New products from Melco

New products from Melco:
​EX Series and S100 data switch.

Excitingly, December sees the introduction of two new products to the Melco portfolio: the EX Series and the S100 data switch

EX Series

There are new EX Series versions of all Melco music libraries and all incorporate our new Melco Intelligent Music Library technology – MIML. ​

Conventional UPnP solutions are severely limited in browse and search capabilities, whereas MIML allows for browse or search by ANY tag in ANY order – which is simply not possible with UPnP. MIML installs MinimServer 2 into the Melco, along with SongKong which ensures that the most accurate, consistent and most detailed metadata is available.

Browse ‘trees’ for rock really should be different to jazz and classical: rock does not need conductor or composer, while classical does not need bpm, for example.

Selectable from the Melco front panel, it is simple to select browse trees for classical, rock and pop, jazz and as a simple default for casual listening. These profiles greatly assist finding music in your library.

Additionally, as most classical releases contain multiple works of one or more albums, Melco browses for work rather than complete albums, although at any stage a complete album can be played.

The EX Series software is available on all Melco N1, N10 and N100 supplied from December 2019. There is an upgrade program for existing N1 units, so please discuss this with your dealer.

Existing N10 and N100 models will simply update to full EX functionality with an over-the-air V4.10 firmware update, which is the next big firmware update due mid-December.
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For more information about the EX Series, please visit this LINK
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S100 audiophile data switch

It is not possible to rely on standard data switches to optimise audio sound quality: the ISP-provided switches on the router are optimised for video streaming and normal data switches do not prioritise audio packets.

The new Melco S100 is like two switches in one: there are four audio-optimised 100M ports where sound quality is better than 1G ports. There are four 1G ports as well – one of these is audio-optimised for Roon Core (Roon Core hits system sound quality hard due to heavy network traffic – the S100 minimises this problem).  

There are two AFDP fibre ports, also audio-optimised and lots of details like a simple switch to kill port traffic lights and improve sound quality.

While the obvious role of the S100 is for audio systems which do not already have a Melco, it is easy to demonstrate the sound quality benefits in a Melco system as well.

For more information, please visit this LINK or talk to your dealer.