I have maybe 1000 albums on my Melco, and perhaps 10 where the cover is lacking. It doesn’t bother me at all.
It is more that it did work perfect - then mysteriously does not now for Artworks.
Playing music just now and it sounds beautiful as a system - and the Melco was chosen by me to compliment the signature of my system, to which it does an excellent job.
It is a minor gripe on aesthetics and usability prompted by realizing it was not just my version. 
Do you still use Melco direct to streamer or via PN switch now - and do you still prefer the AQ Diamond to connect?
DB.
When I read this thread, the value proposition and simplicity benefits of using naim core via ethernet with ND555 stands out very clearly. Works perfectly, sounds great, no tweaking/IT required. Great with the choices available of course and people find their own best fits/solutions.
Br Lars
1 Like
I still use the direct Ethernet connection, which strangely sounds better to my ears , marginally, vs the connection to the Innuos. But the Innuos is a very nice step upon the ER/ lps.
And yes, still the Audioquest diamond.
I am surprised that no one , in any forums, compared the Innuos Statement vs top Melco. Would be interesting to know.
2 Likes
I think many dealers stock either one or the other. But I also think quite a few even very good dealers are only just starting to catch up on this stuff….
1 Like
As an NS01 user, I fully endorse the mantra!
2 Likes
Might do…….i like the Melco idea of direct downloads from Qobuz etc. I have posed the question to Innuos……will they do the same, if so, i might do the head to head.
1 Like
I have not the new EX version to do that, but yes, it’s cool. What I like also in the Melco is the look, with a screen. You see informations, albums titles….and can do settings manually. The Innuos is an aluminium box without a screen.
However I choose only sound quality first….so ultimately the lack of screen is not important. But the budget, yes. Statement is out of my budget.
1 Like
I think thats very true. My dealer is with the Innuos rep as I write and neither of then were aware of the UPnP / ethernet connection issues (though its on the Innuos web site). Nobody can tell me so far (the dealer, the rep or Innuos support) if the ethernet connection only results in a loss of functionality i.e. no Sense app or if there is a sound quality impact, given Innuos appears to be optimised for USB out and Naim for ethernet in…
The dealer and rep obviously haven’t done a lot of experimentation/homework, but thats not unusual sadly. I’d have saved a fortune if I could have had full and informed demos of all this stuff when I bought the ND555.
But it’s actually pretty straightforward.
-
As sold, you can’t at present use Sense to control music playback for an ethernet connected/UPnP streamer, like the ND555 for example. You can only enable the UPnP server option in the Innuos settings control panel (accessed in this case by Sense, which will not however, recognise you have the ND555 connected). This sounds very good, but not as good as using the Sense LMS plug-in… You’d probably be very happy if you didn’t know it existed!
-
Innuos Support can set up the LMS plug-in for you in a remote session over the Internet. This only takes a few minutes. This can have a glitch or two - I’m only experiencing one plus no artwork on the ND555 screen (which I have set to auto-off in any case) - and the hope is that the forthcoming version of Sense will solve my main glitch, which is a need to restart almost every album after around a minute. Not everyone experiences this either. As far as I can gather @delta doesn’t suffer from this problem at all. Anyway, the plug-in brings a nice lift in sound quality: principally greater detail, texture, incisiveness and microdynamics. This is still not the full implementation, however, which is to follow.
1 Like
Thanks Michael, thats very helpful.
Probably a little unfair to keep pushing the dealer and rep for answers at this stage, they are already struggling to understand what my point is and not being there in person doesn’t help.
It’s good to know I don’t need to get the plug-in arranged locally, that Innuos can do it remotely. I cant un-know about that now!
The dealer has come up with an NDX2 and is experimenting with the Statement now. Hopefully he will have raised and answered some of his own questions by the time I get there on Monday.
I take it this is for albums stored on the Innuos? Do you mean you restart each album once after a minute and then it plays on or you only get a minutes worth of music at a time?
That wouldn’t be a glitch, it would be a disaster! 
No - sometimes, not always - replay will stop within the first minute. Pressing play then plays the album through to the tend without further interruption. It happens both with locally stored and Qobuz albums. I’m hoping for a fix this week.
2 Likes
Adding, just in case it helps, Gazza, that I’ve done a little direct comparison for Nestor Burma of Qobuz over ND555 on its own vs. ND555 with PhoenixNet vs. ND555 with Statement which may also be of interest to you. It’s here: Roon adds SQ thread
1 Like
Thankyou, excellent write up.
Your upper lip would be much stiffer than mine, to find that acceptable 
1 Like
Those 10 albums lacking pic cover…are mayby in PNG format,if so you can switch them all to JPEG format…Twonky covers only JPEG
Two things that get a bad rep here and elsewhere unjustly imo are the Core and the Naim App. I am a bit of a technophobe and my recent entry into streaming was long delayed as a result. It looks like you are settled on the ND555 and Qubuz, both excellent choices. I would definitely give a plug for the Core as it is so simple to use, and the Naim App is brilliant for someone like me.
The Core has a rear USB port which I use for backup. You can take this out for mobile use or use the front USB to transfer files as you please. Simple, fit and forget and great SQ. Other options may bring benefits but also complications imho. Just my experience of a similar problem.
Stu.
2 Likes
Due to its simplicity I too was tempted by the Core, having been a UnitiServe user for many years.
I love that I can rip and store Flac files on my UnitiServes, and because Flac is universal, these files are not only smaller than WAV, they can be transferred/copied/backed-up and the metadata is maintained. However the way the UnitiServe treats WAV, the metadata is only preserved in the UnitiServe and is lost/corrupted when copied or backed up elsewhere.
But the great thing about the UnitiServe is that Flac files can be transcoded to WAV during replay, and I still recon WAV has the edge on Flac in SQ terms. However, and here’s the rub, the Core cannot transcode Flac to WAV, which puts me off the Core.
BTW, I would be delighted to be told I have got this wrong!
1 Like
I don’t want to bother with computer, install Twonky etc……But thanks Meni
Do you still wait for the Chord powerblock. I wonder if it’s not rather a fake news.
Guess what, the funny thing is that one of the missing cover is for a Naim album, Sabrina Scubbia/ Antonio Forcione- Meet me in London.