Melco Audiophile NAS

[simoncn]

Until a few weeks ago, my setup was as you describe except that the N1A to N1Z connection was not by direct Ethernet cable but using optical isolation. This isolation was provided by a pair of TP-Link MC210CS optical-to-Ethernet converters powered by plugtop linear power supplies, connected like this:

N1A player port -> Ethernet cable -> MC210CS -> optical cable -> MC210CS -> Ethernet cable -> N1Z LAN port

The N1A was connected to an optical port on my Cisco switch like this:

Cisco switch -> optical cable -> MC210CS -> Ethernet cable -> N1A LAN port

My current setup uses a Melco S100 switch. This has two optical ports and is connected like this:

Cisco switch -> optical cable -> S100

S100 -> Ethernet cable -> N1Z LAN port

S100 -> optical cable -> MC210CS -> Ethernet cable -> N1A LAN port

The addition of the S100 connected as above has been a jaw-dropping moment for me.

[clive101]

Thank you, it seems my shopping list is growing.
Have you tried with just the ethernet cables instead of fibre as it will mean I will have to run a fibre cable from my switch into the Melco S10 instead of ethernet ?
But I guess optical has better isolation than ethernet which is why you are using them to reduce the network noise even further ?
I ask because of all the extra power supply for the one MC210CS and or the extra conversion of information over ethernet to optical ?

[simoncn]

I have tried both Ethernet and optical and optical sounded better. However, using an optical link did not sound better on the connection from the switch to the N1Z. For this, I am using one of the 100 MB/s Ethernet ports on the switch as recommended by Melco.

Very important note: These are my experiences with my music, my ears and my equipment which has been tweaked in various other ways not described here. No-one reading these posts should make any assumptions that the results I have described will be replicated on their own system.

[GreenMtnGringo]

Fellow Melco/MinimServer users: Have any of you reformatted your Melco HDDs from xfs to ext4? I recently ran an Internal Drive Check on my Melco N1Z/1 (from the front panel, click Support > Internal Drive Check) and received this message:

Old format. It's OK to use but
'backup, re-format and restore'
will be better.

Reformatting would involve a full music backup followed by a restore of one's music files. I would prefer not to go through that exercise, but if there is a material/meaningful performance boost from reformatting, I would consider it. Thanks.

[Donuk]

GreenMtnGringo - you should already have a full music backup.....!

donuk beautiful downtown York

[maikeru]

Hello Simon,

I’m looking at either a Melco N1A or N1Z.

Questions:

1) your preference ssd vs hdd?
2) will my minimserver 2 settings seamlessly be migratable (even if by hand) from my current Synology nas setup? Minimstreamer too?
3) dsd 512: the N1A seems not to support this. But since I wish to use it as a NAS only (serving up files to a Lumin T2) this should be a non-issue? In the same way (?) a Synology nas etc may not support 512 either, but it serves up the files to the Lumin nonetheless (?). To wit, I do want minimstreamer on the Melco to transcode flac to wav24 etc but have the heavier lifting done on the lumin

Overall impressions between the two units ?

[simoncn]

1) SSD, Crucial MX500. Not all SSDs sound good; some sound worse than HDD. It depends on the controller. I purchased my N1A and N1Z with HDDs fitted and changed them to SSDs myself. Make sure you format the drives as spanned (not RAID 0).

2) This is easy to do on MinimServer 2 using profile export and import.

3) Your assumptions are correct.

4) The N1Z is better but a lot more expensive. I use an N1A for serving and an N1Z for rendering. As you are using your LUMIN for rendering, you might be OK with an N1A for serving. Can you try both models on home demo before you decide? You could buy an N1A and spend the price difference on a Melco S100 switch. For serving, this combination might sound better than an N1Z.

[maikeru]

(14-06-2020 10:20)simoncn Wrote:  1) SSD, Crucial MX500. Not all SSDs sound good; some sound worse than HDD. It depends on the controller. I purchased my N1A and N1Z with HDDs fitted and changed them to SSDs myself. Make sure you format the drives as spanned (not RAID 0).

2) This is easy to do on MinimServer 2 using profile export and import.

3) Your assumptions are correct.

4) The N1Z is better but a lot more expensive. I use an N1A for serving and an N1Z for rendering. As you are using your LUMIN for rendering, you might be OK with an N1A for serving. Can you try both models on home demo before you decide? You could buy an N1A and spend the price difference on a Melco S100 switch. For serving, this combination might sound better than an N1Z.

Thank you very much.
Unfortunately a home demo may be difficult. But I agree that a N1A plus S100 combo might do nicely for me.

Also which connections in this configuration would most benefit from higher quality Ethernet connections ー　and do you have a preferred cable?

Would an sbooster-like device help here? It made a staggering improvement on my lumin t2

One last question - the quoted disk capacity is raid1 mode or spanned? That is - the N1A 2TB ssd - is this two 1tb drives? I ask because in the specs it seems like it might just be one 2tb drive. Which would leave a bay empty ?

[simoncn]

The S100 should have connections to the server (N1A), the renderer (LUMIN) and your network, with no other connections. I use Melco cables and they work well. I also use some optical links. See my other posts on this subject for details.

I have not tried any power conditioners. Perhaps others can comment on this.

I have not seen specs for an N1A with SSD. I believe SSDs are fitted to the N1Z only. The quoted capacity is almost certainly for spanned. It is easy to fit your own SSD to an HDD model.

[maikeru]

(14-06-2020 17:15)simoncn Wrote:  The S100 should have connections to the server (N1A), the renderer (LUMIN) and your network, with no other connections. I use Melco cables and they work well. I also use some optical links. See my other posts on this subject for details.

I have not tried any power conditioners. Perhaps others can comment on this.

I have not seen specs for an N1A with SSD. I believe SSDs are fitted to the N1Z only. The quoted capacity is almost certainly for spanned. It is easy to fit your own SSD to an HDD model.

I live in Japan. Here they have a N1A/3-S20-J which comes standard with 2TB ssd