(20-Mar-2015, 13:01)Confused Wrote: [ -> ]How did you find the Melco's with respect to usability, control apps etc? Do they have their own app for control or are they dependant on third party offerings? Facinating write ups so far, by the way, terrific stuff and much appreciated!
Third party control points so far. G and R talk about a dedicated app in the making
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(20-Mar-2015, 12:48)amabrok Wrote: [ -> ]Guillaume, the thread is very popular now to follow all the posts so I will repost my earlier question hopefully u will catch it this time 
What usb cable u used to connect N1Z to Devialet?
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Sorry amabrok... I think we used an Entreq Apollo USB although at first this was without the matching ground cable (the Entreq signal cables have ground connectors). It would of course be interesting to experiment with different cables, in case the USB is the "bottleneck" in this scenario!
Guillaume
(20-Mar-2015, 13:04)amabrok Wrote: [ -> ] (20-Mar-2015, 13:01)Confused Wrote: [ -> ]How did you find the Melco's with respect to usability, control apps etc? Do they have their own app for control or are they dependant on third party offerings? Facinating write ups so far, by the way, terrific stuff and much appreciated!
Third party control points so far. G and R talk about a dedicated app in the making
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Correct!
The dedicated app (Power UPnP is being beta tested at the moment). It should allow you to do a few more things than just select tracks and press play... but I don't have more details yet!
I think Rufus already mentioned this but the Melco OpenHome compatibility is great news as it allows you to use Linn's Kazoo among others. Some of these apps are really nice. I don't know about track ratings though... would be a good one to ask Alan if he joined us on this forum.
Guillaume
(20-Mar-2015, 13:19)GuillaumeB Wrote: [ -> ] (20-Mar-2015, 12:48)amabrok Wrote: [ -> ]Guillaume, the thread is very popular now to follow all the posts so I will repost my earlier question hopefully u will catch it this time
What usb cable u used to connect N1Z to Devialet?
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Sorry amabrok... I think we used an Entreq Apollo USB although at first this was without the matching ground cable (the Entreq signal cables have ground connectors). It would of course be interesting to experiment with different cables, in case the USB is the "bottleneck" in this scenario!
Guillaume
No worries and thanks for responding.
And indeed the USB cable could very well be a bottleneck with a source of this clarity and DAC/ADH of such abilities.
Can u please say a little more on this grounding cable as I'm not sure how it works.
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(20-Mar-2015, 13:36)amabrok Wrote: [ -> ]Can u please say a little more on this grounding cable as I'm not sure how it works.
Without wanting to digress too much from the topic of this thread, suffice to say it's a USB cable that you can connect to an Entreq ground box (via a ground cable), in this case we used a Silver Minimus box. (Entreq ground boxes were originally designed for this purpose until one day someone tried connecting them directly to a hifi component, so I'm told!).
Just so you know we played quite a bit of music on the N1Z WITHOUT grounding the USB cable. Possibly we only did this mid-N1A demo, I can't really remember to be honest!
Guillaume
(20-Mar-2015, 14:14)GuillaumeB Wrote: [ -> ] (20-Mar-2015, 13:36)amabrok Wrote: [ -> ]Can u please say a little more on this grounding cable as I'm not sure how it works.
Without wanting to digress too much from the topic of this thread, suffice to say it's a USB cable that you can connect to an Entreq ground box (via a ground cable), in this case we used a Silver Minimus box. (Entreq ground boxes were originally designed for this purpose until one day someone tried connecting them directly to a hifi component, so I'm told!).
Just so you know we played quite a bit of music on the N1Z WITHOUT grounding the USB cable. Possibly we only did this mid-N1A demo, I can't really remember to be honest!
Guillaume
Thanks!
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(19-Mar-2015, 20:55)Kunter Wrote: [ -> ]How about Melco - > Totaldac USB Input - > Devialet AES ?
Sorry Kunter we just didn't have enough time. Hopefully an opportunity will come up in the future to try the N1A feeding the totaldac. That would be a very interesting experiment although it's not exactly the most realistic setup, financially speaking!
Guillaume
I seem to recall the Entreq Apollo (?) USB cable was grounded during our listening of the N1Z. It sounded really good with the cable ungrounded but even better grounded. Alan was quite prepared to try it with a standard very cheap 1 dollar USB cable. It would've been interesting to compare.
(19-Mar-2015, 16:18)PhilP Wrote: [ -> ]It would be interesting to know what numerical scores you would award the Melcos for sound quality 
Sorry Phil... I had to go away and think about this one. Clearly the totaldac d1 can't be a 10/10 if the N1Z is better.
I think I would now say that the N1Z is now my 10/10 reference... and I think both the totalddac d1 and N1A are very similar qualitatively speaking, although their qualities are perhaps a little different which makes it difficult to score them. I originally thought 9/10 for BOTH the totaldac d1 and N1A then I recanted. Given the performance gulf between the totaldac d1 and the N1Z I felt that a 10% difference didn't make sense, so this grew to 15%...
So now my final scores on the doors are N1Z 10/10, totaldac d1 8.5/10 and N1A 8/10. I must stress that these scores are for SQ only! They are also based on a few hours of listening so it's possible that my observations will change a little over time as I get more used to the Melco sound and explore more musical material. We didn't for example play any classical music. Or dance music for that matter!
Either way going back to the totaldac d1 hasn't been difficult at all and I am finding myself rather enjoying it, which isn't always the case when an incumbent is usurped... I'm not quite ready to oust him just yet!
Guillaume
Wow Guillaume - I'm seriously impressed that you think the N1Z and N1A are that good especially following your previous comments about the Totaldac (and those I've read on the French Audiophile forum).
If Melco provide support for on-line streaming services particularly Qobuz then I would be seriously tempted. I saw in an earlier post that you mentiond Kazoo. Given that Linn have developed integration with Tidal and have said they are working on integration with Qobuz then would it be possible to use Kazoo with the Melco boxes to stream those services?
Thanks, Philip