25-Jun-2015, 09:26
(This post was last modified: 25-Jun-2015, 11:33 by Rufus McDufus.)
Just read the HFN article. It's a little confusingly-worded regarding the comparison of the Melco N1A vs the reviewer's home network components. Well it is to the slightly hungover me anyway. He mentions how the Melco devices are proving popular at shows for their convenience, but compares it with his own optimised networking gear setup. One of the major selling points of the Melco being you don't need to faff around optimising bits of the network because it's all done for you in one box which benefits home users too of course.
The upshot of the review is the USB output from the Melco for feeding a DAC appears to be the major benefit with large measureable improvements. In a purely ethernet-based setup with an ethernet-fed streamer, or being used to replace a NAS to feed a separate transport, the benefits are less tangible (apparently).
I'd really like to try the Melco separated from my home network just using a wifi access point plugged into the LAN socket of the Melco. This is a common way it's used at shows for its simplicity. The problem is I like to browse the internet while listening to music on my iPad so this wouldn't work as the Melco network won't be connected to an internet-facing router. I really wish one day wifi standards will allow devices to connected to more than one SSID at a time!
The upshot of the review is the USB output from the Melco for feeding a DAC appears to be the major benefit with large measureable improvements. In a purely ethernet-based setup with an ethernet-fed streamer, or being used to replace a NAS to feed a separate transport, the benefits are less tangible (apparently).
I'd really like to try the Melco separated from my home network just using a wifi access point plugged into the LAN socket of the Melco. This is a common way it's used at shows for its simplicity. The problem is I like to browse the internet while listening to music on my iPad so this wouldn't work as the Melco network won't be connected to an internet-facing router. I really wish one day wifi standards will allow devices to connected to more than one SSID at a time!