Good for you……enjoy your break👍
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OK so my point is has anyone tried to listen to see if they also sound better on a non-Melco server, and therefore disproving my theory that its a metadata bit of code that switches on better SQ.
I listened to a two rips side by side same track one on the melco ripper one on my melco via a apple SuperDrive sadly the melco was better (money) but again same track via the Mac then Transferred via Wi-Fi to the melco so … is it the Wi-Fi transfer? I had not expected this discussion to have ended this way but now I am keen to find out! I know my ears are not wrong as some have suggested but if there is something else at play!! I had considered buying the melco ripper but how could I utilise the cd player part as I am aware I would need a dac?
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Well i have a melco N10 and a D100, at first i ripped all my cd’s using a buffalo disc drive to the melco and all was fine. Well that was till i borrowed the D100 and ripped a cd to compare against the other rip. Well i ended up ripping them all again and i can tell you i didn’t do it for the fun.
The melco D100 takes much longer to rip a cd compared to a normal disc drive, i would say atleast 3 times longer. Also i noticed some tracks now became one second longer, why i don’t know. But the new rips sounded slightly better as in cleaner sounding.
Maybe the D100 is much less noisier than others and this then makes the rips sound better.
I also used a better quality power supply to feed the D100 and placed it on my rack rather than just sit it on the floor.
But others have also found the rips better when the D100 has been used, also the D100 is a very good cd transport as well
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Now that does put a cat amongst the pigeons. That would suggest that if you take away all the metadata, the file would be different to that ripped on a PC that is matched against a central library. Earlier in the thread I think it said that two metadata-less files were identical. - it could be that they just add a second of silence to the end
Would still like to see if anyone has tried to hear the difference played on a non-Melco server.
I was intrigued by this so did some Googling.
See below where a D100 owner provided a file ripped on the D100. It was compared by someone with the requisite skills to one ripped elsewhere (both bit accurate).
The audio content of the files was identical after a 12mS offset was removed.
This article was summarised, succinctly, by one poster as “nail in the coffin”.
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My point was using my apple drive into the Melco is still better than the Mac rips then sent via Wi-Fi is it the Wi-Fi transfer? Also if I went for the melco ripper how can I use it as a CD player? Thanks
If you wantcto use the d100 as a cd player then you needcto use USB out and you control it by the buttons on the melco.
Basically when you insert a cd you choose play rather than rip, its that easy. But you have to use USB and not the ethernet, but obviously you can have both connected to a dac at the same time
I have a naim Nd5xs2 so can I as you say use both but I assume I would need a dac?
You need a dac as i should have probably mentioned, usb into dac
I tested a file that was ripped on a melco and same cd ripped via dbpoweramp I was not told what was what. They we’re sent to me be a user who I believe was a member on here. When I listened I couldn’t hear any difference. I then compared them in audio editing software. Other than the offset you get with different cd drives when aligned to be in sync on the timeline applied a sum and difference, they cancelled each other out. Therefore no difference. I then inverted phase on one of the tracks played them no sound as they are identical and cancel each other out. I then returned the phase back and played out via my DAC in to headphones and then toggled between the tracks which is a seamless comparison no differences it was seamless and did not change the sound from one another.
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That is exactly what the article I posted found. Files contain absolutely identical audio content whether ripped on a Melco or not (assuming both rips are bit accurate).
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Good test, so at the moment my theory still stands, that you only hear the difference on a Melco server, which may be using metedata to set the SQ level to 10 or 11 depending on where it was ripped.
Proprietary DSP triggered by metadata? 
Would be easy to test (strip metadata from a Melco rip and listen again on the device…) or check metadata on a rip.
More likely ReplayGain tags or something applied (or not) to change the dynamics. That’s still in the DSP realm of course.
There is a site called metadata2go which you drop your file onto, and it tells you the metadata in it - don’t know how thorough it is, but would be interesting to see what metadata differences it shows between two files
But my ears…
I just finished listening to the infinite monkey cage Christmas podcast on wine, recorded in a academic wine institute in Australia.
They did brain scans whilst people tasted wine and when they were told it was an expensive wine their pleasure centre lit up as well as their olfactory centre. So the wine they were told positive something about tasted “superior”.
Now something similar may or may not be going on in relation to Melco rips being assessed as“superior” but it has to be worth considering. When there seems to be no scientific reason, and Melco (as far as I know) do not postulate one, for bit perfect rips to sound superior to one another and there is scientific evidence to explain how outcomes like this can happen it seems reasonable for reasonable people to suggest it.
Now I’m not an everything can be measured guy either, I firmly believe there are some audible nuances that we cannot currently fully measure. And I fully appreciate that some people hear things that I simply don’t hear or don’t understand (lower noise floor, pre-ringing and many more).
Now there is obviously nothing wrong with reporting a finding but there is also nothing wrong with querying how it might be occurring.
.sjb
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I agree who knows but it’s the people who believe you’re wrong without any hesitation to me is a worry! It’s like Art some see it some don’t! It’s only hifi! But then there are the geeks!! 
I think it’s just that we haven’t found it yet. Taking my theory one step further, rather than a simple metadata value to turn up SQ, perhaps at the end of each rip, it analyses the music to get its type, then enters an appropriate DSP code that one a Melco server will read. Again just a theory, but no evidence so far suggests that it’s wrong.
I am the person (as David O’Higgins) who started that Roon thread in 2019. I was savaged by the ‘digital is digital’ brigade, to the point where I gave up any part in the ‘discussion’.
I didn’t want to pay €2k for a ripper, not to mention having to rip over 2000 CDs another time around, which I estimated required an investment of 400 hours.
However, when the dealer pressed me to try it, with no commitment, I could hear the improvement compared to my earlier ‘perfect rips’ via Unitiserve , to the extent that I couldn’t ignore it and handed over the cash. I have never regretted it and still don’t understand it, but I’m sure someone will figure it out someday.
Meanwhile, I just enjoy the music.
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