Auralic Aries and Devialet 200

[Confused]

The Melco range is certainly intriguing. It does seem very counterintuitive that a device that was conceived primarily as a hifi NAS, with streaming functionality added seemingly as an afterthought, should prove to be a sound quality champion when compared to machines designed from the ground up specifically to be hifi streamers. No doubt they are good, Gullaume's observations are echoed by a recent article in HFN, where one reviewer stated that the N1Z offerers the best sound quality he has ever heard from their house D800's. I find myself wondering why this is. Maybe it's just the combination of Melco and Devialet that works so well, maybe it's something that Melco leaves out when compared to the dedicated streamers that just happens to suits the Devialet so well. Maybe just close attention to the simple things? It will be interesting to see what the Melco control software will look like once it's finally launched.