Melco n1h60 2 vs uniticore

Hello,
i am tempted to buy the melco n1h60 mk2 for my nds. I don’t want the innuos finally and the melco n1z mk2 is too expensive for me now.
I feel the n1ah60 is better vs the uniticore. The direct ethernet connection is a plus.

Has anyone compared the melco n1ah60 mk2 with the core?

Pros and cons to both
But the big one is I believe the O/S is embedded on the HD of the Melco and that partition is password protected so when the HD fails it has to sent in to be replaced.
The Core’s HD is user replaceable and to me that’s a big positive.
It’s not if a HD fails it’s when .

Hi, I purchased a N1A/2 (Mk2) to use as a music server with my Uniti Nova a few months ago and could not be happier. It replaced my aging QNAP. I also had a chance to compare the entry level Melco N100 to a Naim Core and preferred the Melco. For just a little more money, I opted for the N1A Mk2 4TB version which was heavily discounted, so it was an easy choice. Seems they are now releasing 6TB versions, so the older 4TB capacity units are being offered at very good prices.

It is true that the Melco OS resides on a hidden partition on one of the two drives and that it would need to be sent to a dealer to swap drives/servicing. My understanding it that Innous is the same.

However, as a music server, the Melco has made a very big difference and felt it was/is a major source upgrade. Very happy with my choice. It does not have a GUI or CD ripper but it checks all the boxes from a musical standpoint.

Since purchasing the Melco, I’ve been playing around with trying to improve the network and have added a galvanic isolator between the router and the Cisco switch, connecting the Melco to the switch and ethernet cable from the Melco to the Naim streamer all proved to provided small incremental uplifts. Swapping the Powerline from the Nova to the Melco made a larger difference. Other performance tweaks included some of the suggestions from Darkebear and others.

Hope this helps convince you!

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Ants you for got a couple things Lolol

Oh yeah…but it may be considered witchcraft to talk about it.

I, with the help of friend who tried this before I did, modded a couple of Cisco 2960 switches by adding a thin layer of adhesive copper tape to the complete underside of the top case, covering the entire thing then painting the copper with RF shielding paint. We had three, all three had the top case taped and painted and the only difference was the first one had no rubber feet or isolation, the seconds had rubber feet and the third had three stainless steel cones siliconed to the bottom. I am currently using the latter.

Conclusion - All three modded switches clearly outperform the unmodded one using the same power cord. Adding a modest AQ Y Series AC cable improved the soundstage quite a bit.

Hey, it beats drinking !

The Melco needed all the help it could get Lolo Lolol
Kidding it’s a very nice sounding piece of gear and a nice sounding system !
Don’t forget it was Dan who nailed the PS Audio outlet and the power cord.
I’ll order up the next thing to try and head back

Ps first switch was yours it had nothing done to it the second one we changed feet the 3rd one had the magic done already then we did the treatment to the second one

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very interesting Ants. So even the n100 was better sounding vs the core. Good point.
A good power cord is important on the melco, if i understood well?

It was for me. I found it to be more relaxed, darker in some ways than the Core. Swapping the AC power cord does help bring out more music.

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Please try the Innuos also, not I have never heard the Melco, may well be better, but best to compare and then despair :grin:

my dealer doesn’t have it. He takes my unitserve in the buying, otherwise i should have to sell it, not easy.
The look of the melco is more to me.
The innuos has more features for the price ( zenith) but on sound quality, in direct ethernet mode, some have reported a bit better performance( in other forums ). But very probably at the same level both.

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I am shocked my freind, you said you like the melco look, your priorities are changing :innocent:

The big advantage for me is the ripper in the innuos. So if my dealer had the innuos, i would probably have gone for it.
I will probably struggle to transfer my 400 cds rips on my serve to the melco. I am not even sure that’s possible.

I recommended you the Zen or Zen mini because it goes better in term of look with your nova i feel. And the melco has no ripper inside, so one more box for your wife :weary:

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Yes when I collected it today, I told my wife, it’s just a cheap CD drive to RIP my old CDs :sunglasses:, dealer nearly let it slip :shushing_face:

Ah yes you put me on the Innuos path :ok_hand:

To be honest the Innuos range looks nice on the glossy websites, but at home bottom shelf looks very boring.

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it’s a plastic case? but it’s entirely black and little, the best to not give too much attention to your wife :smirk:

No all metal, very dull and boring compared to the shiny website pictures.

I am concerned though as there is a large vent section on the top right, I can see the power board, will get dusty.

I love the look of the Melco in black. Looks stealth.

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You can add an external USB drive to rip to a Melco. I think only the Apple external USB drive is incompatible. Lots of info on their website.

Taken from website: " Melco will import or play music from a USB connected optical drive.Optical drive is automatically recognised - no setup or configuration."

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the problem is that it have to rip in the same quality as the melco. A cheap external ripper will probably not do the work well. not as good probably.
Do you think it’s possible to transfer from unitserve to the melco. I will not rip in the future, just need to transfer.

What file format are your files on the Core ? WAV ? FLAC ? Although I have not tried it myself, I think HiFiFoFum did try to transfer WAV files from his Core to an Innous and the metadata did not follow. FLAC would not be an issue.

I’ve transferred ALAC, AIFF, FLAC and DSD files from my NAS to the Melco (a simple drag and drop) and other than taking almost 2 days, there was no issue. I do not rip or have any WAV files.

cd rips are waw.