Melco's flagship N1 digital music library promises "previously unreached performance level"

By Kashfia Kabir
published

Melco N1-S38 claims to offer "the best sonic performance in the company's history"

Melco N1-S38 digital music library
(Image credit: Melco)

Japanese audio specialists Melco has announced a new flagship: the N1-S38 digital music library, which claims to offer "the best sonic performance in the company's history". That's since its founding in 1975, so is quite the claim.

What is a digital music library? It's essentially what Melco (Maki Engineering Laboratory Company) calls its music servers, which act as high-performance and intelligent storage for your digital music files. You'll still need to add a DAC and amplifier to play music through your speakers, though.

The N1 is said to build upon Melco's expertise in digital music storage, transfer and playback knowledge, and the company's "unique architecture which carefully transports delicate signal data while avoiding noisy high-speed elements and fast processors." We can attest to Melco's talents in these areas: we recently tested the N10/2-S38 (£9399/ $12,200 approx / AU$15,495) and the cheaper N100 (£1999 / $1999), and both are five-star performers. 

The N1-S38 is based around a new SSD-based platform and has been designed entirely from the ground up. It has a new chassis and casework, a new set of system electronics, and new power supplies, including a newly developed high-capacity power transformer, supply and local regulators.

For the all-important storage section, it has an "audio-specific custom" 3.84TB SSD drive that's used in conjunction with Melco's own layered, rigid SSD mounter. This is connected to the data path directly and circumvents any RAID controller, says Melco. The onboard memory is increased, too. 

Melco N1-S38 digital music library

(Image credit: Melco)

Handmade in Japan, the new chassis is constructed around a 3mm stainless steel base plate, which helps reduce unwanted vibrations affecting the music signal. The two-tone aluminium casework is complemented by teal LED lighting. An OLED display and illuminated control buttons adorn the front of the unit, alongside a USB port.

Melco uses "die-cast Amphenol USB ports", as opposed to the conventional USB connections, which the company claims can compromise ultimate performance. These are more durable too, and are used for the DAC, Expansion, Import and Backup ports on the back panel.

For connecting to your home network, Melco provides Neutrik RJ45 connectors and an upgraded LAN port. The N1-S38 also supports a switchable 10 MHz external clock input – a first for a Melco music library.

The new Melco N1-S38 is available now in black or silver finishes, and is priced at £11,995 / €14,000 / $11,995.

MORE:

Read our Melco N10/2-S38 review

And our Melco N100 review

2023 is going to be a great year for hi-fi separates, and I couldn’t be more excited

Kashfia Kabir
Kashfia Kabir
Hi-Fi and Audio Editor

Kashfia is the Hi-Fi and Audio Editor of What Hi-Fi? and first joined the brand over 10 years ago. During her time in the consumer tech industry, she has reviewed hundreds of products (including speakers, amplifiers and headphones), been to countless trade shows across the world and fallen in love with hi-fi kit much bigger than her. In her spare time, Kash can be found tending to an ever-growing houseplant collection and hanging out with her cat Jolene.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Friesiansam
    What Hi-Fi? said:
    For the all-important storage section, it has an "audio-specific custom" 3.84TB SSD drive that's used in conjunction with Melco's own layered, rigid SSD mounter. This is connected to the data path directly and circumvents any RAID controller, says Melco.
    What makes the SSD "audio-specific custom" and, why would a music server with only a single storage device, have a RAID controller to need circumventing anyway?
    Reply
  • DougM
    Friesiansam said:
    What makes the SSD "audio-specific custom" and, why would a music server with only a single storage device, have a RAID controller to need circumventing anyway?

    A lot of the claims on this device are obvious audiophile nonsense. The bottom line is that what arrives at your DAC is going to be bit for bit identical regardless of whether you use this device or another. Nothing before the DAC can possibly have any impact on the audio quality because none of the transports involved allow bit errors.
    Reply
  • Hifiman
    I too would be interested to know how this hugely expensive server can deliver ones and zeros any differently to a much more affordable option. If my laptop‘s SSD delivered even a single bit incorrectly it would crash continually so I find it difficult to comprehend how components such as these can provide any music more accurately.
    Maybe there is something in these devices but I remember when AV publications waxed lyrical about how expensive HDMI cables improved television picture quality. That was until it was disproved unequivocally.
    Reply
  • Markmaguire
    It's a lot of £££ for what is essentially an external hard drive / NAS.
    Reply
  • DougM
    Hifiman said:
    I too would be interested to know how this hugely expensive server can deliver ones and zeros any differently to a much more affordable option. If my laptop‘s SSD delivered even a single bit incorrectly it would crash continually so I find it difficult to comprehend how components such as these can provide any music more accurately.
    Maybe there is something in these devices but I remember when AV publications waxed lyrical about how expensive HDMI cables improved television picture quality. That was until it was disproved unequivocally.

    From their review:
    "There will always be those that think digital things like servers make no difference to sound quality, but that isn’t the case in our experience. While noting that the Melco comes in at more than four times the cost of our Uniti Core, there is no denying that we hear way more in terms of subtle detail and authority when listening to a range of files off the N10/2."

    And that's how you know the reviewer is either getting paid or just wants to believe.
    Reply
  • 12th Monkey
    DougM said:
    And that's how you know the reviewer is either getting paid or just wants to believe.
    If you have any evidence of the former, please produce it. Otherwise keep the comments appropriate please. Unsubstantiated accusations of payola will not be tolerated by the magazine on its own website.
    Reply
  • Hifiman
    If a new medicine wishes to reach market it first has to prove it is superior to existing alternatives or at least equivalent while being less costly. This Is done by well conducted blinded trials. It can be difficult to take a similar approach with many hifi components but it certainly must be possible for servers such as these and less costly alternatives. Then we would find out where is best to spend our budget.
    Reply
  • SL 75
    Friesiansam said:
    What makes the SSD "audio-specific custom" and, why would a music server with only a single storage device, have a RAID controller to need circumventing anyway?

    I really want to respect Melco, being the progenitor of Buffalo, which I do like and respect very much, but this description is all rather disingenuous. For over 9 grand, they need a better description of audio-specific custom (for what it's worth, I've seen a pic of the innards of another Melco device and it had a bog standard Western Digital Blue HDD in it, and all Buffalo NAS boxes I've seen also use WD). As for connecting directly to the data path, what kind of nonsense is that, totally vague and meaningless. A storage device needs some sort of I/O chip to interface to the main board (and there will be address and control lines alongside the data path lines), typically these days that may well include RAID functionality, but it's all out of context and mumbo jumbo here. Preserving delicate music signals... All computer components these days operate on very low voltages and hence are delicate signals. Again just playing with words and I would like to see a more technical assessment of such claims in WHF.

    By all means design and manufacture with fanatical attention to detail, as many Japanese companies do, but some better explanation is needed in place of the flowery language. For example with the SSD unit, they could have used a professional grade SSD (these do exist, for extremely demanding video acquisition and production - they are rated for more read/write operations), and that would be a legitimate, marketable feature.
    Reply
  • SL 75
    Hifiman said:
    If a new medicine wishes to reach market it first has to prove it is superior to existing alternatives or at least equivalent while being less costly. This Is done by well conducted blinded trials. It can be difficult to take a similar approach with many hifi components but it certainly must be possible for servers such as these and less costly alternatives. Then we would find out where is best to spend our budget.
    Exactly. Some basic oscilloscope screenshots would go a long way to making any of this more credible.
    Reply
  • DougM
    12th Monkey said:
    If you have any evidence of the former, please produce it. Otherwise keep the comments appropriate please. Unsubstantiated accusations of payola will not be tolerated by the magazine on its own website.

    It works the other way. A website wants to be a credible authority on the quality of products. They achieve this by not saying things that suggest they might be falling prey to payola.
    Reply