Melco Mania

Pointless review, IMHO. There is no attempt to evaluate its impact on musical entertainment versus alternatives.
I am one year in to an ND555, with an N10 since January. In my opinion, the combo is still improving; can’t say how much due to each respective component, but the addition of the Belden Catsnake Ethernet cable (at very modest cost) has also raised the stakes.
As I mentioned in another post ‘Eight Miles High’ became ‘Sixteen Miles High’ on moving from NDS/Melco N1, to ND555/Melco N10. I think the Belden may have moved it to ‘20 Miles High’, but it could be one or other of the other components which is still improving.
Who cares? Life is short. Grab it!

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i am convinced Rip. My next goal will be the n1z2. I made just an observation on the review where the reviewer said “ just a little bit better “ than streaming from the pc.

A little bit for someone is a big step for someone else,the best judgement is your ears.

I think this is a classic example of ‘Damning with faint praise’. There is no doubt to my ears that the N10 is a serious Audio component, and a million miles from any computer alternative.
David

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And an example of hyperbole…?

Although I’ve not compared them side by side my black box from the Audiostore sounds, to my ears, better than the Melco or Innuous - at least to my ears.

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what does it mean? strange humor? you say “ to my ears” but you have even not compared. And what melco, what innuos?
perhaps it’s some humor but i don’t understand it.

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Nor can I hear difference between Melco or any other server and Mac mini if I turn off DSP room correction. With DSP on vs server with no DSP, it’s no contest: Mac mini every time for me. As you imply you can drive yourself crazy with all these comparisons. I did a few and settled on JR Media Centre on Mac mini with Blue Jeans Cables. I think it is the software that makes the most difference on the server side. Nothing on server side has impacted my enjoyment of music as much as changes to the DAC and speakers.

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Audiostore makes some very fine music servers based on Vortexbox. I’d say Vortexbox is at least as good as Innuos or Melco. They don’t advertise so you don’t see articles about them in HiFi magazines.

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@Mr Underhill , who has a new avatar since, is using the audiostore prestige. @Bluesfan too. Don’t know if they compared to innuos or melco.

Let me explain: I’ve listened to examples of both at a dealer’s room on several occasions but not at home.

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A question for the Melco owners please: are you running the Melcos in upnp mode or do you use usb/to DAC? Thanks!

But Apples computers are already built to comply with various demands on hf emissioss. And that include how they run Core Audio which is bolted in to get the priority needs even for hires.

The second parameter is distance. Get the computer out of the listening room and close the door.

To this you add selection of drive unit (the only SSD I know about are the old 320,600Mb Intel ones. Slow down the network to 100Mb might help.

You might also be careful with your ripping environment. Keep electrical noise down.

I am using a direct cat5 connection between Melco and ND555, with Roon directing proceedings from a network attached device.
I don’t think this technically involves Upnp?

Yes, you don’t see their products at the Bristol Show looking desirable on a cool stand, but they were around before the other two and they were using LMS for USB DACs before Innuos.

I haven’t had the opportunity to compare the two but I can compare prices which are very different indeed. The clinch for me, though, is the presence of the Sonore UPNP Bridge.

Hi RVP,

Others here have greater technical knowledge but if it’s ethernet into a Naim streamer then it’s UPNP, although Roon works slightly differently, I think.

The question is ethernet verses direct connection (USB or S/PDIF). If it’s the latter then the server has to do a lot more due to noise/jitter etc which is introduced. You either buy an quality server or put something in between (an UltraRendu or Chord Mscaler, for example). As the review earlier said, the jury is out on the SQ issues with Ethernet for different servers. I have no strong views about this but Ethernet seems a safer bet, especially if you already own a quality streamer, and we know not all streamers sound the same.

Keith

Keith

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Strictly speaking it’s not UPnP, as Roon uses its own protocol instead. Probably not that different really, I think I’m right in saying it’s all just another use of TCP/IP.

Thanks- so you’re using the dedicated (guess isolated) LAN port to connect the NAIM- that requires UPNP protocol.

Hi FR,
I have listened to the £5k, 6TB HDD Melco server and the £7k, 2TB SSD Melco server, both into Chord DAVE via USB and via DCS Network Bridge with the HDD server. Both sounded excellent as far as I could tell.

Our primary reason for discounting Melco was that we want to access streamed music via Roon. As Melco servers don’t run Roon Core, Melco had to go. This was the only reason.

The benchmark server for us has been the Innuos Zenith III with internal SSD. For a single room system, without DSP, this has been the one to beat.

However, the Zenith’s Intel processor (a Pentium N4200) has about 65% of the processing speed of an Intel i3 and the i3 is the minimum recommended by Roon. As we may well try advanced convolution filters at some point and will definitely go multi-room, we were cautious about buying a Zenith III due to limitations of processing speed. Having said this, the Zenith III has sounded excellent whenever we have heard one in a single system context.

The Audiostore Prestige 3 has about the same processing speed as a Roon Nucleus+. I say about, as it depends on which tasks you use to base the speed measurements on. Our Prestige 3 was also about £2k less expensive than a Zenith III with 2TB SSD storage and £1,500 less than a Roon Nucleus+ with 2TB SSD.

Hope this helps, BF

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Great summary.

It would be great if anyone has been able to compare the Prestige 3 to the Melco or Innuos, either via USB or Ethernet.

Keith

Good explanation - much better put than I could manage. I’m very happy with the Prestige 3, as long as it focuses on one room at a time. I have yet to delve into the mysteries of MinimServer with a view to deciding whether i could live with it if I decide to stop using Roon.

As it happens I am adjusting to searching for music via Roon’s genres. I thought I would not like it.