As an audiophile, you are dedicated to the quality of your music. You invest in high-end equipment, including speakers and amplifiers, to build up your hi-fi audio system. You don’t want just any music player; you want a device that will give you the best listening experience possible.
Melco, which was founded by Makoto Maki in 1975 as a family business in Japan, has come to be known in the world of music equipment too with their impressive data storage devices. Although Melco Holdings Inc. is mostly associated with Buffalo Inc. because of the printer buffer product that propelled the company in the computer peripheral market in 1981, it has been involved with various other products too including audio equipment.
Is Melco a Good Brand?
The chairman of Buffalo is an audiophile himself, so it’s no surprise that the company’s answer to our question is yes. The company got its start in the hi-fi audio world with turntables that made their way to the UK in the 1980s, but it has certainly set a high bar for music reproduction with its drives dedicated to audio.
Melco audio products are renowned for their high-quality sound, making them a top choice among audiophiles. In 2014, the company created an audiophile-grade digital library that made its products even more popular with music lovers. The same level of care, attention to detail and craftsmanship that Melco puts into each product ensures that you get an equally revered product when you purchase one of theirs.
To create exceptional networked devices and storage with high performance, they count on painstaking research into technology and how it can be used to satisfy your needs for music. Whether you want to play your favorite music from the stored files or stream music, they will have a solution for you.
What is the Best Melco Streamer?
Melco offers a range of high-resolution digital music sources, each of which amazes with its practicality and ease of use. The Melco N1-H digital music server costs $4995 while the flagship N7i retails at $18,999.
Melco N100 – The Half-Sized Digital Music Library
If you’re looking for a server without breaking the bank, this is a great option. It’s the same size as two popular models–the Melco CD drive D100 and the Melco S100 switch–and just as powerful.
The Melco N100 offers amazing sound quality when used with active speakers or a USB-DAC headphone amplifier. It has a user-friendly interface and internal HDD capacity of 2TB.
The MDS-JE, Melco’s high-resolution music streamer, supports all high-resolution formats, including 32bit 384kHz and DSD. The D100 CD loader from Melco is compatible with the server, so CD fans can enjoy high-resolution music streaming. You can organize your songs as you like by composer and album, then browse from the front panel or even from the specialized Melco app.
Melco N1A – The Rotating-Drives Digital Music Library
The N1A EX series is a network switch from Netgear, and it’s the entry-level model of the brand. It comes with two hard drives with 3TB of memory, allowing you to configure it in one of three ways:
- Raid 0 – 6TB storage with no redundancy for maximum performance
- Raid 1 – 3TB storage with two identical copies of your data
- Spanned Array – 6TB storage with no redundancy. This option is not recommended but can be used if all other options are unavailable.
The HiFiMan N5005 is a DAC and headphone amp that has five USB ports. The front is for importing or ripping CDs, whereas the others are for expansion and faster-than-CD ripping. Its connectivity is similar to that of the N100, with LAN and PLAYER ports, streaming options like TIDAL and Qobuz, and support for high-resolution music files like FLAC and ALAC. It produces a clean, refined sound with natural tones.
Melco N10 – The Two-Box Digital Music Library
The N10/2, with its advanced design, is the same price as the N5 but with better sound quality. The designers separated the signal-processing electronics from the power supply to eliminate vibration. This makes for a high-quality audio outcome just as audiophiles like it.
The head unit comes with data connectivity and processing electronics, whereas the power box comes with a high-performance linear power supply. The N10/2-H50, like the original N10, comes with a 5TB hard drive. The N10/2-S38 has 3.84TB of solid-state storage, which is twice as much as its predecessor’s.
The N10/2 features the same PCB as the sold-out N10 45th Anniversary Limited Edition server. It comes with many of Melco’s standard beneficial features, such as Ethernet ports (LAN and PLAYER), USB ports (even a DAC output), Intelligent Music Library suite (MinimServer and SongKong software). The device is also Roon Ready and compatible with DSD files. You can stream using TIDAL, Qobuz or vTuner.
Melco N5 – The Next Generation Digital Music Library
The N5-H50 baby offers a similar level of functionality to the N1 flagship model but at a more accessible price. To hit this price point, designers substituted the SSD with HDD and added simplified functions–but don’t worry, this doesn’t affect quality.
Melco N1 – The Flagship Digital Music Library
The new N1-S38 is the company’s most expensive and high-quality music library product. The server has a custom 3.84TB SSD, a new chassis and casework, new electronic system set, new power supplies and regulators, as well as support for an external switchable 10 MHz clock output.