The Article

N50-S38 MUSIC SERVER FROM MELCO

21st March 2024

Arriving in a full-width chassis, Paul Rigby loads up a heap of music and spins up the N50’s SSD. Oh, hang on…

And that’s the delivery heart of the N50, the 3.48TB SSD hard disk. That capacity figure sounds a bit random doesn’t it? But the choice was apparently made because of size and sonic reasons.

Now I like SSDs. They are different to mechanical designs, sure. They rely on different tech, yes. They are not perfect, this is true. They – like mechanical designs – have their own issues.

Even so, SSDs are very much quieter than your mechanical box, (can be) faster, they are compact, rapidly coming down in price (I’ve been looking at an external 4TB model on Amazon here for under £200, as one tangential example) and provide relatively less vibration. They still vibrate on a micro level but the rate is – I would venture – reduced. So, with a bit of luck, that may help in sonic terms.

The full-width chassis of this music server resembles the N1A while the N50 itself sits in between the top end N1Z EX and the N10 models.

CHASSIS TOUR

Looking at the chassis, let’s nip around the back first shall we? You will see a meaty Neutrik housing for the USB port which does rather fill you with confidence, I must say. That’s the socket I used to connect my DAC. To the right is a USB 3.0 port to use as a further music source, USB Expansion port to expand the N38s storage capacity, USB Backup plus a LAN port to connect to your home network and another Ethernet port for an external network audio player or AV receiver. On the far right is an IEC power port.

On the front is a push-button power control, USB port for music-loaded USB sticks and the like, an output screen for music output information and to change the Settings and, to the right, button controls for the branching Settings menu. In use, this menu system is ‘fine’. As ‘fine’ as a button-controlled branching menu track can be. So, a little old fashioned and clunky then.

The N50 is Roon Ready and can be controlled via Twonky and Minim servers which offer plenty of tagging facilities. The fully-featured SongKong is also supported.

SOUND QUALITY

I began with my MacBook laptop as a Wi-Fi sound source, loaded up my Twonky Server then played Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff at 24bit/96kHz over my home network and through the Melco which played first time without any issues.

Sound was excellent…for a Wi-Fi source. It didn’t exactly have an expansive presentation. Space was a little constricted, the instrumental separation wasn’t noticeable at all and, in dynamic terms, it sounded a little dull. Saying that, I am being super critical here and that sense of restriction was wholly down to the Wi-Fi delivery system.

On a more general level, sound was perfectly acceptable. The mids were not bright, the bass wasn’t wooly, treble wasn’t pinched and actually, for Wi-Fi play? I’ve heard a lot worse, let me tell you. As a broadcast system? In tech terms? It worked like a dream.

WIRED CONNECTION

Playing music from the Melco itself and from its internal SSD? The wired connection – as opposed to the earlier wonky, Twonky Wi-Fi server – does help tremendously to lower high-frequency noise. So I played the same track via the internal Melco SSD and immediately appreciated the excellent instrumental separation from the Melco.

That was a stand out feature of the N50. The headline, you might say. The backing harmonies, for example, really did sound like a collection of voices instead of a sonic blob. The rhythm guitar sounds, organ and percussion all sat within their own space, with plenty of air sitting around each, adding a richness to the soundstage.

Bass was good, offering a reliable foundation to the track while the vocal was focused and provided enough clarity around the delivery so that lyrics were easy to follow.

CONCLUSION

Look, I have to ask this question about the Melco. What’s the point? What is the point of this thing? After all, all you’ve got here is an SSD disk full of music.connected to an interface wrapped in a metal box. You could grab a laptop, a separate SSD drive and basically run the same thing, couldn’t you? And if you want to be all audiophile about it and you worry about isolation like I do, then you could even fit a separate SSD drive. And you could put that SSD drive on isolation feet just to make sure. And you would still pay far less than the asking price of this expensive Melco.

So I did just that, I rigged up that very system. MacBook, an external SSD from Crucial, sat the drive on Stack Audio AUVA EQ feet and said to Bob, “One more time, please Bob.” So he did. Nice of him.

Next question then. How did the laptop sound in comparison to the Melco? From the laptop’s perspective? It was like listening to a really good portable FM radio. A top quality radio. And then comparing that to a quality HiFi system. The radio sounded very nice. But it just didn’t compare.

That was the laptop system versus the Melco.

MELCO VS LAPTOP

The soundstage from the Melco was twice as broad as the laptop system, the noise was way lower too and the midrange insight was superb. Those backing harmonies? They really did sound like a lump of Blu-tak from the laptop. They sounded fine. You could hear what they were singing sure, but the Melco gave each voice space and added personality to each.

So, for example, you could hear this voice stopping slightly early in the harmony, that voice adding a touch of extra vibrato…detail like that.

There’s an organ mooching in the background on this track. On the laptop system, the guy phone’s in his performance. It’s competent. It works fine. Does the job. But the Melco adds finesse. You can hear the organ softening at times as if the keys are not being pressed as hard, there’s more reverb so the organ floats further down the line of the song and the variation in texture of the organ is much higher than the laptop system.

This happens all over the place on this one song.

So yes, the laptop system is good. For many people, it’ll be the solution, the answer. For many, the laptop system will be all they need.

But if you have the budget, of course, and if you want to get closer to the original performance, hear nuance, detail and delicacy. If you want to step closer to the reality of the original performance. That is, if you care. Then grab the Melco.

MELCO N50-S38 MUSIC SERVER

Price: £4,999

Website: melco-audio.com/n50/

GOOD: lots of server options, connectivity, low noise, expansive soundstage, midrange detail

BAD: stodgy screen interface