Hi a don’t know what Melco does, but Address Resolution Protocol is a layer 2 function (not layer 1), it effectively binds layers 2 and 3 together and associates network addresses with IPv4 addresses… ie it is a fundamental part of networking where IPv4 addresses are used. Note IPv6 doesn’t use ARP, it instead uses NDP (Network Discovery Protocol)
So ARP will be used if IPv4 addresses are used, but you can off load ARP queries by the following.
If a device acted as an ARP proxy bridge, that network bridge then can handle the ARP queries for an other device on the other side of the network bridge, the Melco could do this task perhaps?
What is the benefit of this for a streamer? Well if a streamer had poor networking interface in terms of noise decoupling, this would off load the occasional ARP queries on the home network, so would avoid possible noises glitches or occasional bursts of less good audio from the streamer … however I think we are clutching at straws of marginality here… and will vary from streamer to streamer and size of network… I suspect for later better streamers this sort of thing would becomes largely irrelevant. Also if IPv6 was used this would also largely become irrelevant… as NDP is more efficient than the old broadcast based ARP.
The serialisation clocking is probably more likely to give a consistent improvement, but again less on later better streamers. Here the phase noise and therefore noise power of the Layer 1 serialisation clock can be reduced by using a more stable clock. This phase noise can otherwise couple into the streamer if the the Ethernet interface is not totally isolated … and in practice there will often be a bit of coupling leakage. A good quality commercial switch or a so called audiophile switch often focuses on this… and I suspect the Melco does too.
The Uniti core is not a network bridge… it’s a regular host on the network.
I would try a quality commercial product like a used Cisco 2960 or 3560 in its default mode. These manage multicast filtering in the same way as an ARP proxy bridge manages ARP.
You might want to try various ‘audiophile’ switches as well as the above, however audiophile switches I am aware of are very simple devices with limited capability, so you might find daisy chaining might be worth trying… with just having the streamer connected to the audiophile switch, and that switch connected to a 2960 or 3560.
In truth however any switch is going to work fine, and unless there is a fault or issue somewhere none is going to be ‘transformative’ but can allow you to subtly ‘tune’ your system.
Regarding so called audiophile switches I own and have used an EtherRegen, I have used between a 3560 and streamer.
To be honest I m electronic engineer as well and I totally second your opinion about audiophile networing. I m out of Europe and I cannot buy second hand I have to buy a new one and I think that something similar to 3560 is now a 9100 am I right?
To be honest I m still convinced that usb or network sensitivity is a matter of dac/streamer implementation and I think that naim, chord and someone else are working closely on it. I knew about horrible experience with bricasti network management but I think that naim 2nd generation streamers are top notch.
Actually for my ndac I m using an iPad connected to a lector usb/spdif converter which is a superbly engineered piece of kit and I m convinced that the best option for hi res local files reproduction with ndac is uniti core
I have a Nucleus rev b and this thread made me panic and question if I should change everything. Then I relaxed and realised if there is a difference in SQ, we are talking in the fractions here and mostly subjective. It’s a good example of how you can get obsessed that your system is deficient in some ways, rather than just enjoying it!
Absolutely - and lets not forget, the SQ and balance of the masters vary noticeably as well - and on our good systems we can certainly notice that… - there is not a universal sweet spot for all masters.
Absolutely, it is good to sit down and enjoy your music than becoming a serial tweaker, chasing something which can just be something marginal or worse.
I already had Roon before buying my Nova, so I carried on using it. I find it greatly superior to the native Qobuz app and Qobuz via the Naim app, not just the UI, but aggregation of metadata, recommendations, playlists and endpoint independence. I don’t use any of Roon’s DSP functions, so it should be bit perfect, i.e. identical to the sound quality of Qobuz through the Naim app. I have tried a comparison and can hear no difference between the two.
Welcome Nick, it is a great system! I found it takes a bit of getting used to; but once you have done that it creates the foundations for your system. I’m quite OCD on the tagging of my music, particularly genres which I use as a key way to organise and search my music.
I like a lot of electronic music and so divide it by different sub genres. Initially Roon either changed these, ignored them or just didn’t recognise them. However, once I worked out how to use the library/meta data settings, which give you amazing amounts of control, I’ve got it working just the way I want
I am a Roon life time subscriber, unfortunately on my Naim streamer I can hear a difference between native UPnP/Qobuz and Roon. It may well be down to the Naim Roon driver which may well improve in future firmware. I wish it wasn’t the case, but sadly is. But I happen to suspect it will improve in future Naim software releases.
That is a shame. Roon is a really nice experience with streaming services.
Just for fun I did a comparison just now on my linn ds orgnik dac and utopik
a) qobuz streamed to roon which is flac transcoded to pcm by my Pc and sent to the linn ds via RAAT
b) qobuz streamed direct to the linn ds and controlled by the linn app (i assume upnp or some linn streaming protocol and flac).
I couldn’t hear a difference. In the past with Katalyst I could at least hear flac v wav. So i suspect both the secondary effects are much better handled with organik and the latest implementation of RAAT in linn is solid. There were people who thought that the previous linn implementation of Roon (which was some kind of conversion from RAAT to linn streaming was inferior, though I never noticed that).
I think it’s a reasonable expectation that naim should eventually get this right and hopefully with a firmware upgrade!
I have to agree. Sonically the Naim app is better but the user experience with Roon is much more slick and informative. Unfortunately, no matter how I’ve tried, I just cannot get the Roon app to sound as good and on my network, when I point the Roon server to my Uniti Core, it periodically causes my Core to drop-off the network necessitating a restart and that is the nail in the coffin, I’m afraid.
I agree with you in the context of the Linn streamer, the Linn App (with the Songcast protocol) sounds better than Roon, but the Roon GUI/meta support is much better. So I end up using Roon a lot for casual listening, only switch to the stock Linn App when I am focusing on listening.
I had just settled with Audirvana when someone wondered what I thought about JPLAY. Never heard of it.
Not only is it a really fast and nice user-interface on UPnP but it really improved the sound and made the diff between Roon, Audirvana and UPnP very clear. UPnP with JPLAY sounds very fresh, agile and alive.
From what I understand they use the database in iOS and use it instead of constantly looking up via UPnP. Probably more going on, they have really done a good job.
As I hear it we now have three good choices, each with its own sound signature. I have just sent my Melco in for a bit of refresh. JPLAY need a good WFi connection. Or use wired network via something like the Belkin adaptor Apple sell.
