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Martin H · 03-04-2015, 10:17

(03-04-2015 08:47)best Wrote:
(01-04-2015 12:58)Martin H Wrote: Right .... ...

Now excited to try the Minimserver release as soon as it is ready. Life is good

The improvements in sound quality you describe are similar to the ones I
have experienced with and without a lan isolator in my setup. That further begs the question whether the Melco is adding more value than a lan isolator.Is anyone in a position to make this comparison? I use a pc loaded with minimserver, and a Giso lan isolator.

best

Surely your best bet is to get a home demo from your dealer?

I would think the isolation must be a significant element and maybe power supplies. I know they run the disk drives at a slower speed for writing but not sure what the thinking is there.

The wider point here I think is that if you are buying your first music NAS you can do so with all if these issues addressed for an incremental but reasonable cost. It might be possible to do it cheaper but the holistic approach and 'one stop, no thought' solution has to be attractive. If you are discarding an existing NAS investment it might be harder but most of us would justify this by using that extra disk for backup for the Melco or other media (movies, photos etc.). It will only appeal to the serious or longer term HiFi folk rather than the general market but it makes sense for many I think. But if cash is a premium and it so often is, then a partial solution may make sense and so a comparison would be interesting if you can offer it.

The key for all of us can we hear a meaningful difference and if so is it worth the cash being asked for it.

simoncn · 04-04-2015, 08:59

(03-04-2015 08:47)best Wrote: The improvements in sound quality you describe are similar to the ones I
have experienced with and without a lan isolator in my setup. That further begs the question whether the Melco is adding more value than a lan isolator.Is anyone in a position to make this comparison? I use a pc loaded with minimserver, and a Giso lan isolator.

best

I tried a GISO isolator but it made the sound quality worse, not better. Ralf from Acousence was very surprised by this. He was extremely helpful and gave me a full refund. He thought it might be related to my network setup and the way ground currents are flowing through network cables.

best · 04-04-2015, 09:46

There is no Melco dealer here in India, so they are not offering the unit on a trial basis.

best

simoncn · 04-04-2015, 12:49

(03-04-2015 10:15)nrwatson Wrote: Help just got the Melko
Not impressed with Twonky want to put minim server on is this possible yet
Thanks Neale

PM sent.

Peter@57m · 07-04-2015, 20:43

(03-04-2015 09:59)Peter@57m Wrote: Based on my experience with Melco N1A I was curious about this too.

I have ordered an Acoustic-revive LAN Isolator (RLI-1) from Japan. Will take a while to arrive but will report back when I have done a comparison.

I would use two of these with my Renew DS and DSM if they work well.

The Acoustic-Revive LAN Isolator (RLI-1) has arrived - I ordered it on 1 April and came today 7 April AND this included 4 days of public holidays for Easter - so very prompt delivery (reached UK on 4 April)

I have been comparing it with:

1) QNAP - MinimServer - NetGear GS108 switch - KDSM/1
2) QNAP - MinimServer - NetGear GS108 switch - Acoustic-Revive RLI-1 - KDSM/1
3) QNAP - MinimServer - NetGear GS108 switch - Melco N1A* - KDSM/1
4) Melco Twonky - KDSM/1
* Melco is just being used as a LAN switch

In terms of sound quality 1) is definitely last, 2) 3) and 4) are all very close, but I often thought I preferred 2). If pushed I'd say the overall order would be 1), 4), 3), 2). The RLI-1 needed a few minutes to bed in, when first connected it didn't sound good but I left it for 30 minutes or so, listened again, and it was much better.

Given that the last three options are all very close, you would have to consider price. The Melco N1A is £1,600, the Acoustic-Revive LAN Isolator RLI-1 was £107 imported from Japan. So bang for buck, the Acoustic-Revive RLI-1 is a good deal.

The caveat is that this is in my system in my network. Simon has posted that a GISO isolator made his system sound worse. Its a different isolator, perhaps Acoustic-Revive is better or perhaps my network is different - who knows.

Of course with the Melco you get a NAS, so if you don't already have one, it could be a great solution. If you already have a good NAS running MinimServer, do you really need another which can only be used with one renderer?

I will be ordering another RLI-1 so I can use one with both my Renew DS/1 and Renew DSM/1. For me they seem a good return on investment for the sound quality improvement.

I am hoping that MinimServer running on the Melco with transcoding will be the overall winner, but waiting for Simon and Melco to agree how to make this available. Then you would have to evaluate whether the benefit that will hopefully provide would warrant the extra cost.

audio_elf · 07-04-2015, 21:04

Another alternative you could investigate is using fibre and fibre converters rather than twisted pair copper.

Peter@57m · 07-04-2015, 21:29

(07-04-2015 21:04)audio_elf Wrote: Another alternative you could investigate is using fibre and fibre converters rather than twisted pair copper.

but eventually you have to have a switch (fibre optic to CATn) to reach your renderer (in my case the KDSM/1).

The RLI-1 and the Melco are providing transformer isolation for the last link. I suspect its why people hear a difference, myself included, when you use a very expensive ethernet cable for the last link. I'm thinking of a Sarum Ethernet cable I heard at Bristol this year.

In my mind the Melco is better than the expensive ethernet cable (you get more for your money), but I have found the RLI-1 is nearly as good at a fraction of the price.

simoncn · 07-04-2015, 21:47

(07-04-2015 20:43)Peter@57m Wrote: The caveat is that this is in my system in my network. Simon has posted that a GISO isolator made his system sound worse. Its a different isolator, perhaps Acoustic-Revive is better or perhaps my network is different - who knows.

I also have an RLI-1. When I first got it, my impression was that it degraded the sound quality (like the GISO). I had heard that some break-in was required, so I moved it to the Ethernet connection between my router and switch for a few weeks.

I just tried it again in the connection between the Melco N1A and the KDS/1. I still feel that it doesn't improve the sound but I did notice that it seems to give the sound more of an "edge". To my ears and for the kind of music I listen to, this isn't an improvement. However, I could understand that it might be attractive for some people.

As my impressions of both the GISO and RLI-1 seem to be different from many other people's impressions, I would advise aynone considering either of these to do their own listening test. There might be something unusual about my setup that is causing this difference for me, or I might be listening to different material or have different preferences than other listeners.

simoncn · 07-04-2015, 21:55

(07-04-2015 21:04)audio_elf Wrote: Another alternative you could investigate is using fibre and fibre converters rather than twisted pair copper.

I have tried this but I found the sound to be inferior to that produced by the Melco. I think this is probably related to the quality of the converter from fibre to copper for the final link into my KDS/1.

Peter@57m · 07-04-2015, 21:59

(07-04-2015 21:47)simoncn Wrote:
(07-04-2015 20:43)Peter@57m Wrote: The caveat is that this is in my system in my network. Simon has posted that a GISO isolator made his system sound worse. Its a different isolator, perhaps Acoustic-Revive is better or perhaps my network is different - who knows.

I also have an RLI-1. When I first got it, my impression was that it degraded the sound quality (like the GISO). I had heard that some break-in was required, so I moved it to the Ethernet connection between my router and switch for a few weeks.

I just tried it again in the connection between the Melco N1A and the KDS/1. I still feel that it doesn't improve the sound but I did notice that it seems to give the sound more of an "edge". To my ears and for the kind of music I listen to, this isn't an improvement. However, I could understand that it might be attractive for some people.

As my impressions of both the GISO and RLI-1 seem to be different from many other people's impressions, I would advise aynone considering either of these to do their own listening test. There might be something unusual about my setup that is causing this difference for me, or I might be listening to different material or have different preferences than other listeners.

I have a 10m run of Supra Cat7 cable from my NetGear GS108 switch to my Melco and then a 1m run of Melco ethernet cable to my KDSM/1.

When I did the comparison I used the RLI/1 at the KDSM/1 end of the 10m Supra cat7 cable. So the Melco was not used in that connection.

But as you say we have different networks......