Is there anybody before tried to install a Melco D100 hard drive into ND555 server instead of a regular WD drive that Im using right now in term of sound,my mind is going over for a Meco sever but on the other hand its very expensive,maybe this cheap idea will leave me a lot of money in my pocket,and the result will be quiet good
The D100 is just a cd reader and ripper, it needs connecting to another Melco to store rips. It is mentioned that it can play cd,s to a dac, so you may be able to play a cd through the nd555.
I will be trialling a Melco N1A/2 against my Uniti Core in a couple of weeks, also a Melco N1ZH/2 vs my ND5XS2 & Uniti Core.
I have a separate Chord Hugo TT2 DAC so I am only using the ND5 as a Transport - it does perform very well in this role so it may be a difficult call.
So a different scenario to you - my Core replaced a tiring Synology NAS and I am pleased with it but if I can see a box reduction and some SQ improvement for a simple financial crossover cost I will consider the Melco route.
https://www.analogueseduction.net/streamers-music-servers-media-players/melco-e100-external-usb-hard-disk-drive.htm…I had a mistake,meaning this one Melco e100
Hi Meni, not sure about this, but my gut feeling is that it does not have the software a normal Melco has to store, find and access the albums and needs connecting to another full blown Melco. If i am wrong you are on to something my friend. Perhaps a dealer can help you as i have not heard anyone on the forum using the E100?
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It looks like just an Expansion overflow drive for Melco main unit, the latter is required to host the data server.
I did ask Melco about expansion - not a problem with mine as it is 6TB and I’m less than half-full. Their take on it all was that although you can connect any compatible hard drive via the USB expansion socket and it will ‘work’, their own expansion drive gives better results.
Now you could say they would say that - but given all the things around the final feed to the ND555 that impact performance that from a superficial view should not, perhaps it does.
As to if you can just use that expansion drive direct into the ND555 like a giant USB pen…perhaps!
But you won’t get the Data Server function as it contains no computer or OS.
DB.
But I will get better sound than my regular WD drive already into my ND555 or not? if it`s right, it will be for me a cheap idea,for the rest of my budget I can get a second 555ps
It should work a lot better - in my discussions with the Melco people, they seem to know a lot about Noise emitted in different ways from commercial drives and select the best and then host that drive in a low-noise case and supply so it should be better.
My discussions with the Naim guys showed they also do this for their products so I think any ‘HiFi’ drive stands a good chance of being better than an off the shelf commercial drive that has not been built to have these factors of any importance - usually it is capacity-speed-cost only.
DB.
At £900 from what I can tell, for the same money you could audition a Innuos Zen Mini (1TB, 2TB @ £999) which is far more than just a well engineered USB expansion drive (by design) and gives you Digital and Analogue outputs as well as Ethernet of course.
It can run as a Roon Core if desired and can have a LPSU added to tweak it’s abilities a little further down the line.
I’ve only had reasonably brief hands on with the Mk3 Zen Mini personally but found it very capable for the price.
I can’t comment on if it sounds better or not but worth a try in your own system with familiar material perhaps.
Just to add, as I’m going through a somewhat similar exercise myself, I’ve repurposed a dormant Mac Mini Server and loaded Roon Core on to that as an experiment, it’s already hard wired over Ethernet to the LAN, no additional tweaks or changes. I’ve found it very good and it’s yet to cost me anything to try that out, I’m likely to jump on the Roon bus after the trial as the user experience is very comprehensive and the software has clearly had a lot of thought go in to it.
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