18-Mar-2015, 21:33
(This post was last modified: 18-Mar-2015, 21:35 by GuillaumeB.)
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.
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
Guillaume
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.
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
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
