I was shared a rip via a Melco and one from dbpoweramp. They had slightly different metadata and leading silence offset as all rippers have their own offset as none can seek exactly so this is no surprise, that was about it.
Offset compensated for in audio editing software, a difference check applied. The contained music data was identical in every single way.
When played together and one track had reversed polarity the tracks cancelled each other out and no sound, they are identical musically.
They also didn’t sound any different to me on my systems via speakers or headphones. Not having a Melco thats as much as I could do. But it’s enough for me to know they are the same musically bit for bit. So something else is at play that know one in the whole hifi world has managed to achieve other than Melco or it’s a big case of the leader with no clothes.
There is an interesting anecdote on an other forum about mastering engineer Alan Silverman in conversation with Steve Guttenburg on ripping. He was confirming that when ripping was perfect it’s an exact copy regardless of hardware or software.
He tested cd pressings of his albums before major release and he does/did the same tests as me. He ripped via a Mac and iTunes. Guess what they matched back to his master files and when nulled against the master, silence was heard.
All plumbed in and ready to go - except that Windows tells me it’ll be ‘More than 1 day’ to finish copying over my almost 3,000 albums. Looks like it might be tomorrow night’s treat
It’s not unheard of for file transfers to stall when they take that long. I usually do them in batches, such as a genre at a time, as this tends to go a bit more smoothly.
I decided on the Twonky Server option on the Melco - I think it sounded better and also has a Web Interface allowing another way to access and play the music, but I use the Naim App almost all the time to navigate and play.
I did the same, purchased a cheap s/h Melco N1a/2- 2x3TB, which I upgraded to EX version. I have not started serious ripping yet. I plan to subscribe to SongKong and Minimserver since most of my cd`s are classical music. 70 % out of > 2000.
Right now I use the Melco as a source (with a dac) into SN. I manage to play ripped Cd`s of course, but also Qobuz. Is there any possibilities to perform Tidal and iRadio as well from the Melco? I use Linn Kazoo app for replay.
Yes, you can set Tidal up in Kazoo. I don’t know whether you need some element of Minimserver running to identify your player as an OpenHome source (probably not the right terminology ) You might already have this if you’re playing stuff. iRadio might be the same - might just need to login to a vTuner account in Kazoo.
I will look into this when back home.