The recently introduced Melco S100 has raised fair amount of interest, and though it’s mentioned in couple of other threads, I thought I’d post separately on a home trial which I had today.
Normal network setup is via a Cisco 2960, (currently testing two of these daisy chained), so I was keen to see what effect the Melco might have.
It certainly changed the sound to a more mellow and smooth presentation, but since I have always preferred a more “in the room” sound, I felt it rendered everything a bit too “polite sounding”, and took the edge off acoustic guitars, for example.
So, it’s returned home with my mate, who readily admits to preferring this smoothing effect, but it was still a worthwhile exercise … and a few bob saved too.
My dealer wonders what the benchmark switch Melco were aiming at…Netgear etc or pro switches? He has so many customers with ex pro switches… he has his doubts wether at £2k its good enough to leave the Cisco etc behind, with a clean pair of heels.
My dealer has recently begun praising the Melco switch too, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to the musical presentation each of us prefers.
A few years back, the same mate brought his then new Melco server up for a bash, and again, whilst it was very good, I found the sound, as above, just too “polite”.
I guess I prefer my choons a wee bit “in yer face”.
The problem is that Melco switches are set for Direct mode by default.
It sounds uninvolving with that mode.
The Melco I heard at dealer place sounded slow and too polite.
Not the Melco I have and which is set up at bridge mode.
@dave-marshall, as I think your boxes are also well spaced, you are likely to be sensitive to changes such as plug order. The MusicWorks sparkly mains block gives more flexibility. I certainly understand what you were hearing and like you I would not want the smoother sound. I would not pay £2k for a fancy switch but my streaming is not Naim.
@Filipe I’ve largely taken @Darkebear’s advice regarding plug order, and am quite happy with the results.
I’ve held off from moving from my Musicworks Reflex Lite block to the sparkly bottomed one, and am trying to find one of the original Musicworks 6 way blocks with the captive mains lead, on the advice of my dealer.
I don’t know the differences really. I just know if you use the Melco as a Nas, connected to a switch, and streamer connected by Ethernet to the Melco, the bridge mode sounds much much better vs the direct mode.
Perhaps @Darkebear could explain you.
I tried the six way block years ago and it was pretty useless. The G3 is good though. As to the Melco switch at £2k one can see why a dealer would be enthusiastic. 40% margin anyone?
