has anyone tried a better power cable on the melco n1 series? does it change a lot?
Yes, and it does. As does what you place it on.
You’ve already discovered that the size of it makes it impossible to place it anywhere other than the top shelf of a Fraim stack, but it also really benefited from being on a Sonority platform - it’s a pretty resonant enclosure.
Power cable-wise, I tried a Powerline, Sarum and Sarum T, and they were all better than the stock item. Intriguingly, the Melco power cable seems to work really well on the Cisco switch!
2 Likes
As Dave says, it’s worth experimenting with positioning. Even though they take care with compliant mounting for the drives, the HDD versions still generates noise which will couple into the rack and other equipment - press your ear to other parts of the rack to see what i mean.
Spinning drives of course generate vibrations. Do these vibrations necessarily have a negative impact on sound quality? I am not saying that they do not, I just don’t know.
Unfortunately still a future upgrade to do so… I hope there will be no real differences because of the use of linear ps inside the melco.
My melco is on another rack ( lovan) , and sits on finite elemente cerapucks.
Why should a linear power supply make any difference. Well made Switched Mode Power Supplies (Chord or Linn) are fairly resistant to changing power leads and mains feeds and less noisy than linear power supplies in my experience. If you have a read of this excellent article you’ll see why a well-designed switching power supply can be much quieter than a linear supply (please tap or click)
linear ps are just less sensitive to power cables. My uptone audio js2 was not sensitive to power cables . But all depends of the quality.
Of course some good SMPS can be quieter than linear ps, and the contrary.
Hi FR,
Yes, I found the Naim Powerline, or an Isotek, or an Entreq Primer Pro Power all improved the Melco (N1A/2 and N1ZH/2). Once I chose the N1ZH/2 ( helped by a massive 30% discount for an ex-demo unit) I have moved the Powerline back to it’s normal ‘home’ on the ND5XS2 and the Entreq feeds the N1ZH/2.
1 Like
Did you mean Linear PSUs are MORE sensitive to power cables and mains feeds? Certainly the case if you compare Naim (linear) vs. Chord or Linn (switch mode).
naim ps are not linear ps.
Are you sure about that 
1 Like
and you? i know that the uniticore uses a linear ps, but quite sure not the naim ps in other naim components. However quite sure…
Naim sells its PowerLine mains cable as an upgrade. Naim also recommends dedicated main feed. I found both were very worthwhile upgrades with Naim kit and I think most forum members will agree.
This is not a criticism as it fits Naim’s philosophy, where you can often buy a PSU upgrade for its products such as XPS for NDX or a second 555PS for the ND555. And in my experience it works and you do get better sound by upgrading the power supply, power cable and using dedicated mains.
However, my prediction is Naim will use high quality SMPSs for its products at some stage for environmental reasons and will achieve even better sound quality or at least not sacrifice sound quality as a result.
1 Like
@TiberioMagadino,…What.!! 
Well,.we really have different listening-ears,.You,against me and all people I know in this interest.
@frenchrooster,…It is certainly not my experience.
Both LPS and SMPS are affected by different powercables.
It comes to finding the right musical synergy-effect,.between powersupply and powercable.
@TiberioMagadino,…Why should I spend time reading theoretical reasoning…
If a power-supply is quieter than another,.is completely uninteresting.
It’s how it contributes to better soundquality,.which is the only interesting thing.
And that you test,.by practically listening to it,not read technical explanations of it.
As Simply As That.
/Peder🙂
I think that people go in with a degree of bias (however unconscious), rather than fully listening with their ears. We’ve all been brought up in the audiophile world to think that SMPS are bad for sound quality when there is nothing wrong with a well implemented SMPS. Both Linear and switched supplies have pros and cons so it’s not all black and white in that Linear is good, SMPS is bad.
3 Likes
OUT-OF-BAND NOISE
One major advantage of switching supplies is that the operating frequency is above the range of human hearing. If interference occurs, it will not cause audible interference. This interference can even be removed with a filter without infringing on the audio band. But, the power supply in the AHB2 is so quiet that we do not need to filter the audio output. The AHB2 delivers a 200 kHz bandwidth without evidence of any significant switching noise, to a measurement limit of 500 kHz.
Cannot agree with this
Out of band noise affects the mains and the performance of all the other electronics!
Mostly they are… in their top products
The new Uniti nova has an Smps for standby just to comply with new regulations
Don’t you own a DAVE which has an integrated SMPS supply. Does it cause issues ?
I’ve found power cables to varying degrees of success or loss do make a difference, for me though the shielded/RF types (like Supra) suck the life out of the music.
SMPS vs LPS - LPS any day, based on my fibre bridge, even Raspberry Pi and i feel the Innuos Zenith model upwards is a MAJOR step up due to the LPS setup.
1 Like
That’s a world class SMPS in the Dave