06-Jul-2015, 18:32
(This post was last modified: 06-Jul-2015, 22:01 by Rufus McDufus.)
Lovely day today at Nick's (cc1) with Guillaume and Alasdair from Oxford Audio Consultants who'd brought some toys along - principally a (black) Melco N1A and an Aurender N100H*. Also of great interest was a rather nice-looking Chord Sarum Tuned ARAY USB cable.
Equipment used was Nick's striking-looking Vivid B1 speakers and a D200.
OK, first up the Melco. Played quite a few tracks with Nick's usual USB cable (sorry - I didn't ask what it was!). Sounding pretty good. That nice Melco rather analogue sound. It was sounding all quite laid-back and polite. Very nice but I had a bit of a yearning for it to be a little more forward, a little more top-end detail.
Step forward the Sarum USB cable. Wow. This was a big difference. I used to own a few Sarum TA cables and this instantly gave me the same feeling - big soundstage, more detail, air between instruments. A bit more top-end. Just what was needed in fact! It seems to breathe life into the music. This cable is a great demonstrator for those who are sceptical USB cables can make any difference! I was secretly cursing my recent purchase of another USB cable without trying the Chord...
After playing quite a lot of music and thoroughly enjoying everything, next up the Aurender. It's slickly packaged - nice looking casework and frankly a bit prettier than the Melco. Also the control apps are in a different league (well Melco don't actually produce any control apps yet so for that it's down to standard UPnP controllers such as Kinsky). First impressions - brighter, a little less bass than the Melco. The bass resolution seemed really good but it seemed a little lacking in weight. I wondered how old the unit was - it was brand new out of the box. This might explain it. It definitely improved over the next 1/2-1 hour or so but probably still retained those characteristics a little against the Melco.
Back to the Melco again. Now I have to admit I find the Melco more analogue than the Aurender and I found it a bit more compelling to listen to. I think in fairness the Aurender should have a few more hours/days of running to really get sounding good so maybe not a totally fair test. The Aurender as a package is really nice. The Melco is quite a bit more spartan, partly by design of course. But then again it's also a fair bit less expensive. I am a tad biased towards the Melco as I own one and am well used to it by now.
Right, so a few more little tests. What I originally wanted to try was Nick's UpTone (Amber) Regen with the Melco. After a bit of back-to-back listening I still felt a little confused how I felt about it! The Regen seemed to enhance the detail a little, but perhaps add just a touch of harshness. Without it it sounded a little smoother to me, perhaps a bit more musical. I think I could live with both, changing it on a regular basis as taste permits. It would be interesting to hear the Regen with different power supplies...
Finally we tried a few USB cables against the Sarum. First off Alasdair's Computer Audio Design USB cable (apologies if I got the brand wrong) which had the power split off from the data lines. It was good, nice detail, but a bit flat in terms of soundstage compared with the Sarum. Bass was less apparent too.
Next up my Totaldac D1 cable. Initially I thought it was quite similar to the CAD cable. As time went on I felt there was more bass weight, and perhaps a bit more musical. It is quite a subtle cable and needs a bit of time. It was still definitely missing that holographic soundstage of the Sarum though.
So, big revelation of the day for me - that Sarum USB cable is brilliant!
* corrected model number. I mistakenly wrote X100H originally.
Equipment used was Nick's striking-looking Vivid B1 speakers and a D200.
OK, first up the Melco. Played quite a few tracks with Nick's usual USB cable (sorry - I didn't ask what it was!). Sounding pretty good. That nice Melco rather analogue sound. It was sounding all quite laid-back and polite. Very nice but I had a bit of a yearning for it to be a little more forward, a little more top-end detail.
Step forward the Sarum USB cable. Wow. This was a big difference. I used to own a few Sarum TA cables and this instantly gave me the same feeling - big soundstage, more detail, air between instruments. A bit more top-end. Just what was needed in fact! It seems to breathe life into the music. This cable is a great demonstrator for those who are sceptical USB cables can make any difference! I was secretly cursing my recent purchase of another USB cable without trying the Chord...
After playing quite a lot of music and thoroughly enjoying everything, next up the Aurender. It's slickly packaged - nice looking casework and frankly a bit prettier than the Melco. Also the control apps are in a different league (well Melco don't actually produce any control apps yet so for that it's down to standard UPnP controllers such as Kinsky). First impressions - brighter, a little less bass than the Melco. The bass resolution seemed really good but it seemed a little lacking in weight. I wondered how old the unit was - it was brand new out of the box. This might explain it. It definitely improved over the next 1/2-1 hour or so but probably still retained those characteristics a little against the Melco.
Back to the Melco again. Now I have to admit I find the Melco more analogue than the Aurender and I found it a bit more compelling to listen to. I think in fairness the Aurender should have a few more hours/days of running to really get sounding good so maybe not a totally fair test. The Aurender as a package is really nice. The Melco is quite a bit more spartan, partly by design of course. But then again it's also a fair bit less expensive. I am a tad biased towards the Melco as I own one and am well used to it by now.
Right, so a few more little tests. What I originally wanted to try was Nick's UpTone (Amber) Regen with the Melco. After a bit of back-to-back listening I still felt a little confused how I felt about it! The Regen seemed to enhance the detail a little, but perhaps add just a touch of harshness. Without it it sounded a little smoother to me, perhaps a bit more musical. I think I could live with both, changing it on a regular basis as taste permits. It would be interesting to hear the Regen with different power supplies...
Finally we tried a few USB cables against the Sarum. First off Alasdair's Computer Audio Design USB cable (apologies if I got the brand wrong) which had the power split off from the data lines. It was good, nice detail, but a bit flat in terms of soundstage compared with the Sarum. Bass was less apparent too.
Next up my Totaldac D1 cable. Initially I thought it was quite similar to the CAD cable. As time went on I felt there was more bass weight, and perhaps a bit more musical. It is quite a subtle cable and needs a bit of time. It was still definitely missing that holographic soundstage of the Sarum though.
So, big revelation of the day for me - that Sarum USB cable is brilliant!
* corrected model number. I mistakenly wrote X100H originally.
