Folks, I didn’t want to gatecrash the current Roon SQ topic so …
I’m very tempted to try Roon and its DSP engine. Some previous topic mentioned the successful use of a Melco N10 with Roon, another topic said that the Melco is not Roon certified.
If the Melco is not Roon certified, can you have an external DAC connected to the Melco via USB and have the Melco and the Roon laptop both connected via ethernet to a switch?
To my knowledge Melco servers can not be used for Roon other than as a location for the audio files. It currently is not Roon Ready so has no way of being used as a streamer or Roon server. Connecting a DAC wont make any difference unless its attached to a Roon Ready endpoint or is a network DAC. Melco can be used in between the core server and the streaming endpoint utilising its bridged network but thats it.
I have a Melco N10 and I am using Roon, but Roon Core is running on a Qnap NAS in my network, not on the N10 itself. Very satisfactory solution IMO.
Melco uses Linux OS and Roon uses a Windows version is my understanding, so Roon does not presently easy run on a Linux-based machine. But Melco is a Roon endpoint capable, so it works fine in functional terms. So you run Roon on another box from the Melco and control the Melco from that other box.
DB.
I run Roon on OSX, and I understand it can run on Linux too. More a case of whether or not Melco choose to support it, I would have thought.
When i first started using Roon i did run a Melco / Roon combination to start with. I’d already had a Melco N1A for a few years and used it both as the music store and for it’s ‘quiet’ player port with my Roon Nucleus.
Well, thanks all for the tips. I’ve ordered a NUC so should be able to try at the week-end.
Roon server runs on all operating platforms, the Nucleus Roons own device for running the core is a custom Linux kernel for Roon., the Melco’s just don’t have the grunt as they use low end processors as they believe it minimises noise. They also are not current Roon Ready so are not supported as endpoints. It was touted it was coming but can’t find anything about it on Melcos Roons site and they are not listed as partners . Might still be awaiting ratification?
My demo was using Melco as a Roon endpoint, so it was done somehow.
The extra processing on the Melco needed by running Roon on it is an understandable reason Melco don’t want to break their design-concept. If they can find a way around it - it they want to - it would be to have a separate box (withing or outside) with an additional processor separated from the quiet environment the music data management does, that then allows the Roon control - but that is a lot to ask.
DB.
Surely the ND555 is the Roon Endpoint, with the Roon Core just accessing the music folder on the Melco.
After just chasing-down this with the Dealer you are right - the ND555 was the Roon Endpoint and the Melco a passive data-store.
My approach to my demo was - ‘show me Roon added to manage my music using what I have as my deliberately preferred data storage device’, so anything Melco add should not take away from what I like about it in terms of fluid-immediacy and transparency (to me).
DB.
I guess it should be a very simple test to give the Roon Core access to music files stored elsewhere, either locally or on the network, to see if this is a Roon/Melco issue, or something else.
The main thing Melco does, apart from being a quiet dedicated music server, is to remove a switch being needed directly between the ND555 and it, so introducing other variables - the whole ‘switches sound different’ discussion enters.
In the end I don’t really mind how it is all done - if I hear it done as well or better at my Dealer with Roon as without then I get a home-demo to check it does that at home too and make final decisions.
At present it has not passed the first stage above for me - if and when it does then I go to home-demo.
DB.
I wonder if using the Melco as NAS with a seperate Roon core is putting more demand on the network capabilities of the Melco as it’s having to push files toRoon core, they then get processed in Roon core to pcm then back out via RAAT then using the Melco essentially as a switch to the ND555. Perhaps this extra bandwidth on the Melco is accounting for something ?After all it has been designed to serve directly to a streamer or DAC not act as glorified switch which it is almost doing in that setup. Could be entirely of track here though.
I was thinking along the same lines. The Roon Core is the server, and the data passes through it, pulling it from the Melco, and sending it straight back through the same cable, which does seem like an odd way to do things. Perhaps, in this case, the Melco would be better without its direct connection to the streamer.
I’d prefer the option of not having the music data processed and transcoded until I A-B compared that it lost nothing, as you have to be very careful when transcoding not to lose information. That said and presuming Roon to all that properly and as well as can be done - it will rout the data about the place as described so that it can perform that task.
The demo just in terms of SQ of just telling the ND555 to pull the music data, vs the music data being beamed at the ND555 vs Roon acting as arbiter of it all determines the path I take - stay as I am using Naim App or use another system like Roon.
If Roon is at least neutral in one of its modes - as determined by audition for me - then all the other functionality it has I could really warm to - but I personally can’t approach this the other way of functionality then SQ second.
I really respect people that do that and there is far more to music appreciation than the aspects I highly value for sure and therefore people make different valid choices on what gets most music into their lives in a significant way.
DB.
I think we all want the same thing BF best user experience and SQ. If Roon sounded less than what I was using before i would not have switched to it and it sounds equal to UpNp for local streaming on my system and much better for Tidal that it sounds as good as local rips as does Qobuz.
“After just chasing-down this with the Dealer you are right - the ND555 was the Roon Endpoint and the Melco a passive data-store.”
Have you found out what where/on what they were running the Roon Core?
Not yet - it was a phone-call and they were busy with a demo so I’ll find out when I visit in a few days. I know they have a Roon-specific box from Roon to run it on but no more than that. It looked like this from memory of briefly seeing it:
…or they were running it on something else and that was just for show. 
I’ll confirm when I know for sure.
That’s the Roon Nucleus. I would try and hear the ND555 without the Melcos direct port attached and use it just as a file server to the Nucleus then the cisco switch to the ND555 and see if that changes any dynamic. It still might not be your cup of Tea though and if not then all is fine as in the end if you dont like it you dont like it but it takes the routing back through the Melco out of the loop. I don’t use any other machine other than my Roon core in my setup and it uses the same OS as the Nucleus give or take a few tweaks they made for their own hardware… I used to use a NAS as music file source but never noted any difference moving to local storage other than it being slightly quicker, it just made it easier to copy music to it from the pc…