Help Piecing Together New System, Starting with Melco N1A

[Novice2012]

First off, I am not a computer guy (translated, "low knowledge") but having been a reader of CA for years thought I'd see if deep knowledge here can help me get to the end zone quicker (flailing about currently.)

 

ISSUE: songs skip on a regular basis, can't isolate issue, but guy says to start with replacing the Drobo 5-Bay - sound is okay, but I've had this setup in place for 6+ years - time to solve the skipping and upgrade sound.

 

Current equipment/setup: DROBO NAS --> Netgear Prosafe 8 port switch --> Mac Mini (Audirvana) --> Musical Fidelity V Link 192 --> Musical Fidelity M1 DAC to pre amp (Vincent pre amp and power amp out to Focal Electra 1008 BEs.

 

Targeted equipment/setup: Based on lots of reading (understanding half of it), I'd like to consider adding the Melco N1A, the sonicTransporter and microRendu - but I have the feeling some of these may overlap? I am fine moving over to Roon as long as it will read 45k music files off the Melco N1A.

 

Add'l questions - want to keep the MF M1 DAC if possible - will microRendu --> MF V Link 192 --> MF M1DAC work? Does it make sense? Is M1 DAC compatible with the hardware/software we are talking about here? Any need to keep the Mac Mini in the system or get rid of it?

 

Again, thank you for your patience with the amateur nature of the question above, but it's been a challenge for me to plan the new system only half understanding what each piece does.

 

Any/all help, suggestions, guidance, or even a "Just do this, and it will work/sound great" is hugely appreciated.

[jcn3]

based on my understanding of the melco unit, the melco unit and the sonictransporter are redundant. assuming the microrendu as a renderer, both the melco and the sonictransporter could serve the role of music server. the melco unit comes with internal storage, so can serve the role as NAS, too.

[Apesbrain]

The pieces you already have should work without skipping. Can you try playing some of your music files from an external USB drive attached directly to the Mac Mini? External FireWire drive would be even better.

 

P.S. I lived in Hingham for a number of years; pretty place.

[ctsooner]

I'm about to get the Melco N1ZH to feed my Ayre QX5 twenty. It won't do Roon. Melco is very close to having it's own control software I was told. They have optimized their USB and their Ethernet outputs. Not sure if you would need anything other than connecting them. I'm fairly new also so would love to hear others who have actually used the Melco devices

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[Novice2012]

Hi all - thx for comments. So the Melco N1A would be acting as NAS AND Roon Server? (I dont yet have Roon...) Won't tax the thing? Have not tried plugging in new file source - I suppose that would help determine if Drobo was source of skipping... will try it. As far as forthcoming Melco software, optimized USB etc. does that suggest waiting for a newer, updated model might be warranted, or are those kinds of upgrades the kind of thing that can be downloaded to current units already out there?

[ctsooner]

No Roon yet for Melco. They run on different systems. Personally I want the best sound and can go without room for now especially if Melco software is good. That's just me. It would all be a firmware upgrade I was told.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[17629v2]

"ISSUE: songs skip on a regular basis, can't isolate issue, but guy says to start with replacing the Drobo 5-Bay - sound is okay, but I've had this setup in place for 6+ years - time to solve the skipping and upgrade sound."

 

How close are your drives to being full? All of them, including the one your OS is on. I would also swap out your cables. After 6 years, one may be damaged. If at all possible, see if you can somehow take the Netgear out of the system. Its not uncommon to have intermittent issues with routers as they age.

[davide256]

Skipping usually points to playback latency requiring an increased buffer. Cure can be to reduce latency or increase buffer. Have you checked your Audirvarna app to see if you can fix this by increasing buffer size? If the Drobo is slow and your switch supports GigE, replacing it with a faster NAS at GigE connection should improve playback latency.