a re-rip.

The Unitiserve has its own way of dealing with metadata in WAVs, such that it cannot usually be read by non-Naim devices. The solution to this is to convert to FLAC on the Unitiserve before transferring the music, then the metadata will still be visible. 

A few points - my Melco sits happily on my Fraim, on a shelf beneath my DAC. It's a deep box, so I modified the rear Fraim strut by replacing it with a bolt. There's no audible penalty in my system for siting it thus. The network cable to access the device is permanently connected; it all sounds fine & I can access the music on various apps - I now use Linn Kazoo for the purpose, on iPads, iPhone and Mac. I've got Minimserver installed, & Twonky switched off. For ripping I use a Samsung drive connected to my iMac & just drag the rips across onto the Melco's share folder. The CD ripping feature built into the Melco works fine, it's just not convenient. I rip to Wav, which to my ears sounds a bit better than FLAC.

I originally populated the Melco from my iTunes file, but there were several albums lacking metadata. I now use Jaikoz & SongKong to sort this stuff out. If you've Naim-ripped files, you can just dump them to SongKong & it'll wade through and correct them.

Meant to post - The latest Melco beta update (3.71B), available on the Melco download page, works a treat. Amongst other things, It allows you to switch Twonky on and off in the settings (handy if you're running Minimserver), and you can now play internet radio stations by adding them as a playlist - just follow instructions on the Melco download page. I'm currently listening to Radio Paradise, sounds great.

I have a N1A/2, used with a NAIM DAC (powered by an XPS2), a major improvement in SQ over the CDX2.

I rip CD with the Melco using a cheap USB bluray reader.

The Melco is not everyone however, some skill with computers helps.

Kevin,

I have the N1Z with 6TB since september 2016 and I am very pleased. It was very easy to install. Just plugging in the mains and the ethernetcable and that was that. The sound is great. 

The response and service from Melco and then Alan Ainslie is remarkable.

I have the Buffalo CD ripper and use also their harddisc for backups. As Melco recommend. Both works automaticly. Easy to rip and easy to take backups.

Initially I had the Melco ethernetcable between the Melco and the NDS but I have upgraded to a Vertere. Improved the sound quality. If you have the possibility try a couple of highend ethernetcables during the trial.

I have my Melco on top of the right rack (over the 3 PS).

Gunnar

The Unitiserve does indeed have its own way of dealing with metadata in WAVs - it doesn't tag them! 

Any Unitiserve ripped WAV file will play back on anything else. That's not a problem. But it will need to be properly tagged - something that Naim still refuses to do.

Can you fit drives yourself? E.g take an N1A and upgrade to SSD? I know that's not the same as Melco's "audio optimised" SSDs in the N1Z, but would be good for those that prefer SSDs.

From a different angle, there was someone on the forum who did some direct comparisons a year or two ago and preferred the Innuos Zenith. Might be worth having a search.