Melco N1A with SOtM's sMS-200

[Terry490]

Has anyone on the forum tried taking the ethernet out of the Melco N1A and running it into a sMS-200 before converting back to USB to feed a DAC? SOtM claims this should work and should provide noticeable improvement in sound quality.

[michaeltay5871]

It works.  Better still, use the Melco ethernet out as your ethernet in on your Server (computer) to bridge the sMS-200 so that you actually bridged the excellent Melco drives to your sMS-200 with all the benefits of bridging.

[Terry490]

Thanks for replying to my post. I purchased the N1A but am not happy with the lack of air or ambiance on the top end. The music is portrayed against an absolute black background but the "air" around the instruments is missing. I was going to sell the unit but thought this might be a solution as I was told by another enthusiast that the ethernet output was vastly superior to the USB output. I do not have a computer connected to my N1A and do not steam music. I use the ethernet LAN cable just to connect to the web so I can use the Linn Kinsky app on my iPad to control the N1A. I currently use a USB cable (Audioquest diamond) to connect to my DAC. What I was thinking about was keeping the existing LAN cable in place and attach a short, high quality, ethernet cable in the N1A's ethernet PLAY jack and use that to connect to the sMA-200. I would then use my existing USB cable to connect the sMS-200 to my DAC.

 

Are you telling me that this will work? Have you done any comparisons of the sound of the N1A's ethernet out with the sMS-200 compared to the N1A's normal USB output?

 

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. I am a novice when it comes to all this digital technology.

[michaeltay5871]

Hi Terry,

 

If you do not mind just using the Melco as an expensive NAS, connecting the Melco ethernet out to SMs-200 definitely works and should give you a better sound quality.  If you are using Roon or HQPlayer or you use another streamer, you can use the connection mentioned in my above reply.

 

To further improve sound quality you can use LAN isolator or Optical isolation from Router to your Melco ethernet in and/or before the SMs-200.

 

Hope this help as I am a newbie myself.

 

[baconbrain]

I had a Melco N1A last week to test and can confirm what michaeltay5871 has posted above.

 

In particular the addition of a LAN isolator between the Router and Melco really made a big difference in increasing the spaciousness of the sound stage for my system. 

 

Still, in direct comparsion to my QNAP NAS, the small amount of improvement provided by the Melco (in this case as a dedicated Audio NAS only) did not warrant the investment for me.