Has any of you had a chance to experience the effect of the new Melco S1 switch?
These are Ā£12.5k in the UK. Very few people are in the market for a switch at that price level.
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Yes, but Iām one of them, and I suspect there are a few more here too. The N1 music library was an incredible improvement and if the S1 can do the same trick it will be a āno brainerā, and likely my last major hifi investment.
Fair enough.
I would suggest you also look at the Network Acoustics Tempus switch. I have a friend with one of these; astonishingly good.
Thanks Simon. Ideally, I would borrow one of each of these switches to try in my own system.
However, there are no dealers in Ireland and Brexit has made it very difficult, almost impossible, to borrow (or buy on sale or return) from the UK.
Give Network Acoustics a call; they may be able to sort something out on a sale or return. Theyāre only a small outfit and Iāve found them to be responsive & helpful.
From a quick glance at the user guide it appears that the SFP ports on the Tempus re not currently usable. I have my Melco N1 connected to the network using SFP on the Melco S100. The improvement was considerable and I wouldnāt like to drop it.
Sorry to nudge this, but has anyone experienced this yet?
Well, Iāve decided to pull the trigger on this, without hearing it. Canāt wait to see what it brings to the party! Iām looking forward to another major improvement and a whole new music collection, again.
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Does that come with an external OCXO unit?
No. Presumably thatās another potential future improvement.
The very fact there is a BNC input for a 10MHz clock on the unit, I would say so.
I added such an external clock to my EtherREGEN switch last year and there was a further improvement.
This digital audio is just like analogue based playback.
When do you stop?
Do you use a fibre optic cable with separate SFP units, or a AOC cable, or a DAC cable?
You stop when you cannot find any improvement which you can afford.
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Not sure if I understand all your terminology, but I use a Melco C1.
A Melco C1 is a DAC cable āDirect Attach Cableā network cable.
There is no conversion to light, with high speed electrical connection.
The other connectivity options with SFP ports, are
- SFP modules with a fibre optic cable connection, used with a length of twin fibre optic cables.
- An āActive Optical Cableā (AOC) cable which is a self-contained with the SFP modules fixed with fibre optics.
All I know Simon, is that using this connection with Melco C1 resulted in a further substantial improvement in sound. I think that the optical connection was made further back in the chain using an ADOT MC01.
Anyway, the result is sublime.
Yes, changes to the networking configuration feeding streams from servers to players does seem to have significant influence, despite it just being 1 & 0ās 
I have been looking at how to leverage the SFP cage on the EtherREGEN with either a DAC or AOC cable or SFP units with some fibre, for the feed from my Roon Server, which is upstairs with the NAS units, and what benefit it may deliver over the present RJ45 based cable from the wall port for the CAT5e connection between floors (no upgrade/change possible for this cabling in this former covenant building).
Well, the S1 arrived today and Iām settling in to listening.
It is astonishing. Huge soundstage, lots of detail and quiet. I want to hear my whole library all in one go!
The Melco people have obviously cracked the digital/analogue interplay. Itās a brilliant piece of engineering. How lucky we are to have engineers with enquiring minds relentlessly pursuing excellence. The N1 and S1 combination is really special. If you can afford it, go for it. I took a risk buying without hearing it, but it has paid off in spades.
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Fantastic, and it will probably get better as it stabilises and settles in, over the next 30 days or so.
So thatās the Melco N1 server, holding the local library and as file server to be served by the Nucleus under Roon to the ND555, with the network connections between N1, Nucleus and ND555 going through the S1.
Where does the SFP connection come in?
Does the network speed of each connection make any difference?
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