Hi Bootzilla,
Its a doddle, even I had no problem…
Assuming you have a laptop on the same network as the Melco, you’ll be able to see the Melco as another external drive, same as a NAS, and the music will be organised into folders in the normal way. So it’s simply a case of copying the artwork across and, renaming as folder.jpg.
Regards,
Mike.
You do not need any separate NAS device for what you want to do; just plug a USB drive into an appropriate router.
That’s all it takes if the router supports server software like Samba and UPnP Server. In the router is as “hard-wired” as it gets. My ASUS router is running both servers for the same FLAC files.
I use both BubbleUPnP (UPnP Server) and Roon (Samba server) this way from my ASUS router for stored FLAC files, and also use TIDAL 16 hrs./day from both programs, and the sound is terrific.
I’ve never understood why so many people want to make serving bits complicated and costly…
Jumbuck said I use EoP to the DS Bridge II and find it works fine. I compared it to long ethernet cable and couldn't pick any difference in SQ. Maybe in a very high end setup there is a benefit of hard wiring but I think for the average person it probably isn't necessary.I also use an EoP (TP Link Powerline adapter) with Blue Jeans Cable Cat 6a (with it's floating shield design) at both ends.For the low cost of a couple of EoP adapters I would give it a go and see what you think. Keep things simple IMO.
Works very very well and is super reliable and means I have no wireless router or bridge next to the Dac and other music gear, which the Roon guys and Sonore and Small Green Computer and Meridian all recommend. I can’t see if PS Audio have the same recommendation but will look around the forum.
This powerline adapter allows me to use the Bridge II the same way I was using a microRendu previously.
@Bootzilla I since read you got the Melco - a lot more money than a pair of powerline adapters but you will be most happy, that’s a fantastic addition.
Cheers 
UPDATE: I set up the Melco N1ZH last night and did some listening right out of the box and again this morning. Things are very preliminary at this point, as I moved a mere six albums onto the Melco’s internal drives, the Melco is still settling in and burning in, and I am using the stock power cord and RJ45 cable that came with the Melco. Having said that, OMFG, I have never heard digital sound so good in my system!
Listening to “Old Ties and Companions,” the first track on Mandolin Orange’s 2015 album Such Jubilee, was a revelation in sound stage, detail, and solidity of images. It sounded as if the North Carolina duo and their crack band were in the room with me.
The treble on John Abercrombie’s The First Quartet reissue box set (ECM 2015) sounded sweeter and more natural than I have ever heard it, and Abercrombie’s unique and mesmerizing guitar tone brought me back to the one time I saw him live (from the front/center table at NYC’s Blue Note Cafe when he was performing with jazz saxophone master Charles Lloyd).
And “Isn’t It a Pity” from George Harrison’s 1970 magnum opus, All Things Must Pass (2001 re-issue) was a goose bump-inducing eargasm.
I compared briefly the sound from the Melco’s USB and Ethernet outputs and I preferred the Ethernet output by a wide margin. The USB output sounded really good (using a Kimber Silver 0.5M cable), but the Ethernet output going into the Bridge II took things to a whole other level of realism.
Thanks again to all who posted in this thread and happy holidays!
Glad you like it, Bootzilla. I agree on all your assessments (of sound quality and USB vs Bridge II), and I ‘only’ have the N1A. Curious what control apps are you using?
EldRick said…I’ve never understood why so many people want to make serving bits complicated and costly…
daveksaid Glad you like it, Bootzilla. I agree on all your assessments (of sound quality and USB vs Bridge II), and I 'only' have the N1A. Curious what control apps are you using?Thanks davek. I am using Bubble UPnP on my Android phone almost exclusively (screen shot attached). How about you?
Bootzilla saidThanks davek. I am using Bubble UPnP on my Android phone almost exclusively (screen shot attached). How about you?
Hi Bootzilla, really pleased you like the Melco. I’m always nervous recommending things based on my experience so it comes as a relief! I’m currently running N1A via bog standard USB cable into DS (sold decent cables and W4S Recovery in order to fund Bridge 2) and it still sounds great. Can’t wait to get my Bridge 2 in the New Year…
Happy Christmas,
Mike.
Hi Mike, much appreciated, thanks, and congrats on your Bridge II purchase! Please let us know how you like the Melco into the Bridge II as compared to the USB connection. Happy holidays!
Hi all and happy New Year!
By way of an update, I installed MinimServer on my Melco and disabled Twonky (the instructions I followed are here. Initially, I had trouble getting the install to work, which may have been caused by a failing USB flash drive.)
Two advantages I see of putting MinimServer on a Melco are: (1) You can stream DSD files as DoP to the Bridge II with the proper MinimServer transcoding setting (I am using “dsf:dopwav”), as described here; and (2) you can have MinimServer convert FLAC to WAV or even 24-bit WAV before the signal hits the DirectStream DAC (I am using the “flac:wav24” setting, also as described here).
As I understand it, the FLAC-to-WAV conversion in the Melco takes some of the processing load off of the DirectStream. Whatever might be going on, others have reported sonic improvements by going from 16-bit FLAC to 24-bit WAV in MinimServer, and my early impression is quite positive.
Note: When converting 16-bit FLAC to 24-bit WAV in MinimServer, the DirectStream display shows the playing music file as 16 bits. However, the various control points I have tried show the file as 24-bit WAV. See this thread for a discussion as to why the DirectStream display differs from the control point display in this scenario.
The MinimServer-on-Melco installation is supposedly reversible, hence there is apparently nothing to lose by trying it.
Since the last 8 digits of 16-bit files padded to 24-bit are all zeros the Direct Stream ignores them and shows the files as 16-bit so that is normal.
For people with Melco, anyone of you also uses fiber optical connection between your router and Melco? I recently added the fiber optical connection between my router and DSJr, the sound improvement is very obvious. One of the main benefits of Melco is to remove electric noise through the ethernet cable. Thus I wonder how much further SQ improvement by using both the fiber optical connection and the Melco. Thanks.
Dear all,
I`m a new PSAUDIO user and I already like this forum!
I got my DSD with Bridge2 and I´m evaluating the purchase of a device such a Melco. I would like to plug melco directly to bridge 2 as suggested several times and I would like to stream to bridge through ethernet, DSD files and Tidal.
DSD: that´s possible installing minimserver on Melco but there is a conversion DoP. Is it possible to avoid that?
Tidal: I would like to use Tidal service. Here a problem. I´m a Iphone/Ipad user, i like lumin and kazoo app, do they work with this kind of setup? I need to install minimserver?
ps. There is any solution to install roon server/bridge on Melco and use it with ipad control?
thanks all!
Welcome to the PSA community! It is a great place…
There’s no reason to avoid DoP. This is not the same as converting to PCM; the original DSD data is still sent, just inside a wrapper that makes it look like PCM to renderers that don’t know how to process DSD natively. MinimServer is a great piece of software. There is a learning curve but the MinimServer manual is excellent and there is help in the Minim forum. Bootzilla’s instructions about setting dsf:dopwav and also about converting FLAC to WAV at the top of this thread are correct.
Kazoo integrates Tidal (and Qobuz, too, for that matter) so that’s all set to go. Just note that you cannot play MQA files via Tidal through Kazoo; doing this requires the Tidal app on a PC or Mac.
I don’t know about Melco and Roon; the Linux version might be compatible with Melco – check with them. I have never researched Melco and so don’t know what advantages it offers of just buying a NAS and installing MinimServer. I have been happily feeding the Bridge this way for 3 years or more.
You can install Roon on some models of NAS, but you need a high-end CPU; for best performance Roon also recommends a SSD on which to install the Roon server. So this gets pricey (I am looking to upgrade my NAS and thought about getting one that can handle Roon but decided that was too much).
thanks magister for your answer and your help.
I already bought a NAS qnap 471 4mb ram and i3 intel processor. some 4tb wd red hdd, but I found out that I’m not a Nas person… i will spend hours and hours checking the web for information and settings and so on… I’m giving back the nas in order to find something easier for my knowledge. Melco is a good option, is more or less a plug and play nas/server audio with audiophile skills. (I hope so).
my goal is to avoid pc computer and use Tidal and DSD on bridge 2 but I’m facing several issue on my own way…
I too don’t like using a Mac or Windows machine for audio playback. That’s why I ended up with a NAS. At the time (3 years ago) things like Melco weren’t on the market, at least to the extent they are now.
The QNAP you have is more than powerful enough. While there is a learning curve, I didn’t find it too difficult with my Synology NAS because the Synology operating system is quite user-friendly; I don’t know how QNAP compares in this regard. I can tell you that once I got it set up, I have hardly touched it since – just one major upgrade to the Synology operating system. If you’d like to try again, let me know and I maybe I can help.
With servers like Melco, just be sure that you can easily do backups of your files on the internal HDDs. I have heard of some such machines that make it difficult or almost impossible to do this, which is essential. I can also tell you that some of the systems aren’t quite as plug and play as they advertise themselves as being (not sure if that’s true with Melco since I’ve never used one). If you could get some help setting up your QNAP, you might be quite happy with it. Just a thought.
Good luck!
Hi, I’ve got a Melco N1A feeding the Directstream via USB. I’m picking up a Bridge 2 next week so have installed Minimserver in preparation. Very easy install, had to do a bit of tidying up of tags but all works beautifully. Sound via Melco is superb, big improvement over previous setup using Synology via home network. USB was also improved significantly with W4S Recovery and LANRover but I decided to spend my money on Bridge 2 instead. DSD works perfectly via USB, can’t comment on how it works via Bridge 2 until I’ve installed it in a couple of weeks, but my understanding is that it works fine, but is restricted at DSD64.
Tidal works well via Melco but the only apps that currently support it are Android, such as BubbleUPNP. There are no IPAD or IPhone Apps that currently allow you to stream Tidal via Melco - I’m not sure of the technical reason why. That said, I bought a cheapish Samsung 7inch tablet, loaded Bubble and it works flawlessly. Obviously I’d prefer to use my IPad but it’s not a major problem.
So I’d highly recommend the Melco and I believe others are very happy too.
regards, Mike.
Aurender model N10 is very good over any output USB as well. It’s tidal output the the msb select 2 is very good . But you will need an Ethernet to it for tidal . It rivals my custom built caps that cost me 6k in parts.
Thanks all guys!
@mike-marks I´m looking forward to know if everything work good with bridge 2 too. it´s crazy that doesn´t exist any Apple app similar to bubbleupnp!! I will follow your way with a cheap samsung!
Mike I don´t remember (i´m looking for thousand of info and alternatives) if it´s possible to use Roon on Melco! in this case how can you control it? Can I use roon remote for Ipad? In this case do you think Tidal will be supported by roon and roon remote?@ 1234 - N10 unfortunately is out of my league! Can you stream music to bridge 2 through ethernet? is this solution better in SQ terms than usb/coax/AES?
Does it support roon and Tidal?I love you guys!