 Melco recently announced the Melco EX series platform – this finally solves the problems caused by trying to Browse and Search music collections which have incomplete or inconstant metadata and permits browsing by any tag in any order, rather than the conventional (and very restrictive) ‘browse by Artist, Album, Song’. We have created other documents highlighting the benefits of this advanced and unique technology (including the blog post here), but the purpose of this short post is to clarify the EX situation for existing Melco owners.
Melco EX upgrade on existing N1 Mk1 & Mk2 The current Melco N1 platform must be upgraded to the EX platform in order to accept the EX firmware. This is not a hardware change and can be applied to both Mk1 and Mk2 N1 machines. It is all software, but because the HDDs will need a total rebuild, the update can only be carried out by Melco or approved service points. We will issue full details shortly, but the plan is to be able to offer upgrades from March 2020 - possibly sooner, dependant on the availability of some software tools. All Melco dealers and distributors will have full details of how the service will be offered in each market in December, at the time of the EX hardware launch, so please speak to your dealer at that time. Melco N1 EX machines released in December will be a higher price than current Mk2 machines, because of all the extra software licenses etc. So the EX upgrade will also carry a charge - this will be nominal for machines purchased after the EX announcement at Munich this year (May 2019) and for older Mk2 will be comparable to the price difference between Mk2 and EX. Mk1 machines can also be upgraded - the costs will be confirmed in December and all Melco dealers will be aware of these.  VTuner
The new Melco EX Platform includes both Melco Intelligent Music Library (MIML) and VTuner for Internet Radio when using USB-DAC and Melco Music HD app. The Melco Music HD app has recently been updated to include the VTuner capability when used with EX platform machines and this is visible to all users - but any Melco not running firmware V4.xx cannot use VTuner. Melco N1 Mk1 and Mk2 without EX upgrade N1 Mk1 and Mk2 that are not updated to EX platform V4.xx will continue to receive support updates to FW V3.xx. For example, there will be a firmware release V3.92 which will include an Installer for MinimServer2 Starter Edition and SongKong Lite. Although these two installations do not match the functionality of EX, both can be upgraded by payment of license fees to the full versions. (You can purchase the MinimServer upgrade here. The SongKong full license can be purchased from here). V3.92 will therefore allow for SongKong Lite and MinimServer Lite to be installed, but EX upgrade is necessary to give full EX functionality including front panel OLED control and Internet Radio. We hope this helps clarify how to benefit from the EX platform – please do contact your dealer with further questions and as noted above, they can help with upgrades when the time comes.
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The magic of DSD There are many urban myths surrounding Direct Stream Digital (DSD), so I thought it might be interesting to look at DSD in detail and dispel some untruths. It may be simplified a little, but the following should give an insight into this remarkable format, in the context of Melco, of course, and is also applicable to USB-connected DACs as well as Ethernet streamers. What is DSD? Remember bitstream audio? It was used to indicate an elegant digital path in the mastering of LPs before CD was launched. It was a single-bit digital ‘stream’ and was considered a really useful digital format because decoding (D/A conversion) did not depend on high-precision resistive ladders etc. as used in DACs for PCM – at the time, 16-bit DACs were costly and had compromised performance. PCM requires that the DAC has the ability to differentiate levels approximately 1/65,000 of peak level for 16 bits; more precision required for more bits. This requires an extremely precise ladder DAC or similar technology, whereas DSD is pulse density or delta-sigma modulation of a single bitstream; the decoding requires no special amplitude resolution and is, therefore, easier to implement. Move the clock forward a few years and SACD uses the same digital stream with good results, making bitstream effectively a consumer format. With the advent of CD – a 16-bit PCM format – DACs have moved on in leaps and bounds since the ‘80s, but still there is the requirement to have extremely precise DAC implementation for 16, 24 or even 32-bit, or to use extreme oversampling/ clever data techniques to get around the basic problems of a PCM ladder DAC. Bitstream never went away, though, and today it is known as DSD and offers many potential advantages over PCM. There never was a specific physical carrier (silver disc) for DSD, so the download and digital files environment was necessary to popularise DSD. SACD is the same format but is copy protected, so the files do not move off of the silver disc carrier. DSD formatsDSD exists in several forms:  There is the concept of single DSD or DSD 64 (being 64 times the sample rate of CD) and this is the original SACD standard. By doubling and quadrupling the data rate we get double DSD, DSD 128 and Quad DSD, DSD 256. If the data was being created in the studio to master a CD, then the DSD would be 64, 128 etc. times the CD data rate. But if the data is being taken from analogue sources (microphone mixers, tape machines etc.) and is not for CD production, then the convention of 48 kHz sampling equivalent applies. On the front of a Melco, when playing single DSD, a data rate of 2.8 MHz is shown for CD-related files and 3.1 MHz for 48 kHz related files. How to justify record company claims ‘from the Master Tape/s’The sample rate is a really useful clue as to the origins of the expensive download that you might have purchased and shows whether the claim, ‘Direct from the master tapes’ really applies or whether this has been lifted from CD-production data. Direct from an analogue tape will give DSD of 3.1, 6.1, 12.3 MHz etc. But, if the material was lifted from CD production data, the giveaway is the data rate of 2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz etc. Markerless DSDTo move DSD from one device to another, it is usually necessary to put the data into packets. This is also the case for USB and Ethernet. The packets contain the DSD data and have additional markers at the start and end of each packet to identify their place in the data queue. These markers take up around 30 per cent of the available bandwidth. Some recent DACs and streamers can accept data without these markers. Melco supports this and tests the comms automatically. If markerless is possible with the specific DAC then there is a sound quality improvement due to the data rate dropping. There is no requirement for the user to intervene – markerless happens whenever possible; another clever Melco innovation! DXDDSD is really convenient but is not possible to easily edit, change levels, fade in and out of tracks etc. This requires PCM. DXD is a 32-bit, 384 kHz (CD production) or 32/352 kHz PCM format. This is used before the finalised DSD. Equivalent resolution DSD vs. PCMThe question always asked surrounds DSD vs. PCM resolution. They are totally different digitisation regimes and comparison is not easy, but it helps to think of SACD/single DSD/DSD 64 being something of the order of 20-bit resolution; sample rate equivalence depends on the DAC technique but it’s safe to say 96 kHz. DSD 128 can be considered equivalent to a 24-bit PCM format. Playing DSDThere are several DACs that take full advantage of the DSD format. There are a lot more DACs that are based on PCM and, therefore, have to convert the DSD into PCM. Some do it well, some do not, and this is possibly the reason that opinion is divided on the merits of DSD. Conversion from DSD to PCM in the DAC is not so easy, the maths is immense. With Melco connected to a USB DAC, you can choose! Many DSD-capable DACs are actually PCM DACs with inbuilt conversion. The Melco, however, can very precisely convert DSD into 32-bit PCM. Presenting this PCM data to a DAC designed originally for PCM is probably the best way to use the DAC with DSD. DSD-over-Ethernet sometimes requires DoP (DSD over Packet) depending on the streamer; there are several one-time options for the Melco to communicate in the most stable way with the streamer. Buying DSDs or DXDAs mentioned, there is no physical carrier for DSD (other than SACD which is copy-protected). But many vendors offer DSD and (in some cases) DXD downloads. If you purchase the highest resolution files you often can access the lesser files as well, making interesting sound quality comparisons. Most telling is DXD versus Quad DSD: one uses a PCM DAC and the other a DSD DAC, so it allows a lot of insight into the performance of your hardware. Listening tipsThere are many vendors of DSD, but we do enjoy relationships with HighResAudio.com and Native DSD.com, plus both have samplers available for Melco owners. Particularly fine recordings are:
We hope this helps introduce you to the world of DSD – enjoy!
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Wow! After a great weekend at The Audio T Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2019, here is my first opportunity to sit and reflect on how well it went.
Melco had a new space for this year in the first bay window on the show’s entry floor, which was the perfect platform for lots of conversations with Melco customers and those looking to learn more about our products. We had the full range of Melco products available – N10, N100, D100, E100 & N1ZH.
An interesting talking point amongst visitors this year was embedded Internet Radio. We have taken this onboard to see how we can improve our product and feature set further to accommodate.
We were very lucky to be joined by Melco’s President from Tokyo Mr Araki, who was on hand to speak to customers and met many of our fantastic dealers who support us in the UK. Mr Araki has worked for Melco for 8 years and is always keen to talk to customers to find out what we can do better. He is a long-standing Buffalo Software Engineer and developed many innovative digital solutions such as the first Japanese digital TV set top box.
Paul Taylor, Founder of SongKong, joined us on Friday and Saturday to talk Metadata and managing digital music libraries – a topic you’re well keen to learn more about. You can read more about SongKong for Melco here & Melco customers can access a free trial.
Our presence at the show was supported by many other manufacturers using Melco as the digital source. A big thank you must go to:
- Russell K & Tellurium Q
- ATC Loudspeaker Technology
- Neat Acoustics
- Harman Group
- Decent Audio
Thank you to our customers who came and supported us at the Show – it’s always good to see familiar faces, showcase new products for their collections and find out how they’re getting on with their existing Melco products.
All in all a great event – thanks Audio T! Were any of you there? What did you think? Did you make any additions to your HiFi systems?
Hope to see you at Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2020 & other HiFi Shows nationwide!
Evolution of Digital Music
Alan Ainslie, Melco Europe General Manager
Why we are where we are and how to enjoy it!
The worlds first CD player and CD developed by Phillips.
For our inaugural blog post, I’d like to look at the history of digital music; where it all started, how PCs came into use and why high-resolution audio is so much more than just file format.
Where it all began
Digital music existed well before Compact Disc: it was not necessarily just Pulse-Code Modulation (PCM), there was Bitstream as well. PCM was originally in 48kHz (or multiples) sample rates and CD, or really the video forms of CD, meant that 44.1kHz was a better sample rate for global sales as it did not interfere with video data and had no real sound quality impact. Bitstream effectively became Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and Super Audio CD (SACD) was a close relative.
Back then, CD was 44.1kHz and the bit-depth was related to how much data could be stored using available technology. Philips were successfully pressing polycarbonate discs for LaserDisc and knew the possibilities and limitations of the process; this determined the dimensions, bit pattern on the CD and the size of the CD set the maximum data size, at around 650MB on a 12cm disc.
Why 12cm? The story goes that this was the size of the shirt pocket of Jan Timmer, Philips’ President at the time! The CD spec was written down and all manufacturers had to follow the standard (Red Book) precisely.
Realising the benefits of CD
Listening tests at the time, showed that this all worked out well: you got more playing time than an LP on a silver disc with a frequency response to 20kHz, plus reasonable resolution. When good, CD was excellent, but in the early days, that was quite rare.
Editing losses, at least 3 or 4 bits, meant that the studio recordings, if digital and not transferred from analogue (remember AAD and DDD?), needed to be at least 20 bits; 24 bits soon became the norm. So high-res audio is actually at least as old as CD!
Copy protection
There was no copy protection in these early formats (aside from SACD), so record companies nurtured the 24-bit or better and would not share with anyone to avoid piracy. The reverse actually happened: the record companies were obsessed with opening up the market with highly compressed data that took little space and could therefore be distributed easily, MP3 etc. ‘Pre-ruined’ music! That nearly meant the end of hi-fi as we know it.
PCs to play CDs
The only way to play digital music at the time was a CD player or some types of computer (or a portable toy for MP3). PC was a 48kHz environment, so fancy software was necessary to play even a 44.1kHz CD initially. But, there was scope to extend the playback capabilities at little real cost as a PCs did not have to follow the Red Book standard and could add sound cards with higher performance DACs.
On the odd occasion that a record company promoted an album using the high-res files, it was obvious how limiting 16 bits were.
Why use a PC for audio?
Well, there was a promise of using higher bit rates if one had access to high-res material. But, there was also a more tempting reason: multi-room. A PC could play several 16-bit/44.1kHz at once and using multi-channel PC cards, a generation of four-output CD-quality players was born into the new Home Automation market, all based on PC mainboards.
With such devices that were, of course, PCs in disguise, it was not difficult to start to play some of the high-res music if it became available using high-end sound cards. Record companies realised they could charge once again for music already purchased as CD, at a higher price and in many cases, to existing customers. The business case for high-res now looked good for the record industry.
PCs not the ideal architecture
It was realised that if Red Book or CD-quality files could be streamed from the storage PC or multi-room player (using server software) then there was an interesting possibility to create network connected players of good quality, without the undoubted compromise of the PC environment.
A CD played on a CD player was SO much better than on a PC, for obvious reasons that we now understand so well: noise, jitter, pollution and burst-data; really bad architecture for audio data.
Introducing the audiophile streamer
So, the concept of the audiophile streamer was born. Hi-res was easily incorporated and with a UPnP standardised server, control was easy. Sound cards in a PC gave way to USB-connected DACs, again capable of hi-res playback.
But, the potential sound quality for both of the evolutionary steps, USB DAC or streamer, would still be limited by the use of PC for storing data or playing into the USB DAC.
Streamers, of course, communicate and collect music files over the network, but there is a surprising basic limitation to sound quality from an unexpected source: the network itself. Unless using fancy managed switches, the streamer receives lots of unwanted data which has to be examined and rejected, impacting sound quality.
There is a more basic problem as well: audio, whether PCM or DSD, is put into packets for network transport. Those packets get lost sometimes and are resent late. As timing is of no importance to IT devices, the data switch does not worry about re-ordering the packets. An audiophile streamer receives data with missing packets and has to request a resend, as well as jumbled packets and unwanted packets. Sorting this out at the player end simply impacts sound quality.
Where Melco comes in
In the same way that you would never play a CD on a PC when you could use a CD player, it is not to be expected that hi-res will perform as it should when using PC or IT devices. So, we need a specialised hi-res digital music source to avoid any sound quality limitation due to PC or IT devices.
That source is Melco: combining music storage, playback of all hi-res files into a USB DAC without any sound quality compromises and serving hi-res music to network streamers over the network, again, without the compromise of PC or IT devices.
Melco performs all data management and connects to the network streamer directly: there’s no data switch to mess things up again. This even improves streaming services such as TIDAL and Qobuz that come from servers around the globe.
Melco is designed and built in Japan, a market that has the highest demands in terms of sound quality, of course, but also a market that is not especially comfortable with networks, IT devices and computers, due to Japan being a closed market at the time of Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum etc.
As a final point, we need to remember that PCs, which are not good for audio as we know, come in many disguises, often looking like hi-fi components.
Melco is really very simple to use. And it will even connect to a network streamer without any network! Or a DAC without any network. The benefits being extreme simplicity as well as no possibility of sound quality being influenced by anything else on the network.
Did you already know the history of digital music? Do you use a PC to play music files? Do you use a CD player at home? Let us know in the comments.
Where it all began
Digital music existed well before Compact Disc: it was not necessarily just Pulse-Code Modulation (PCM), there was Bitstream as well. PCM was originally in 48kHz (or multiples) sample rates and CD, or really the video forms of CD, meant that 44.1kHz was a better sample rate for global sales as it did not interfere with video data and had no real sound quality impact. Bitstream effectively became Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and Super Audio CD (SACD) was a close relative.
Back then, CD was 44.1kHz and the bit-depth was related to how much data could be stored using available technology. Philips were successfully pressing polycarbonate discs for LaserDisc and knew the possibilities and limitations of the process; this determined the dimensions, bit pattern on the CD and the size of the CD set the maximum data size, at around 650MB on a 12cm disc.
Why 12cm? The story goes that this was the size of the shirt pocket of Jan Timmer, Philips’ President at the time! The CD spec was written down and all manufacturers had to follow the standard (Red Book) precisely.
Realising the benefits of CD
Listening tests at the time, showed that this all worked out well: you got more playing time than an LP on a silver disc with a frequency response to 20kHz, plus reasonable resolution. When good, CD was excellent, but in the early days, that was quite rare.
Editing losses, at least 3 or 4 bits, meant that the studio recordings, if digital and not transferred from analogue (remember AAD and DDD?), needed to be at least 20 bits; 24 bits soon became the norm. So high-res audio is actually at least as old as CD!
Copy protection
There was no copy protection in these early formats (aside from SACD), so record companies nurtured the 24-bit or better and would not share with anyone to avoid piracy. The reverse actually happened: the record companies were obsessed with opening up the market with highly compressed data that took little space and could therefore be distributed easily, MP3 etc. ‘Pre-ruined’ music! That nearly meant the end of hi-fi as we know it.
PCs to play CDs
The only way to play digital music at the time was a CD player or some types of computer (or a portable toy for MP3). PC was a 48kHz environment, so fancy software was necessary to play even a 44.1kHz CD initially. But, there was scope to extend the playback capabilities at little real cost as a PCs did not have to follow the Red Book standard and could add sound cards with higher performance DACs.
On the odd occasion that a record company promoted an album using the high-res files, it was obvious how limiting 16 bits were.
Why use a PC for audio?
Well, there was a promise of using higher bit rates if one had access to high-res material. But, there was also a more tempting reason: multi-room. A PC could play several 16-bit/44.1kHz at once and using multi-channel PC cards, a generation of four-output CD-quality players was born into the new Home Automation market, all based on PC mainboards.
With such devices that were, of course, PCs in disguise, it was not difficult to start to play some of the high-res music if it became available using high-end sound cards. Record companies realised they could charge once again for music already purchased as CD, at a higher price and in many cases, to existing customers. The business case for high-res now looked good for the record industry.
PCs not the ideal architecture
It was realised that if Red Book or CD-quality files could be streamed from the storage PC or multi-room player (using server software) then there was an interesting possibility to create network connected players of good quality, without the undoubted compromise of the PC environment.
A CD played on a CD player was SO much better than on a PC, for obvious reasons that we now understand so well: noise, jitter, pollution and burst-data; really bad architecture for audio data.
Introducing the audiophile streamer
So, the concept of the audiophile streamer was born. Hi-res was easily incorporated and with a UPnP standardised server, control was easy. Sound cards in a PC gave way to USB-connected DACs, again capable of hi-res playback.
But, the potential sound quality for both of the evolutionary steps, USB DAC or streamer, would still be limited by the use of PC for storing data or playing into the USB DAC.
Streamers, of course, communicate and collect music files over the network, but there is a surprising basic limitation to sound quality from an unexpected source: the network itself. Unless using fancy managed switches, the streamer receives lots of unwanted data which has to be examined and rejected, impacting sound quality.
There is a more basic problem as well: audio, whether PCM or DSD, is put into packets for network transport. Those packets get lost sometimes and are resent late. As timing is of no importance to IT devices, the data switch does not worry about re-ordering the packets. An audiophile streamer receives data with missing packets and has to request a resend, as well as jumbled packets and unwanted packets. Sorting this out at the player end simply impacts sound quality.
Where Melco comes in
In the same way that you would never play a CD on a PC when you could use a CD player, it is not to be expected that hi-res will perform as it should when using PC or IT devices. So, we need a specialised hi-res digital music source to avoid any sound quality limitation due to PC or IT devices.
That source is Melco: combining music storage, playback of all hi-res files into a USB DAC without any sound quality compromises and serving hi-res music to network streamers over the network, again, without the compromise of PC or IT devices.
Melco performs all data management and connects to the network streamer directly: there’s no data switch to mess things up again. This even improves streaming services such as TIDAL and Qobuz that come from servers around the globe.
Melco is designed and built in Japan, a market that has the highest demands in terms of sound quality, of course, but also a market that is not especially comfortable with networks, IT devices and computers, due to Japan being a closed market at the time of Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum etc.
As a final point, we need to remember that PCs, which are not good for audio as we know, come in many disguises, often looking like hi-fi components.
Melco is really very simple to use. And it will even connect to a network streamer without any network! Or a DAC without any network. The benefits being extreme simplicity as well as no possibility of sound quality being influenced by anything else on the network.
Did you already know the history of digital music? Do you use a PC to play music files? Do you use a CD player at home? Let us know in the comments.
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