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MELCO
#11
(23-Feb-2015, 20:38)GuillaumeB Wrote: Personally I'm going to reserve judgement until I hear it in my system.  Smile

In fact at the moment I'm envisioning a totaldac d1 v Nano Transport v Melco challenge! Now that could be fun  Big Grin

Guillaume

This sounds most interesting.  Now if someone else could cover the Aurender, Aries, Antipodes, NAD-M50, Dialog (!), Astell & Kern, Pioneer N-70 (wild card entry), whatever I haven't thought of, whatever comes out next week etc.

Anyway, well done Guillaume for kicking this off, it should be fascinating.
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#12
(23-Feb-2015, 21:36)Confused Wrote:
(23-Feb-2015, 20:38)GuillaumeB Wrote: Personally I'm going to reserve judgement until I hear it in my system.  Smile

In fact at the moment I'm envisioning a totaldac d1 v Nano Transport v Melco challenge! Now that could be fun  Big Grin

Guillaume

This sounds most interesting.  Now if someone else could cover the Aurender, Aries, Antipodes, NAD-M50, Dialog (!), Astell & Kern, Pioneer N-70 (wild card entry), whatever I haven't thought of, whatever comes out next week etc.

Anyway, well done Guillaume for kicking this off, it should be fascinating.

You're right there are so many options! The thing is you can narrow things down considerably depending on your exact needs and of course budget. 

In a sense for me the "wildcard" is the Melco. I don't actually need any storage since I already have a 4 bay QNAP NAS with a SOTA network (yes considerable "sunk costs" there!). But I'm hearing a lot of good things about its sound quality so I'm really curious. 

I'm intrigued by the Dialog but I don't really consider this a high-end streaming solution. I think it was designed for the Phantoms and not the Expert range, hence the delays (for the Expert range) and some of the confusing messages from Devialet. I'm also uncomfortable about the USB connection between the Dialog and the Master, USB as far as I understand doesn't offer any galvanic isolation and I can only imagine the Dialog box will generate a fair bit of electrical noise; it's a very powerful wifi transmitter with an SMPS (I'm guessing?) not to mention other electronics. Do I really want to plug this directly into my Devialet? I'm not so sure. We were also told by Devialet on many occasions that qualitatively the AES/EBU input was the best input. But then again I'm coming from the totaldac d1 server with its obsessive attention to detail noise-wise (check out the graphs on the totaldac website - Vincent measures all this stuff!) and powerful reclocking capabilities, and it's connected via AES/EBU as recommended by Devialet. I don't doubt that eventually Spark will be an impressive control point and if streaming services are properly integrated it could be fantastically convenient. Still I will keep an open mind and will definitely give it a try in the Autumn or something by which time things would have settled down a little. 

Anyway I think there are a lot of good options out there. Including DIY efforts with Cuboxes and PCs, I'm sure these sound fantastic too!  Smile

Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research

220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD

UK
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#13
I have some space in the diary for a bake-off at my place (W. London) in mid-June (week of Mon 15 June). It seems a lot of people are interested in streamers, and I'd be happy to make that the focus of the event. (There may be one or two other surprises in store!)

I'm going to post an "interest check" on the Events & Shows thread. Let's see what happens ...

Matt

Sonos Connect (W4S) > DSpeaker Antimode 2.0 > Sanders Magtech > Martin Logan Montis
Sonos Connect (W4S) > Devialet 200 > Vivid V1.5
Silver Phantoms (just the two)
London
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#14
This is getting very interesting!

Considering what is available within my reach I can arrange for an Aurender X100 vs Auralic Aeris comparison in my system

I can try to add Melco as a wild card as well

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Aurender X100L / Transrotor Crescendo TT / Denon DCD1520 / Macbook Pro >> D400 >> Martin Logan Montis
amabrok's system - Latest update (May 2015, Page 11, Post #109)

Dubai, UAE
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#15
(23-Feb-2015, 22:28)GuillaumeB Wrote: I'm intrigued by the Dialog but I don't really consider this a high-end streaming solution. I think it was designed for the Phantoms and not the Expert range, hence the delays (for the Expert range) and some of the confusing messages from Devialet. I'm also uncomfortable about the USB connection between the Dialog and the Master, USB as far as I understand doesn't offer any galvanic isolation and I can only imagine the Dialog box will generate a fair bit of electrical noise; it's a very powerful wifi transmitter with an SMPS (I'm guessing?) not to mention other electronics. Do I really want to plug this directly into my Devialet? I'm not so sure. We were also told by Devialet on many occasions that qualitatively the AES/EBU input was the best input. But then again I'm coming from the totaldac d1 server with its obsessive attention to detail noise-wise (check out the graphs on the totaldac website - Vincent measures all this stuff!) and powerful reclocking capabilities, and it's connected via AES/EBU as recommended by Devialet. I don't doubt that eventually Spark will be an impressive control point and if streaming services are properly integrated it could be fantastically convenient. Still I will keep an open mind and will definitely give it a try in the Autumn or something by which time things would have settled down a little. 

Hi Guillaume,

I agree with most of what you say and think it would be better if Devialet developed a 'Dialog Expert' specifically for use with the Expert range.  They could drop the mesh network and PLC support and add an AES/EBU output and additional USB connectors to support external HDD/SSD storage, thumb drive and output. If they added coax to the Dialog as well then the connectors on the Expert range amps would become largely redundant apart from phono. So less need to use the Configurator  Idea

Devialet have indicated that USB will be the only link between the Dialog and Expert range initially but that wired and wireless ethernet will be added later using an enhanced version of AIR.  Even with USB support it would of course be possible to use a re-clocker and I guess your Totaldac would filter out any 'noise'. Assuming Spark is as good as Devialet promise this could be quite an attractive solution: a highly flexible front end with support for lossless streaming services (an area in which the Totaldac seems deficient), local storage on USB drives or NAS + a very clean, re-clocked signal into the Expert amps. 

Philip
IMac macOS 10.15.3 (no link to Devialet Sad ) / MacBook Pro Retina OS X 10.14.4 / Linn LP12 / Devialet 200 Wilson Benesch Discovery. 
Qobuz Desktop Latest Version / Audirvana 3.2.18 / Audirvana Remote / iTunes 12.9 / AIR 3.0.4 / Wi-Fi / FW 8.1.0 / SAM 50%
Cambridge, UK (Updated 27th February, 2020)
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#16
(24-Feb-2015, 10:26)PhilP Wrote:
(23-Feb-2015, 22:28)GuillaumeB Wrote: I'm intrigued by the Dialog but I don't really consider this a high-end streaming solution. I think it was designed for the Phantoms and not the Expert range, hence the delays (for the Expert range) and some of the confusing messages from Devialet. I'm also uncomfortable about the USB connection between the Dialog and the Master, USB as far as I understand doesn't offer any galvanic isolation and I can only imagine the Dialog box will generate a fair bit of electrical noise; it's a very powerful wifi transmitter with an SMPS (I'm guessing?) not to mention other electronics. Do I really want to plug this directly into my Devialet? I'm not so sure. We were also told by Devialet on many occasions that qualitatively the AES/EBU input was the best input. But then again I'm coming from the totaldac d1 server with its obsessive attention to detail noise-wise (check out the graphs on the totaldac website - Vincent measures all this stuff!) and powerful reclocking capabilities, and it's connected via AES/EBU as recommended by Devialet. I don't doubt that eventually Spark will be an impressive control point and if streaming services are properly integrated it could be fantastically convenient. Still I will keep an open mind and will definitely give it a try in the Autumn or something by which time things would have settled down a little. 

Hi Guillaume,

I agree with most of what you say and think it would be better if Devialet developed a 'Dialog Expert' specifically for use with the Expert range.  They could drop the mesh network and PLC support and add an AES/EBU output and additional USB connectors to support external HDD/SSD storage, thumb drive and output. If they added coax to the Dialog as well then the connectors on the Expert range amps would become largely redundant part from phono. So less need to use the Configurator  Idea

Devialet have indicated that USB will be the only link between the Dialog and Expert range initially but that wired and wireless ethernet will be added later using an enhanced version of AIR.  Even with USB support it would of course be possible to use a re-clocker and I guess your Totaldac would filter out any 'noise'. Assuming Spark is as good as Devialet promise this could be quite an attractive solution: a highly flexible front end with support for lossless streaming services (an area in which the Totaldac seems deficient), local storage on USB drives or NAS + a very clean, re-clocked signal into the Expert amps. 

Philip

That's a very good point Philip, I could just connect the Dialog to the d1 server with the short totaldac USB cable (that currently connects Cubox to reclocker). Good thinking!  Smile

Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research

220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD

UK
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#17
Hi Guys...

I am also interested to see how this "audiophile networking" will perform.
I asked a local distributor here to get in touch with the company but they say the emails they send bounces back.

Does anyone know how to reach Melco? 

Cheers...

Kunter
Kii Three, dCS Network Bridge, Roon Nucleus, Kuzma (Stabi S, 4Point), Soundsmith StrainGauge, Stromtank, Echole Cables 
Istanbul, Turkey
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#18
(24-Feb-2015, 18:59)Kunter Wrote: Hi Guys...

I am also interested to see how this "audiophile networking" will perform.
I asked a local distributor here to get in touch with the company but they say the emails they send bounces back.

Does anyone know how to reach Melco? 

Cheers...

Kunter

Yes - speak to Alan Ainslie... will pm you his email. 

Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research

220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD

UK
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#19
I listened to N1Z, the expensive one with SSD, with Devialet 250 and B&W802SD at my friend place. I was very impressed with the sound quality and started considering to get one. The sound stage was full and rich. He previously used iMac as a source and with comparison between iMac and N1Z, I felt the improvement from N1Z was noticeable. The sound was natural and I heard no harshness even at high volume.
N1Z is too expensive and I hope N1A offers similar sound quality.


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Mac Mini Late 2012(Amarra Symphony/Audirvana)/DELA N1A Mk1 - [AIR Ethernet] -  Devialet 800 (Power Cable - AET HIN AC EVD) - [Speaker Cable - Nanotec Systems SP♯79MK2] - Wilson Audio Sasha
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#20
Just picked up from my awesome local dealer in Dubai both Auralic Aries and Melco HA-N1Z to have a group test along with Aurender X100 in my system over the weekend.

This is going to be fun.

I will start a dedicated thread for that. Stay tuned Smile


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Aurender X100L / Transrotor Crescendo TT / Denon DCD1520 / Macbook Pro >> D400 >> Martin Logan Montis
amabrok's system - Latest update (May 2015, Page 11, Post #109)

Dubai, UAE
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