Melco v Aurender

[Rufus McDufus]

Interesting Foxman - sounds like we may have listened to a duff unit. It was clearly 'off' in comparison with both the Melco and the X100.

[Rufus McDufus]

I have had the weekend with a Melco N1A and Aurender N100 feeding a Hugo TT. Both were set to stream from my NAS drive, Aurender straight file access and the Melco streaming from Minimserver.

For me they are very very similar sounding units, but the Aurender has something extra. Its so hard to pin point it but each time i switched back to the Aurender it just put a smile on my face. One area that stood out was in cymbal decay, with the Aurender it just hangs in the air. It sounds very real, very natural, ultimately it involved me more.

Its more expensive but it pips the Melco, at least for me in my system

Foxman - it occurred to me, are you streaming from the Melco's hard disks? It was mention of Minimserver that got me a bit confused as it's not currently an option on the Melco and is being beta-tested, and will be very welcome when/if it's an official option as I hate Twonkyserver with a passion. Wondering if you were streaming from Minimserver on the NAS (the UPnP server) to the Melco (UPnP renderer) plugged into the Devialet by USB? If so you won't be hearing the full benefits of the Melco... The Aurender will probably sound better playing off its local disks too.

I use my Melco as a backup device for my NAS, as well as for playback. This is a bit of a faff but I rip music to the Qnap NAS and then sync it over to the Melco (using rsync on the NAS).

[Foxman50]

Hi Rufus

I don't use a Devialet, sacrilege i know, but a Vitus amp. I have a Synology NAS which is running Minimserver. To be honest im not sure how i set it up but it was streaming music from the NAS so the Melco was acting in renderer mode. The Melco was connected to a Hugo TT DAC via USB, then from TT to amp via XLR cables.

I copied some albums direct to the Melco HDD for comparison, but I couldn't really tell, with any certainty, if this sounded any better. Marginal if at all.

Just to add the Aurender was directly swapped with the Melco keeping all cables the same. The only difference is the Aurender accesses the files directly on the NAS, no Minimserver. Also no transcoding was set on Minimserver.

Hope that helps to clarify

Graeme

[ErikM]

Quick update - with Nick (cc1) we heard an Aurender X100 against the N100H (I think the same one as we listened to in this test) yesterday at Oxford Audio Consultants. Devialet 200 & Atohm GT1. The N100H has had quite a lot more running since we last listened, into the hundreds of hours.
Well The X100 smoked the N100H. X100 sounded full and rather lovely. N100H was still thin-sounding and lacking in bass.  USB cable was definitely in the right output. Something odd going on here. Maybe there's a magic setting, or it needs more running or there's something wrong with it?

Anyhow I can't really judge how the X100 would fare against the Melco N1A but I think it would be pretty close. Without direct comparison I couldn't say which is better.

That's interesting, and actually quite annoying from a consumer POV. The X100 was, it seemed, the one if you needed a large amount of storage and other outputs. The N100, as it started out was presumably supposed to be the same, except no disk and only USB. The N100H now gets the disk. But should there be that much disparity (X100 'smoked' the N100H), or is this a duff N100H? Rufus / Nick, I'm sure your on the case and personally I look forward to any more depth to this quandary you can give in the future.

When I spoke to OAC's Alasdair yesterday, he appeared to be forming the view that there is indeed a problem with this particular N100H, something they planned to investigate further.

Maybe he should just get another unit to listen to?

[Bob Ryan]

Melco was very communicative up through June. Since then dead silence and no follow-ups via initiated email discussions. If you are hosting/moderating a audio review/discussion site or are a professional audio publication reviewer maybe communication would be better. Melco app release date anyone's guess, and a guess is all you are going to have.

[GuillaumeB]

Interested in Melco device? Be aware Melco (Alan Ainslie) was very communicative up through June. Since then dead silence and no follow-ups via initiated email discussions. If hosting/moderating an audio review/discussion site and/or professional audio publication reviewer maybe communication would be better? Maybe not. Your guess as good as mine when we'll see the Melco app. Just telling it like it is.

I think Alan was in hospital in July, nothing serious but I believe he was off for a few weeks.

Guillaume

[Bob Ryan]

Interested in Melco device? Be aware Melco (Alan Ainslie) was very communicative up through June. Since then dead silence and no follow-ups via initiated email discussions. If hosting/moderating an audio review/discussion site and/or professional audio publication reviewer maybe communication would be better? Maybe not. Your guess as good as mine when we'll see the Melco app. Just telling it like it is.

I think Alan was in hospital in July, nothing serious but I believe he was off for a few weeks.

Guillaume

Hello Guillaume,

Edited my post fast but not fast enough as your reply included my original edit with Alan's name. I removed Alan's name for one never knows what circumstances may occur in life, and your post belies this. May Alan be on the mend and follow-ups from Melco be forth coming in near term.

[Rufus McDufus]

Just a tiny update. Gapless playback is now supported with USB on the Melco with the new firmware 2.10. Updating is a breeze from the front panel.

[miro]

Just a tiny update. Gapless playback is now supported with USB on the Melco with the new firmware 2.10. Updating is a breeze from the front panel.

Supported on which model?

[Rufus McDufus]

Both models.