Melco’s Flagship N1-S38 Digital Music Library Now Available
All Image Credit: Melco
Japanese audio specialists Melco were established in Japan in 1975 and stands for Maki Engineering Laboratory Company. According to Melco, their latest flagship music library, the N1-S38, promises a; “previously unreached performance level” offering; “the best sonic performance in the company’s history”.
For those not familiar with the term ‘music library’, it is just a high performance music server with intelligent storage for all your digital music files. It only supports digital I/O so you will still need your DAC, amplifier and speakers.
According to Melco, this latest library is a new, ground-up design that includes a new chassis, casework and analog power supplies. This latest flagship design includes new; system electronics, mainboard, main toroid transformer, supply and local regulators, and a new SSD hard drive. The all important SSD storage is an “audio-specific custom” 3.84TB SSD drive that is used in conjunction with Melco’s own layered, rigid SSD mounter. According to Melco this drive is connected directly to the data path bypassing any RAID controller.
The sturdy 3mm stainless-steel chassis base helps to minimize unwanted vibrations while the rest of the unit’s casework is constructed from two-tone aluminum that varies in thickness from 2mm to 5mm. The two-tone aluminum casework is complemented by its teal LED lighting. The front panel contains an easy to read OLED display that provides system and file data and illuminated front panel control buttons adjacent to a USB port.
Connectivity includes; the front panel USB 3.0 port, while the rear panel provides; three die-cast Amphenol USB 3.0 ports for DAC, expansion and backup, plus a fourth USB 2.0 port for an additional DAC. The rear-panel also offers dedicated Neutrik RJ45 Player and LAN ports plus an SFP fiber port.
Finally the N1-S38 rear panel also provides a switchable 10 MHz external clock BNC input.
Features At A Glance:
- Specially selected 3.84 TB SSD drive for audio performance
- High-quality positive-click front panel buttons
- Crystal-clear, easy-read, low-noise OLED display
- 4x USB 3.0 ports for easy back up, expansion and DAC connectivity
- Easy music importing from flash, CD or HDD drives
- IEC mains inlet with true electrical ground to define the source component as ground point
- External 10MHz clock connection (BNC)
- Compatibility includes: Tidal, Roon Ready, vTuner, Twonky, MinimServer, SongKong for MELCO
Specifications:
- Music storage:
- 1 x specially selected 3.84 TB SSD
- Network connectivity:
- LAN Port-Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T),
- Dedicated PLAYER port,
- Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T),
- SFP Port (1000 mbps MAX)
- USB connectivity:
- USB 2.0 port USB DAC-dedicated
- USB 3.0 port USB DAC-dedicated/USB file import
- USB 3.0 backup port
- USB 3.0 expansion port
- 1 x front panel USB 3.0 portUSB player file support: DSF, DFF, FLAC, WAV, ALAC, AIFF and AAC
- USB player sample rate support:
- 16-32 bit (PCM) to 384 kHz:- auto down sample to suit connected DACs
- Gapless PCM support
- 1 bit (DSD) to 11.3 MHz Quad DSD Markerless DSD support
- DSD to 32 bit PCM conversion selectable Gapless DSD support
- OLED displays player sample rate
- Power supply:
- Pre-set 220-240 V AC or 110-120 V AC
- Size: 440 x 82 x 353mm
- Weight: 14kg
MSRP:
Available now in black or silver.
- US: $11,995
- UK: £11,995
- EU: €14,000
For more information visit the Luxman America or Melco web sites.
