ND555 Impressions

South America sounds like a great trip! Huge continent, so it must be tricky deciding which parts to visit.

Was planning on going to RMAF this year, and am very curious about the new venue and how well it will compete with AXPONA. But then I saw they moved the show from October to September 6-8, so no trip for me. My sister-in-law and her partner are traveling from South Africa to visit us for the first two weeks in September.

As a Twins fan, I’ll just say what I’ve said every October since 1991: next year for sure! :slightly_smiling_face:

Yesterday the dealer brought me Melco n1,before having latter the big one n10,i’m listening only for few hours but i dont really like the sound coming from this server...little bit disappointed.maybe N1is not good enough for me...hopfully N10 will be much better.Im undecided right now to to buy N10,the only way for me is blind option.

Sorry to revert back to ethernet cables, but I am now trying the audioquest vodka and diamond and have to say I am liking them very much so far, I should never have doubted DB. Having tried other makes of expensive ethernet rj45 and not liked them at all, I thought I would find these the same, lifeless and sterile for the music but its not the case. They are very alive in the mid and treble and more definition in the bass. Thanks to all those suggesting them.

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what you don’t like Meni? can you describe ?

You may not like it as it divides opinion, but usually I find people do not use it right and then dislike it.
Just to check:

1. The Melco needs to be installed in the: switch - Melco - ND555 mode and not: Melco -switch - ND555 mode, so I presume you have done that.

2. Cables are quite important with Melco - the connector from it to ND555 should be carefully evaluated. If it is sounding ‘bright’ or has ‘glare’ then try a Cat5e cable as it can have bad interaction with some HiFi Ethernet cables, although I’ve found it works well with Audioquest ones.

3. If sounding very over-heavy in bass then position on its own shelf forward until that disappears - I find it is very sensitive to position on Fraim shelf and you can adjust it to get the bass clean.

4. I also have found the input cable to the Melco likes to be a good Cat5e as discussed in posts above.

The n10 is a much cleaner-sounding version of the n1 with its own strengths, but I still prefer a well set-up n1 having had the demo. I may change that opinion ahead, but I found the strengths moved towards a cleaner more lively presentation - which I liked, but at expense of bass weight and detail - but the n1 poorly-installed sounds so wrong here that for many the n10 is just an obvious upgrade.

I’ve not had time at home with the n10 to properly give an opinion on if I could get it to do what my n1 does well and retain the extra capabilities of the n10 as I only had a quick A-B dealer demo so far and it did not convince me to change what I had from that. Some things I find are not ‘better’ or ‘worse’ but different and you need to choose to match your system and what you want to achieve; different people and systems will go a different way with their choices.

…but you may not like it anyway, which is why demo is so helpful.

DB.

I`ts hard to describe feelings but lets say that it sound to me less naim sound, more as a equalizer sound like adding treble and bass (those cheap receiver days in the past) and less natural ,the mid is smaller, bass and treble are more punching…lets say again to me it sound cheap

Db…you’re is Melco N1ZH right? This one is only N1h

Yes - mine is not the lowest but the next one up - N1ZH/2.
Never heard the lowest one as my Dealer said all the sonic benefits were really with the one I had and up - as apparently it contains the main PCB hardware that lifted the performance.

But experiment with changing the Ethernet to a cheap Cat5e.

DB.

i hope it will perhaps run in. I hope also that i will not have the same impressions with mine.

Which version are you going to try?

DB.

the n1a2. i already bought it and i will have it in a couple of days.

No…it’s only my thought,not sure enough for conclusion yet.

i hope i will be able to return it if not satisfied. Normally it’s my right i think.

Compared to the usual Servers the initial impression Melco can have is a leaner cleaner presentation. I immediately heard all the cloying coloration that had put me off streaming for years gone with it in the circuit.
But it does really dislike some Ethernet cables and with those particular cable I could not use it I found as it was very bright and fatiguing.
But put in a cheap Cat5e or other cable like the AQ ones that work with it and it comes alive and I find complements the ND555 nicely with a very neutral-balance with great dynamics and detail retrieval.
Turn off the display and use in ‘dark mode’ - and also keep the ‘file-sharing’ option on as these two work best for me.

DB.

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FR…i am sure Melco will help you, they run by some ex Naim people in Europe, so are helpful from what i gave heard.

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file sharing option is not Raid 0? i read that Raid 0 is best for sound. But perhaps you are referring to something else.
Hopefully i have 2 audioquest diamond.

what ethernet cables do you use? do you use the direct mode ?

Yesterday evening I installed the stranded Belden everywhere between Core and ND555 except where the existing cable is plastered in. The ND was sounding a bit disjointed with odd emphesis and de-emphesis of various instruments and vocals so I checked the cable orientation according to the printing on the sheath to find I had it all mixed up. I tried with the C of CAT5e towards the ND but the music wasn’t realy working so I now have all the Cs towards the Core. This was more evenly balance but the bass was still a bit thick, I didn’t think “dirty” would describe it but lacking in texture and there was a bit much of it. Will let it be for a couple of weeks and hope it improves.

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:small_blue_diamond:Darkebear couldn’t have more right.

This is a 100 percent statement.
It is so easy to do,think wrong…and because of it draw erroneous conclusions.

/Peder🙂

From N1h to nd555 I put in c-chord Ethernet and to Cisco switch as lan I put in regular Melco cable what comes with the server, not any expensive cables