I’m now using an NDX2 with Roon, which, like BubbleUPnP server, I think makes Tidal and local streams sound more or less the same.
SiS also says that his NDX2 makes local and web streaming sound equally good - but he attributes that also partly to the ‘proxy server effect’ of using Roon, as well as the qualities of the NDX2.
BTW, what amp/s is that going into?
@Filipe or @Darkebear or @Simon-in-Suffolk
please let us know if Innuous or Melcos in effect act as ‘proxy’ servers into Naim streamers - as well as acting as actual servers…
Or whether they would in effect remove the benefit of a proxy server into a 272 - which is about transcoding from FLAC to WAV to take processing pressure off the 272 (and also IIRC improving the timing of signal processing).
thanks
Jim
I have BubbleUPnP server running on a Raspberry Pi 4 which is also my NAS running AssetUPnP with a USB drive attached holding the music. I also have Audirvana on a Windows laptop. Streaming Tidal via Audirvana or BubbleUpnp server and/or streaming from my NAS sounds the same to me. Audirvana allows me to play the Tidal masters (MQA) as well. However, I’m not sure it is any better than the regular hires (CD Qualiy) stream to my ears and system. Can’t help you with Melco, not familiar with it.
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Thanks - that’s a useful reminder.
When you say ‘sounds the same’, you mean you couldn’t tell them apart in a blind test, or they give equally good SQ with minor sonic differences?
I would fail the blind test I’m sure, all methods sound good to me. I like to tinker (retired), so I’m always messing around with different things.
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Yes - the Melco can do that when running Minim Server - one reason my Dealer likes it.
Having said that I use Twonky Server on Melco as I prefer its SQ compared to Minim - and I don’t think Twonky does the conversion.
I don’t play FLAC much and all my Rips are in WAV as I preferred the SQ when I did my initial tests - and I have enough disk space (6TB) on the Melco for my music so there was no need. So for what I wanted the Melco met the requirement I have.
But Melco does what you want - I’m sure some other units can do it.
DB.
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Thanks DB - I think I’m going to have take the Melco plunge - soon.
Is there anything decisive between the M100, and the next 2 models up the range into a 272?
AFAIK the transcoding into WAV will not be as important for an ND555 as it would for a 272 because of the greater processing power of the ND555?
The model I have (N1Zh2) is the one where Melco upgraded the internal networking PCB and my Dealer recons inclusive of that version onward is a step-up in performance.
Obviously you expect the top of range one with external supply to be better and in many respects it is, but I’d not say as much a leap up as from the one below mine to mine.
They are all good and you tend to get what you pay for. I liked the musical signature mine had in my system - a bit raw and raunchy needing to be tamed a bit. That character gets on well in an Active system I’ve found.
Some could sound over-polite and needing to be opened-up a bit. Some of this may be run-in as I heard the same server a few months later sounding much improved - and mine was an ex-demo one with a year of use on it.
…usual caveat that they all sound the same and …you know the rest, but they do all have their own signature character they impart to the system. Melco is clean, neutral and lively which is a naice set of attributes.
DB.
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Did you miss the Naim app moving to Twonky?
And do you still use the Naim app for web streaming?
Also - here’s a really crazy idea - I was wondering whether to get a CD transport or player into my 272 instead of - or as well as - a Server?
That way I could avoid ripping, and make the signal chain shorter - and revert to playing whole LPs as the default.
But would the SQ ever be as good?
Twonky is a UPnP media server application like Asset or Minimserver. You’d still use the Naim app.
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I understand now, sorry for forgetting your original goal. If you manage to install BubbleUPnP Server and to connect to the server via browser, you only need to select “Media Renderers” and, there, for your renderer(s), “Create an OpenHome renderer” and, within that menu, set “Tidal maximum audio quality” to “FLAC 16 bits / 44.1 kHz”, I believe.
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Thanks - I think I did that - or tried to do it - last night.
But it didn’t work.
But if I do have another crack at it I’ll go round that loop again.
Hi Jim, I am not aware of the Melco product being able to act as a proxy. It’s a couple of years since I played with one, and I certainly couldn’t remember it having that functionality then.
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What do you mean by getting “the same thing”? What a BubbleUPnP Server can get you is to turn non OpenHome renderers (like Chromecast Audio devices) into OpenHome renderers. This will allow you to see these renderers in control points like Linn Kazoo or the Lumin app. Whether this is going to improve the sound quality of Tidal or Qobuz streams through those renderers is somethign that you will have to check by yourself. If any, it is certainly not going to be a “day and night” difference anyway!
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I still use the Naim App - it talks to the Twonky …occasionally after its own fashion but gets me there.
So Twonky is just a combined Music Server and Web Interface software bundle - Naim App accesses the Twonky as a Network Server.
I can - if I like - also invoke music from the Twonky Server web interface on the Melco to play on the ND555 as a ‘beam-to’ remote device, but I mainly use the Naim App.
DB.
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By the ‘same thing’ I mean what I described above - to find an easier and perhaps and more effective way (e.g. by buying a box of some sort) to get the SQ benefits of a proxy server - which as I understand it are transcoding Tidal to wav and improved inter frame timing (or similar).
In this case all you need to do is to select your 272 in the “Media renderers” tab of BubbleUPnP Server, tick the “Create an OpenHome renderer” button and set “Tidal maximum audio quality” etc. At this point you will see the device in the Linn Kazoo, Lumin and BubbleUPnP control apps. I do not see any setting that would make BubbleUPnP transcode Tidal files to .wav but I do not use Tidal and I might be missing something.
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The transcoding options are on the same page as the settings you have just described. They will be ‘greyed’ out if ffmpeg is not installed or in suitable path.
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Ah, ffmpeg sounds like A missing link.
The question is how many more such missing links are there?
Because until I manage to discover all the missing steps for the Microsoft and the apple sides of the problem with all the different bits of software and hardware involved it won’t work…