Melco Mania

i am not surprised Meni. Can’t you borrow a melco or innuos?

I had a Melco I think the second best after N10…for 2 hours it was really good, better than good ,but as you know 2 hours to listen is not enough to be sure,that’s why I’m asking any opinion here

Bert and DB use the middle melco with their nd555. Another member uses a melco with a chord dave.
I don’t think they have compared to innuos zenith or se, because i am reading regularly the forum on this subject.
You have Hifi Advice site, where the reviewer had compared a lot of servers( melco, antipodes…) on a high end system. It can give ideas…

I like the ‘middle Melco’ as mentioned above - and I still love it. It also responds well to tuning it with the options available:

  • Turn Off all the LED lights and disable front panel illumination (dark-mode) normally on options - all done via panel commands.

  • Turn On the ‘File-sharing’ - it was supposed to be better off - it sounds different off and I definitely did not like it turned off at all - ruins performance (loses low-level detail), so keep it on.

  • Position the Melco on Fraim near front of shelf - move it about and listen until you get a tuneful solid bass, very easy to hear once you know the Melco can have a vibration mode on its big squishy feet. Once you hit the sweet-spot it is magic and leave it alone. Off that spot it can go full-blown bass or bright and lean.

  • Eventually use a Powerline with it - not essential at first but a definite a large upgrade.

  • Choose a good Ethernet connector to your streamer and dress all cables to be clear of each other.

And then it is a wonderful device - but you can make it go off if you don’t know it can be set-up for best performance.

Given all this I’m cautious of some reviews and opinion as I never hear these specify any awareness of the above having any impact.

I liked it that Melco were at least aware that these things impact performance and allow for their configuration by the customer.

To be fair the other HiFi Database Server boxes may also offer similar, better or worse, so I can’t comment on ‘best’ but I wanted a box to host my music with good access, capacity and file format hosting features with the self-ripping ability - plug-in a cheap commercial CD drive to USB and it will rip and download my CDs - it did all that so I’m happy.

DB.

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So how about the big brother
N10, i’m thinking seriously to get one,the reason I can get a good deal from my dealer,but only for bigger one,because this expensive one will be his first one

It is a good product - better in certain ways than mine, cleaner, clearer and ‘fresher’ when I did a quick comparison at my Dealer out of curiosity. But I have not played with it at home and I still prefer the weightier bass from mine, albeit a tad more raunchy and comparatively a bit raw compared to the N10 - as I then heard it.

Now my Dealer confirmed they prefer the N10 - easy to hear why, but also heard the low-end difference I missed.

I think it will be good but you need to, as ever, match it to your system install and tune it in using I’d suggest a Powerline and something like a Vodka Ethernet as these both fill-out the low end and may make it overall better than I have now - perhaps I’m not wanting to do the comparison.

It can take a while to system-match items I find so ‘best’ in one system may not be in another - I like the balance of presentation in mine now so want to live with and enjoy it - you know when you have it right as the urge to upgrade goes way-down.

But any of these Devices were miles ahead of a commercial NAS Drive which was dreadfully dull by comparison, no matter how many times I’m told it makes no difference - when you listen it does.

Choose something and go for it - then properly install it on it’s own HiFi shelf and you will be fine IMO.
Care and attention to details of install with a good product are well worth it.

At a recent demo by Naim they had a team of people checking all cables were right between each box-change in a Statement vs 552 demo as it does matter.

DB.

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As DB says, what may be best in one system may not be best in another. Like him I’ve taken absolutely meticulous care over positioning and cabling and have used both Melco and Innuos. I’ve also owned both.

The result? I haven’t tried the top end Melco, but have heard everything else and the Zenith mk3 wins in my system. Big time.

It benefits from being at the top of the “brawn” Fraim stack, it loves Chord Music (to the streamer) and Sarum T (from the switch) and Sarum T power cable but I’m sure it would be quite happy with just a Powerline and Vodka/Cinnamon Ethernet cable. If, and I appreciate you may not be able to try an Innuos, you can only get something in the Melco range, then you’ll still be in for a treat. If, however, you can get to try an Innuos Zenith or Statement, you’ll be in for a treat. Not only is it far superior from a user point of view, but it has the edge on sound quality.

I didn’t need to change, I chose to.

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Dave, you should precise, i think, that you run a chord dave/ blue with your innuos. In usb or spdif mode. Meni has an nd555, so he will connect it directly in the ethernet switch of melco or innuos.
I wonder if you would still prefer the innuos if you had an nd555? difficult to predict.

Hard to check all combination,otherwise you don`t go ahead and buy nothing

No, I have a Linn KDSM - latest Katalyst version - so I’m using the ethernet link.

I did hear Zen, Zenith and Statement with a Dave/Mscaler and they were really good, too. Does that answer your question?

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i found one reply when you said using the chord combo, so i thought it was your source.
So yes, it answers 100% my question. It’s a good news also because i wonder to take the zenith one day. :smile:

could you compare nd555 or chord combo vs the kdsm katalyst? this kdsm is on my list also.

All three are excellent and, having spent time listening to all of them (although not in direct comparison) I’d be quite happy to live with the sound of any of them. The Naim has the drive that you’d expect and is, to me, a big step up from the NDS. The Chord combo is fabulous and if I didn’t also run an LP12 with Urika II in Exakt configuration, would be a strong contender for inclusion in my listening room.

The KDS is, however, just so musical and effortless. It responds really well to cable improvements, too, so the addition of ChordMusic not only makes it much more satisfying but also removes any “concerns” anyone might have about any lack of prat-ishness in comparison to Naim. It grooves. And, for me, the fact that it works first time without any software issues, is a single box design AND has SO, makes it the ideal choice.

They’re all great players, no losers, it’s a case of auditioning them all and deciding which works best for you.

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the kdsm is appealing: only one box and can be upgraded in the future without loosing too much money as with naim.

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When given a choice do both.
Upstairs downstairs.
Chord for CDs and LP12 with Urika II for elpees works best for me.
Stream through either using J River MC in sync if ever needed.
No fancy cables in my setup and sounds great to me.

Yes ir is nice to have it one box
Chord uses 2 because MScalar’s Xilinx FPGA get hot and as a bit of an RFI generator, using suitable cables with ferrites to marry the 2 boxes solves this.
Linn uses a less powerful FPGAs (similar to DAVE on its own) which is ideal for DSMs.
Naim uses a SHARC with a vintage DAC chip to create a sound that many adore.
Horses for courses as we say.
All of them work well in the right environment, Linn is the most adaptable because of Space Optimisation V2. Though you can emulate SO with Roon or J River DSP, but it’s quite hard to get it right.

DB … did you try before hadding Melco to listen through Nd555 from usb as a server option? I find its better sound than any pc including pi

At my Dealers we tried other data storage via USB and the Melco via Ethernet was clearly ahead in terms of clarity of timing, detail and immediacy which I personally value.

The ND555 USB input was otherwise better than the Ethernet options from many other data sources tried, but the Melco via its Ethernet made all these sound slow and a bit dreary. I think the Melco just implemented a better Ethernet option - Ethernet is normally compromised from a non-HiFi design-intended box as it has no implicit requirement to have anything special in performance other than meet specification.

I’m describing my path via demo to an overall solution that suited me - there by now may be better ways to do this - or not. I do strongly suspect there are different tastes in presentation and one person’s idea of what sounds best or better may be very different from mine. It is why you can only give opinions and not any definitive ‘you will like it - it is better’ answers, as you may be looking for another musical signature.

I prefer the music presented in entirety with any raw rough-edges that were originally present not nicely smoothed-over or rounded-off, which is why I prefer the Active system approach.
The Melco I felt was honest - not perfect but it removes a lot of rubbish with streaming implementations via networks that I had previously disliked. But there are people that hate the Melco as firmly as I like it.

DB.

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I agree with you,the audition of Melco vs. usb was above on every point, but as I had it only for 2 hours,I needed to be sure,from your positive experience ו am probably towards to purchase the bigger one N10

If you have heard it and liked it then you should be fine with it.
How it all happens I do not know, but you can to a large degree ‘voice’ the end-result to your system signature and your own preference with the choice of Ethernet cable and Mains lead.

I’m from a physics and electrical engineering background and the fact I’m writing the above has any effect on performance at all would have seemed crazy to me a few years ago - but it does.

In short - get whatever good Data storage device you like and can afford, be it Melco or one of the other good devices that seem to be about and get it singing in your system with appropriate installation and then forget it all and enjoy the end result.

That was always my aim - always ready for an improvement if it is within financial reach against other life priorities, but try to get a balanced happy system at every stage as I find it is lack of system balance that drives the dissatisfaction and urge to upgrade. You can have a lot of excellent devices that just do not gel-together to your taste in your room right and knowing that can happen helps you avoid it.

I hope it all goes well! :bear:

DB.

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