After my Roon Nucleus died a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been having a long hard think about what to replace it with. The Nucleus dying couldn’t have come at a worse time, as I was just about to invest in a high end rack.
I started off looking at a Silent Angel Z1 Plus, which meant that I could still afford a new Quadraspire rack.
However, after hours and hours of research, my gut feeling got the better of me and I chose the Melco N5.
I liked the option of connecting my Bartók directly to the N5 by Ethernet, plus there were numerous other pro points. It means using Minim Server and not Roon, but that’s not a big deal for me.
I got rid of my ‘Ringing’ Naim Fraim a month ago, so have brought back from retirement, my 35 year old, Target rack. The rack is built like a brick s**t house. It’s made of steel with MDF shelves. More or less the same materials as the Naim Fraim, but without the glass!
Perhaps there are things I can do to the Target rack, to give it a new lease of life until funds allow for a new rack.
I had to get a new music server anyway, so thought I may as well do the Bartók justice and get something decent. At the end of the day, it was a choice between a cheap server, with a high end rack, or a Melco N5.
A great choice David ( well, I would say that). However it i,s important that you ensure that your order for the N5 has MinimServer included. Although it comes as standard with UK N1s the usual UK N5 is equipped with Twonky, an out of date piece of software that the Japanese still use because MinimServer has no version in the Japanese language ( so I am told). Twonky will work, sort of, but certain commands via Mosaic will not necessarily give the expected result ( and I speak from experience). So the UK distributor loads Minim Server if requested.
Although MinimServer may have given you past headaches, the version supplied with Melco has been specially written for it and , as far as you are concerned, requires no effort on your part. You just select minimServer from Melco’s front panel display menu.
Hiya Pete
Are you saying that you may be a tad bias re Melco?
I haven’t received it yet, it should arrive sometime next week, and am reliably told that it includes Minim Server 2.2.
Years ago, I tried Twonky too. I renamed it, Wonky Twonky!
Thanks Dunc…I knew you were a Melco man. In the photos of your system, I think you had the two box Melco, one being a separate power supply? Do you still have that, or have you gone for the new N1?
Something that I know zero about, but I was strongly advised to also purchase the ADOT MC02. So I did!
You do not need a power supply for the N5 ( or N1). Some earlier Melcos do require an external PS but not these. The accompanying S100 ( etc.) switch does however. Well worth it IMO even if it is difficult to find a clear technical reason. Hands on experience shows it to be well worthwhile IMO. See how good I am at spending your money ?
The ADOT is not a power supply but a converter to optical connection. Not top of my list by any means but as you seem committed I’ll leave it to you.
I had the N10, but sold it and now have the n1zs mk2.
I started with a N100, then added a power supply to it, more on that in a moment. Then sold that and got the n1zs mk1. Sold that to get the N10, then finally sold that to get the n1zs mk2.
I find i like what the SSD does more so than the HDD drives in the melco’s.
Back to power supplies,when i had the N100, i got a separate power supply for it over the wall/plug power supply that comes with it. This made a nice difference and i was happy.
Well that was till one day i for some reason plugged the N100 back into it’s standard power supply, but this time into a wall socket not on my hifi separate mains supply.
I found that it sounded great and couldn’t hear a difference between it and the extra power supply i had got and been using. After some trials as i was taken back as to why, ifound that it was the standard power supply upsetting other devices rather than it upsetting itself.
So you may find that just by having say the N100 on a different ring circuit to the hifi will be very beneficial, plus it could save you a few bob.
My only worry is the HDD. Will I hear it spinning? I spoke to Melco last week and they assured me that you won’t hear it outside the box, unless of course you place Stethoscope on the chassis!
My Nucleus contained a Samsung 870 EVO SSD, which I had installed. The Henley Audio Engineer stated, that if the SSD failed, the Nucleus will not boot up? (I had removed the SSD before I send it back to them). I tested the said SSD yesterday, and sure enough the SSD has failed!
Back to the N5, apparently just like the new N1 it has a better board, plus many other upgrades including a SFP Port.
Do you think getting a decent Music Server for the Bartók, is on par with a new rack?
The HDD drives in Melcos are effectively absolutely silent. You may hear a tiny sound but only if you press your ears directly against the case or, as they said, if you use a stethoscope. Otherwise nothing. BTW that was a significant reason why I bought my initial Melco N17H, since updated to N5.
Melco’s are silent so no need to worry about that.
That’s the thing with SSD, it works and then it doesn’t. HHD, atleast normally starts to make a noise or something to say i am about to stop working.
I keep thinking about trying the N5 or N1, but not sure if it’s worth it over what i have and the amount i use it over just streaming
I have the melco N1Z/2EX-S40S, just to clarify. Anyone had one and moved to say N1 or N5.
I must remember never to dust my N5. Picked up the Nucleus to dust it and the SSD failed. I’d been playing music from it 5 minutes previously!
Considering your lovely system Dunc, I’d have thought the N1 would be right up your street! There are many new upgrades to the N1 and N5, including a new Motherboard and a SFP Port.
Would the SFP Port be of interest to you?
Melco can use the SFP port to connect one of their switches using the C1 direct attach cable. That is a copper ,not optical, cable. So note that it is not necessarily solely for optical use.
I would have to have one for a while and compare it to mine.
It might make me play more stored music than stream again, as since getting my vivaldi stack, i found streaming was really on par with my melco.
To use the SFP port i would have to change my ethernet set up, as at the moment i have a ee8 switch doing the main house and feeding into my hifi room. This then goes into a innuos phoenixnet switch, which then goes into the vivaldi and the melco also connects to the phoenixnet.
So i don’t use the melco player port and everything runs through the phoenixnet. I tried it with the player port but i found i liked it better all going through the phoenixnet.
I went from a melco n1a (2017 model ) to a melco n1zh60 and the improvement to the sound was noticeable . I was using an EE8 switch with the melco and DAC passing through the switch I was then offered the n1s38 at a very very good price and again the improvement to the sound was very noticeable - more resolution , deeper bass , wider soundstage and being more drawn into the music . I then tried the s100 switch on a home loan and found that it made everything clearer so replaced the ee8 switch with the s100. I use a Rossini apex and play ripped music from the melco so basically use it as a server .
I imagine the n1 serving a Vivaldi stack will sound really good and worthy of an audition .
I’m gonna fill your inbox with questions! 