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simoncn · 01-03-2026, 17:38

My post was about my personal experience with changes to my Melco-based setup that improved the sound for me. I have not tried a setup like the one you are using.

It is my understanding that reducing jitter at every stage in the chain from server to renderer should improve sound quality and my experience has been consistent with this. Jitter is caused by the timing of audio data sent across a link not exactly matching the clock signal, which seems to me to be slightly different from the quality (accuracy) of the clock signal as mentioned in the RME manual.

I am not an audio engineer and the above is what I have heard from others. If your setup is producing good results, enjoy!

malkit · 02-03-2026, 21:28

(28-02-2026 17:25)simoncn Wrote: Switching from this:

N1A ----- USB port ----- dCS Rossini

to this:

N1A ----- Ethernet player port ----- N1Z ----- USB port ----- dCS Rossini

made a significant difference to the sound. Some time later, I switched to this:

N1A ----- Melco S100 switch ----- N1Z ----- USB port ----- dCS Rossini

This made a further significant difference. Subsequently, changing to an optical link beteeen the N1A and the S100 made a further significant difference.

Whether or not this would apply in your case will depend on the renderer you are using and possibly other factors. The only way to find out is to try.

I just picked myself up a used N1Z on eBay for a really good price that's why I asked the question, I was planning to sell my N1A to fund the upgrade but your two box solution has me intrigued and I'll certainly give it a try. Also I'm surprised to hear that you find better SQ using the S100 between the two Melco servers, so if I understand correctly the N1Z is solely a renderer in your setup and you are isolating the renderer as much as possible from everything else other than the player output on the N1A?
Despite having a large library of files on my N1A I'm really a vinyl guy if I want to do any proper listening I put on a record but I do spend a hell of a lot of time listening to BBC radio streams and would like eek every bit of SQ from those 320 streams I can.

simoncn · 02-03-2026, 23:09

(02-03-2026 21:28)malkit Wrote: Also I'm surprised to hear that you find better SQ using the S100 between the two Melco servers, so if I understand correctly the N1Z is solely a renderer in your setup and you are isolating the renderer as much as possible from everything else other than the player output on the N1A?

Yes, the N1Z is solely a renderer. The player port of the N1A is unused and disabled via the front panel menus. Audio data goes from the N1A network port to the S100 and from the S100 to the network port of the N1Z. The N1Z also has its player port disabled. This setup is recommended by Melco when using an S100. In addition, I am using optical isolation on the link from the N1A to the S100 but not on the link from the S100 to the N1Z. This combination seems to give the best sound quality.

If you are not using an S100, you should connect the player port of the N1A to the N1Z as you said. Using optical isolation on this link improves sound quality.

malkit · 03-03-2026, 20:05

(02-03-2026 23:09)simoncn Wrote:
(02-03-2026 21:28)malkit Wrote: Also I'm surprised to hear that you find better SQ using the S100 between the two Melco servers, so if I understand correctly the N1Z is solely a renderer in your setup and you are isolating the renderer as much as possible from everything else other than the player output on the N1A?

Yes, the N1Z is solely a renderer. The player port of the N1A is unused and disabled via the front panel menus. Audio data goes from the N1A network port to the S100 and from the S100 to the network port of the N1Z. The N1Z also has its player port disabled. This setup is recommended by Melco when using an S100. In addition, I am using optical isolation on the link from the N1A to the S100 but not on the link from the S100 to the N1Z. This combination seems to give the best sound quality.

If you are not using an S100, you should connect the player port of the N1A to the N1Z as you said. Using optical isolation on this link improves sound quality.

Hi Simon, I just picked up the N1Z from the post office this evening I've got it working as you suggest N1A player port to N1Z LAN port not having S100. I've turned everything I could think of that might effect SQ off on N1Z, dark mode, smb and media server will disable player port as you recommend too. Do you have any other setting tweaks at all?

simoncn · 03-03-2026, 20:38

You need to format the drives as spanned, not RAID (on both the N1A and N1Z).

I have installed SSDs to replace the HDDs but you need to be very careful when doing this as some SSDs make the sound worse. I suggest you do enough listening to become very familiar with the HDD sound before you try this, so that you will know whether or not the SSDs have improved the sound.

I will be interested to hear what you think of the N1A + N1Z sound compared with running everything on the N1Z only.