Melco Audiophile NAS

[dan46]

(17-03-2016 16:07)simoncn Wrote:  

(17-03-2016 13:33)dan46 Wrote:  Yes and it is certainly a head scratcher. I can talk to the library via the LAN but this has no control over playback of course. The app would need to communicate with the N1A directly somehow (say bluetooth, or another way) to allow this to happen I would imagine.
Sharper minds would need to be at work certainly, shame my 272 can't also talk to the NAIM app allowing for this control of the library while in the direct mode. I'm trying workarounds but not much joy so far.
In Network mode everything is working fine, plenty of apps (Kinsky, NAIM and more) all work fine as the Network is all connected, but in Direct Mode this is not applicable. Hmmm...

Do you have any evidence that Direct Mode sounds better than Network Mode with a suitable switch and a suitable N1 confguration (static IP address)? My experience has been that Network Mode can deliver the same sound quality with the correct setup.

Not sure I can answer this too well. For me the sound is cleaner, more open, high frequencies ring out longer, more background being brought forward, overall more of everything but the clean blacks is the one for me.

I have tried various set ups and the best one for me is static IP (go to status and find the IP for Player out) I set this manually and have just one ethernet (Cat6) cable connected to NAIM 272. When switched on 272 (which is set to manual, wifi off static IP) finds the N1A and refreshes and its all good.

In another example I then add a 1GbE switch in the signal path. This allows me to then control the library and playback via Kinsky on OS X Laptop and I can playback from the library, but a switch is now in the signal path.

I have no LAN connection active or connected, no wifi, no network, just static IP from 272 to N1A, 1 x Cat6 cable thats it.

This set-up is best quality playback for me, in Network mode I hear no better playback than a normal Synology I have with SSD storage. But in network mode I have all apps working and full library control, but not the quality of playback I get here in Player only Direct mode.

Can I ask myself I guess that why would Melco have the option for a Direct Mode via Player output if it had no effect on the quality of the output, it would seem pointless to do it I think if it didn't add something more, but Melco needs to answer this.

It would be great to hear how others set up their Melco.