Japanese IT giant Melco has the desire and scale to deliver truly bespoke audiophile storage and server solutions. Will its latest, middle-of-range model hit the sweet spot?
So you’ve bought one of the many world-class USB DACs/network streaming players and have it connected via USB to your desktop or laptop computer, or even networked via your home hub. Really? Our own experience suggests that while ‘data is data’ there are sufficient causes of interference and jitter from circulating noise, including RF earth currents, and invasive traffic from ISP-supplied network routers, to prompt very measurable differences in performance once this data is finally crunched through an outboard DAC.
The enthusiast’s quest for a dedicated digital front-end, able to serve-up those high-res downloads or CD rips in splendid isolation via USB or Ethernet, takes many forms. You might feel capable of building a dedicated PC, albeit with an off-the-shelf motherboard, drives, PSU and OS or perhaps opt for a high-end NAS drive on a discretely-wired network. Or you can have a giant computer company do it for you, directed by its audiophile CEO to throw all its resources behind a bespoke server motherboard running entirely audio-orientated software processes.
NUT AND SLEDGEHAMMER
That, in a nutshell, is what Melco is offering with its £3750 N1-ZH60 digital music source. This slimline unit, available in silver or black, about two-thirds standard hi-fi component width and a little over 60mm tall, provides storage, backup and digital playback to a USB-connected DAC or network-connected streaming player.
Recently updated with two 3TB hard drives and a raft of firmware/software revisions, this offering sits midway between Melco’s flagship £6500 N1-ZS10 player (distinguished only by its reduced 1TB of storage across two solid-state drives) and the £1750 N1-AH40. I’m reliably informed that the N1-ZS10’s ‘Buffalo Audio Grade’ SSDs are designed for music server applications, with data management optimised to suit read-only media files. However bespoke and costly these solid-state drives – and bearing in mind all requested file data is cached and re-clocked anyway – the price saving and huge storage reserve offered by the N1-ZH60’s selected Toshiba HDDs seems something of a gift horse.
Otherwise the N1-ZS10 and N1-ZH60 share the same substantial alloy casework, reinforced by an internal H-frame, with the same complement of isolated switch-mode power supplies for their drives and server motherboard. A Lattice Semiconductor chip manages the distribution of these ±12V PSUs with additional supplies generated on the motherboard itself (more of which later). To the rear are three USB-A hubs, for importing content (including from CD and BD-drives), hosting supplementary storage and backing up, and a fourth to power or recharge other USB devices.
There are also two optically-isolated Ethernet ports. The ‘Player’ output assigns its own IP addresses, feeding your network player/DAC directly, while the loop-through LAN input maintains internet connectivity for streaming radio and other online services. You’ll also need this hooked-up if your network player is governed by an Android/Apple app running on one of your smart devices. The same is true if you want to access the media library on the N1-ZH60 itself to push out selected files via USB to an outboard DAC.
Interestingly, Melco is pragmatic about its customers choosing their own UPnP ‘control point’ software, most opting for apps such as 8player, Kinsky or BubblePnP, the latter offering subscribers access to Tidal and Qobuz Sublime services.
MELCO’S MENU
There’s no physical IR remote control so the N1-ZH60’s menu must be navigated via a row of four pushbuttons to the right of its display. This multi-level, text-based affair covers everything from the status of the internal/external drives, the music database and backing up or restoring a full music library, through to defining the appearance of its diminutive OLED display.
Arguably, the ‘Settings’ menu is where the audiophile should be most attentive. For example, ‘USB-DAC’ configures the N1-ZH60 to deliver DSF/DSDIFF content natively (the Melco players now support quad DSD) or downsampled to LPCM. The latest version of Melco’s firmware also facilitates an initial track ‘pregap’ of between 0.25 to 1.5secs (or ‘none’ if your attached DAC locks and settles instantly there’s a change in track or sample rate).
There’s also a USB controller option. In ‘Mode 0’ the selected playlist resides on the control point app while Mode 1 dumps the playlist onto the Melco unit itself. Ideally you should choose Mode 1, not least because this setting also allows the N1-ZH60 to recognise any attached USB device by name and invoke an asynchronous transfer of the selected music data.
This driverless USB operation and direct network protocol is all part-and-parcel of the N1-ZH60 looking and behaving like a hi-fi separate rather than a computer peripheral. Its Linux OS (with ARM v7 hardfloat architecture) is designed to boot-up and close down within a few seconds and is very tolerant of power interrupts, including accidentally pulling out the AC mains cord.
MELCO’S MOTHERBOARD
Then there’s the custom motherboard itself, not a modified NAS or Linux OS board as has been suggested, but a bespoke design based around a Marvell Armada 370 SoC (System on Chip). Modern boards are typically conceived for speed but this is a deliberately ‘slow-clocked’ motherboard with low-jitter data fl ow in mind. It’s designed more like a CD player and less like an Ethernet-enabled PC operating with bursts of data that require regeneration at almost every stage.
Between its LAN and ‘Player’ ports there’s a severe software filter that strips out any housekeeping comms finding its way onto the home network. So, and also because the N1-ZH60’s ‘Player’ output is not communicated via a switch, it can send its timed data payload in the correct order with no unnecessary packets (or other DLNA traffic on a shared home network).
As standard, the N1-ZH60 comes preloaded with a custom version of Twonky Server 8 although it’s also possible to install a MinimServer application (the MinimServer forum is the best place to research this facility). This Java-based application does, according to some users, afford a very real subjective improvement. To its advantage, the Minim software also offers a DOP conversion package that supports DSD replay over an Ethernet connection (Twonky does not). Otherwise, Melco’s own firmware supports DSD over USB.
PROVING THE PUDDING
Our earlier reviews of the N1-ZS10 and N1-AH40 included Andrew Everard’s very comprehensive explorations of network audio performance, pitching the direct Ethernet ‘Player’ output of the Melcos against a range of alternatives from a dedicated, hard-wired NAS set-up through to a heavily-populated home broadband hub. Frankly, I’d be surprised to discover any audiophile worth his or her salt prepared to channel their pristine high-res downloads through the grubby traffic of a family home hub, but we had to try!
Andrew’s findings, in essence, were that a well-sorted NAS ran the Melco a very close second, any subtle differences in sound quality only really evident when streaming across very high bit-rate (192kHz/24-bit or DSD128) files. Nothing I’ve heard, or measured, makes me inclined to disagree with Andrew’s findings.
Instead, and what really excites me about the Melcos, and this intermediate model in particular, is its application as a USB transport driving an outboard DAC. Even with a modestly-priced, battery-powered USB DAC like Chord’s Mojo auditioned via Oppo’s sublime PM-1 headphones, the improvement in definition, in tonal colour and treble purity – over and above the USB output of my Sony Vaio/foobar2000 – was both obvious and not a little startling.
Listening to Joseph Wölfl ’s string quartets recorded by the Pratum Integrum Orchestra Soloists in 2008 [Caro Mitas CM0032006; DSD64], the Melco/Mojo combination revealed so much more of the character of these period instruments, the three violins in particular, as they danced the Allegro of this little-known chamber composition. Via my laptop these Russian performers had sounded quite fl at, almost mundane, while the Melco revealed the true sensitivity of their playing. A delight!
THE BIG GUNS
While it’s instructive to correlate this uplift in sound quality with the lab tests illustrated opposite, it’s also reassuring to discover the N1-ZH60 can also reveal the hidden depths of ‘big gun’ USB DAC solutions such as Devialet’s Expert 800 monoblocks. Connected via Chord Cable’s USB SilverPlus, the Devialet amplifiers – despite their inherently fine jitter rejection and substantive signal-to-noise – sound more dynamic still, with slicker transient detail painted onto even ‘blacker’ acoustic backdrops.
Regular readers will know I’ve been using the ‘entry-level’ Melco N1-AH40 to drive my Devialet amps via USB for some time, but N1-ZH60 proved more impressive still. Used with both B&W’s 802 D3 loudspeakers as well as the new PL500 IIs from Monitor Audio, the N1-ZH60/Devialet combination sounded fractionally more refined, polished and subtly confident.
The close-miked, whistled harmonies of Livingston Taylor’s ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ from The World’s Greatest... [96kHz/24-bit resample; Chesky SACD323] all but caressed my ears with its rich, silky tone while the Floyd-esque layers of David Gilmour’s Rattle That Lock [96kHz/24-bit download, Columbia 88875123262] peeled away before my eyes. This is a reference-quality front end, make no mistake, one that combines punch with panache as it draws a veil from the most familiar of recordings to suggest new and ostensibly hidden musical textures.
Most readers will have enjoyed the thrill of a new component that refreshes their music collection and for the commited computer audiophile, or plain curious, Melco’s N1-ZH60 is just such a beast.
VERDICT
If you are already using a high-end network music player/DAC solution then serving up the digital jewels via Melco’s Ethernet ‘Player’ output may well offer a marginal improvement over a well-sorted NAS/router. No such equivocation is warranted if you are trading a PC/Mac USB output for the N1-ZH60, however, for in its guise as a ‘USB transport’ the gains, where measurable, are also audibly night and day.