I bought a Melco N1a at the Bristol show when they were reduced because the series 2 were being introduced. Dearly beloved agreed, when I described it as a music library and means of putting 1400 CDs into storage. At that time Melco were demonstrating the simplicity of ripping using a £20 computer shop USB drive, saying there was no need to spend more. I had such a drive fail after about 750 CDs, got my money back because the drive was advertiVtsed as good for 2000 rips. I found a Hitachi/LG drive for £15 and have done another 750+. I have had about 20 discs where ripping failed, so I put them in the PC, ripped them with Windows media player and copied the files across.
I have the Hitachi drive pushed into two bits of pipe insulation because very occasionally a CD causes it to vibrate. Because the drive can be plugged into the front USB port, it is easy to remove and prevent any domestic disharmony.
Following some discussion on the defunct Linn forum, I tried two Audioquest Jitterbugs, one in line with the cable to the DAC and one in the adjacent socket. I think there was an improvement, they are still in place and I am happy to leave them.
Two small negatives, the metadata isn’t perfect, album art is often missing or (mainly) in the case of classical album where there are various rereleases shows the wrong image. It doesn’t harm the sound.
The real niggle, which may be Bubble on my tablet, is an apparent inability to differentiate between some discs. Typically I have recently been trying to find a recording of Vivaldi Four Seasons in a small ensemble version. I now have ten versions ripped and when selecting some of them and adding to the playlist every track from every version gets added.
I am award that I am using the unit in possibly a completely different way to that which some people are discussing. Just hoping that this may be of interest or use.
Quickly read the user guide and there is no specific mention of any incompatibility with file formats when importing music. You might want to download the software manual and give it a read, it will offer a few options on how to import music into the Melco.
Also, your dealer may have some hands on experience with the transfer of files between the Core and a Melco.
I had no success in sending the Wav. files from my Core to my Innous …
It won’t or shouldn’t be a issue if your files are on a nas
I’m sure it’s Naims ripping format that stops this
I was going to try to send the files over to the Innous via my HDX converting then to flac but haven’t got around to doing that yet … been spending too much time on other digital things
This has always been the case with Naim rips. Convert to FLAC before transfer and they should be fine.
The situation is different with Core and Unitiserve.
With Unitiserve (and HDX) you can tell it to convert all the WAVs to FLAC and then you can transfer by copying the folders from the Music/MQ in the Unitiserve to your new NAS/server, for example by putting both on your network and using copy and paste shortcuts to move the music files one album at a time or more if you like!
With UnitiCore there is no onboard means to convert from WAV to FLAC, although you can set the Core to rip in either, so depending on the setting, some or all files may be in FLAC already. Then you can use the same method of copy and paste to move them to the new NAS. If they are in WAV then they are going to need some conversion to FLAC in a PC or similar before transferring to their final home.
I guess most of the people on the thread know all this already but I put it in one place for readers who may not.
Best
David
how to convert from the unitserve? then transfer to the melco? ( cd rips)
David, so you think it’s relatively easy to transfer from unitserve to the melco?
You can easily convert your whole library, or individual albums to FLAC using the DTC, or N-Serve on a Mac. In order to make the metadata readable on non-Naim servers, you must do this on the Unitiserve before transfer.
It should be but you have to convert to FLAC before you do it, as both I and @ChrisSU say.
But I have no personal experience of the Melco, just the Unitiserve and UnitiCore.
Best
David
thanks
Bad bad man!
When I spoke to Melco people at the Bristol Show a couple of years ago they recommended software called SongKong to transfer Naim WAVs. Did you try this? Supposedly, it inserts missing metadata during a mass rip.
Keith
one thing i don’t understand. The melco can decode all formats, wav, flac, aiff, etc…
Why have i to convert wav to flac before transferring from the unitserve to the melco?
Naim’s tagging of WAV is proprietary, if my memory of my HDX is correct, the metadata is stored externally in a separate file. So if you transfer the WAV rip to a different device, it has no readable metadata. Converting to FLAC on the US will create a rip with embedded metadata which can be read…
(I used Mp3tag to retag all of my rips when I moved to a NAS/NDX, in retrospect I’d have bulk converted to FLAC, then used dbPoweramp to reconvert, but I was new at this back then.)
apparently it’s not so easy and straightforward. For all my downloads it’s not a problem. They are stored also on my pc.
The problem will be with the cds rips wav on my unitserve. If i am not sure to be able to do that, because my dealer is not so computer expert, i will have to buy a cd ripper for the melco. But the melco ripper costs near 1k euros. The other 2 which are compatible cost 100 euros, but i don’t know if they will rip as good as my unitserve.
Otherwise i should perhaps go for innuos. However my dealer don’t sell it directly…
Naim rippers store metadata differently to other brands, so most non-Naim servers and streamers can’t read it, or see the artwork. The actual music files are fine.
In FLAC, metadata is stored differently, so that this problem does not occur. So convert to FLAC on the Unitiserve, and there is no problem. After transfer, you can convert to other formats, or even back to WAV if you like.
KRM found the solution. Songkong can read and decode the Naim metadata. Just type Song Kong for Melco into your browser for more. I would post links but I think it is not allowed.
Oh, I should add, it’s not free software, costs £50 ($65 USD).
I did have a demo of the Rip-quality of using a very cheap portable CD drive to Rip via the Melco and it works very well, so there is an inexpensive route available.
The Melco Ripper Rips did sound better - there ensued a long conversation on that there should be no difference when I last discussed this but the only difference between the Rips between using the same CD drive to a computer and the Melco was that they were both bit-perfect copies, but the Melco-controlled drive, ripping directly onto the Melco box, packed the data differently in the final file and the Melco one sounded better to three of us that did the demo, repeated many times with different music.
The Melco Ripper is better again, but I’d say 80% of the improvement was gained just having the Melco control the CD-drive for the Rip.
DB.
Hi @frenchrooster, I ran into a similar problem when I bought my Innuos Zen and wanted to transfer all my files from the Unitiserve, it was a bit tricky for my dealer but he managed to do it, all the files and artwork came over, so it can be done.
I can ask him for details if you want, although the Melco may be different.
you may have a skilly computer dealer i feel. It’s not easy and takes a lot of time.
But it would be nice if you ask him.