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MELCO
#21
(26-Feb-2015, 16:32)amabrok Wrote: 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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Well done - you should have a great time trying those three out Smile
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. 
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Cambridge, UK (Updated 27th February, 2020)
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#22
(26-Feb-2015, 16:32)amabrok Wrote: 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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Fantastic! I'm hoping to audition both the N1A and N1Z in my system in a couple of weeks so you will beat me to it.  Smile  I will experiment with the Melco feeding my totaldac (so effectively replacing my NAS and network) and also feeding the Devialet directly via USB and ethernet (so replacing my totaldac).

I'm hoping Rufus will join me too and we can post up the usual comparison observations.

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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#23
(26-Feb-2015, 16:32)amabrok Wrote: 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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amabrok - look forward to your report! My friend auditioned both Aurender X100 and N1A and found N1A is better than X100. He then auditioned N1Z and purchased N1Z.

His comment was that N1Z offers more natural sound and better signal-noise ratio than N1A.

This is surprising given the price difference. X100 is JPY472,500 while N1A is JPY145,000. N1A seems to be a product offering great value for money. N1Z is JPY680,000.



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#24
Hello chaps

Just to let you all know that tomorrow am I will be auditioning both the Melco N1A and N1Z in my system.

Here are some of the things I want to try:

1) Melco N1A as a straight replacement for current NAS (QNAP 419), so literally plonk it where my QNAP is and connect it to my network via ethernet
2) N1A feeding my totaldac d1 via ethernet, so in direct mode without any switches in the way.
3) N1A as a transport, so feeding the Devialet via USB (not sure we can connect via ethernet since Devialet doesn’t support UPnP, but I will find out more about this tomorrow)
4) N1A v N1Z! Is the N1Z worth the premium? Depending on how much time we have we will probably compare the N1A v N1Z as transports as I expect this will reveal the most noticeable differences (if any of course!)


Well that's the idea anyway, more often than not we tend to run out of time and enthusiasm quite frankly! At the very least it would be good to evaluate the Melco as a transport against my current reference the totaldac d1.


The logic behind having the Melco replace my QNAP is that I've been considering upgrading my NAS anyway, moving to a fanless device with SSD drives and a decent power supply for e.g a QNAP HS-210 with Samsung 840 EVO SSD 1TB drives and a Teddy Pardo power supply. The total cost of this would probably get me quite close to N1A territory anyway!

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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#25
(17-Mar-2015, 12:24)GuillaumeB Wrote: Hello chaps

Just to let you all know that tomorrow am I will be auditioning both the Melco N1A and N1Z in my system.

Here are some of the things I want to try:

1) Melco N1A as a straight replacement for current NAS (QNAP 419), so literally plonk it where my QNAP is and connect it to my network via ethernet
2) N1A feeding my totaldac d1 via ethernet, so in direct mode without any switches in the way.
3) N1A as a transport, so feeding the Devialet via USB (not sure we can connect via ethernet since Devialet doesn’t support UPnP, but I will find out more about this tomorrow)
4) N1A v N1Z! Is the N1Z worth the premium? Depending on how much time we have we will probably compare the N1A v N1Z as transports as I expect this will reveal the most noticeable differences (if any of course!)


Well that's the idea anyway, more often than not we tend to run out of time and enthusiasm quite frankly! At the very least it would be good to evaluate the Melco as a transport against my current reference the totaldac d1.


The logic behind having the Melco replace my QNAP is that I've been considering upgrading my NAS anyway, moving to a fanless device with SSD drives and a decent power supply for e.g a QNAP HS-210 with Samsung 840 EVO SSD 1TB drives and a Teddy Pardo power supply. The total cost of this would probably get me quite close to N1A territory anyway!

Guillaume

All the best and I know it is not easy and I'm looking forward to reading your findings.

Regarding ethernet direct connection I did not have enough time to try with N1Z in my group test and accordingly cannot confirm if it would work or not. Also I'm not sure if N1A has the same direct mode as N1Z


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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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#26
Both machines are capable of assigning a fixed IP address.
I don't have experience with the Melco, but if you can't set it there that would be very, very strange.

Just make sure you connect to the other using the IP address as you can't use a DNS server to resolve hostnames/FQDN's, nor a gateway to pass traffic too.
Devialet 200 | Marten Django L | Modified Philips CD940 | Technics SL1210 Mk2
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#27
Gosh so many playthings.

All we need to do now is to encourage Guillaume to open up a Devialetchat shop or even encourage Devialet to give him their forthcoming(?) London franchise.
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#28
Looking forward to your findings, especially on direct ethernet setup to your Totaldac Server. Lets see if all their work improving ethernet connection pays off.

Cheers
Kii Three, dCS Network Bridge, Roon Nucleus, Kuzma (Stabi S, 4Point), Soundsmith StrainGauge, Stromtank, Echole Cables 
Istanbul, Turkey
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#29
Wow, Guillaume, that boat is being well and truly pushed out.

Good luck!

Matt

Sonos Connect (W4S) > DSpeaker Antimode 2.0 > Sanders Magtech > Martin Logan Montis
Sonos Connect (W4S) > Devialet 200 > Vivid V1.5
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London
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#30
Update on the Melco session today with Fraser (Melco's distributor) and Alan Ainslie, General Manager for Buffalo's Audio NAS business. And Rufus of course! 

Predictably we didn't have enough time to try out all the combinations I wanted however we did manage to listen to both the Melco N1A and N1Z acting as transports feeding the Devialet via USB. It is not possible to connect either model to the Devialet via ethernet since the Devialet does not support UPnP.

Using the Melco as a transport means using a UPnP control point to select playlists and play tracks. They are currently working on their own dedicated app (Power UPnP) which will be released in the coming weeks.

Although I didn't set up the units myself it seemed very straight forward. It was literally a case of plugging in a USB stick and the Melco would ask you if you wanted to upload the files. Once these were uploaded it was possible to see your albums in the UPnP control point. 

We played tracks from a selection of albums including Steven Wilson's new "Hand Cannot Erase", London Grammar's "If You Wait", Gregory Porter's "Liquid Spirit", Jimmy Cobb's "Jazz in the Key of Blue", Supertramp's newly remastered "Crime of the Century" and Ibeyi's "Ibeyi". All were 24 bit FLAC recordings except "Ibeyi" which was a 16/44.1 download.

We started with the N1Z. Wow. Instantly I was awestruck by what I was hearing. The scale, the size of the image, the depth of focus, the tonal texture of vocals (OMG the vocals were ghost-like!), simply marvellous... not a hint of harshness with brass or guitars even at very loud volumes. The more complex the passage the more effortless the sound appeared. Rufus kept mumbling the words analogue, analogue. All the time I kept asking myself why it sounded so different from my totaldac d1. I honestly didn't think I would be able to improve on the totaldac but improve it did... it was stupendous for want of a better word!

We struggled to leave the N1Z but in the end it was a good excuse to replenish cups of tea and get stuck into the tray of brownies and flapjacks which my wife had brought into the room earlier. They were devoured as you can imagine; these listening tests can be exhausting!

Then it was time to listen to the N1A. Wonderful sound again. But quite different from the N1Z. Also very natural sounding with no hint of harshness at all volumes. Some of the scale and awesomeness was gone but it was still bloody good. In fact I'd say it was on a par with my totaldac d1. Possibly better in certain ways although I think Rufus still preferred my totaldac d1 to the N1A. But the totaldac is nearly £4k and this is £1.6k! 

In between all this listening we had many lengthy discussions about the Melco and its design philosophy. Alan Ainslie was able to give us a fascinating brief history of audio streaming and multi-room audio. In previous jobs Alan has worked at Naim and Chord Electronics (and quite a few others) where he has helped to shape the digital streaming business, sitting on standards committees etc. I've actually invited Alan to join to the forum as I'm sure many of us will have technical questions about the Melco and streaming in general. Alan is a wealth of knowledge and is more than happy to participate in our discussions.  Smile

On this note I think I'm going to go away and take stock; it was certainly a lot to take in in one day! Hopefully Rufus will be able to fill in a bit more detail, he's always much better than I am am at analysing the sound and explaining some of the changes that are happening. 

Oh - when both Fraser and Alan left we went back to listening with the totaldac d1. It sounded great! But we couldn't stop talking about what we had witnessed with the N1Z. The scale and performance were quite unlike anything I had experienced before! It had turned the Devialet from something great into something truly spectacular. Highly recommended 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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