The Melco N50 S38 Digital Music Library – Store, Play & Stream – upgrading from an N100

A customer recently got in touch about upgrading his Melco N100, he had owned this for a couple of years and since then his system has grown and the N100 had become arguably the weakest link in his system. He added a Plixir Elite Power Supply to the N100 which always serves as a great addition, but he was curious about what a potential Melco upgrade would bring to his system

Based on the customers system and budget the N50-S38 was the obvious model for him to look at, his N100 has a 2TB HDD and there was plenty of music stored on there so maintaining storage was critical as well as improving the actual performance.

The N50 looks identical to Melco’s first ever model, the N1A, which launched around 8 years ago. The N1A was a very functional looking product and when you put an N50 next to an pre-owned N1A today you can’t tell them apart. The original N1A served as a superb introduction to Melco for many customers and it was a very popular product.

Fast forward to today the N100 is Melco’s entry level model, above that is the N50 and there are 2 versions of it available, the N50 H60 which has a 6TB mechanical HDD (priced at £2999), this uses a single HDD as opposed to the 2 drives that the N1A used. The second version of the N50 is called the S38, this uses a 3.84TB SSD for storage, the same drive that Melco use in their flagship N1, it is housed in a proprietary anti-vibration cradle, the N50-S38 is priced at £4999 so it occupies similar territory to another older model, the N1ZH.

These 2 models are identical to one another other than the hard drives, the 3.84TB SSD was a drive specifically selected by Melco for several reasons, performance and reliability were the key criteria, but importantly it is a drive which allows Melco access into the operating system of the drive so Melco can control a number of key parameters within the drive to maximise the performance from it.

Both N50 models have 4 rear USB ports, (1 dedicated for a DAC, 1 for back up, 1 for expansion and 1 for importing or ripping), there is 1 further socket on the front panel, there are 2 ethernet sockets on the rear also. One for connecting to your network labelled LAN, the second port is the Player Port which is dedicated for connecting to a Network Streamer such as a Linn or Naim.

Sonically both N50’s are excellent, the H60 is a sensible upgrade over the original N1A and an N100, but when you compare the H60 to the S38, even on a relatively modest system the S38 pulls ahead quite dramatically. It has greater resolution, improved weight, greater scale and the presentation has more immediacy and vigour as well. Comparing the 2 N50 models together never takes long to be fair – most people can hear its impact immediately, it is very un-digital in the way it presents the music. I would even go as far to say that an N50 S38 outperforms the older outgoing N1ZH.

Since the launch of the N50 I’ve spoken to a number of customers who have assumed that the N50 models are simply an N1A with different hard drives fitted them, whilst they share the casework and display, the N1A and N50 are completely different designs internally, different mainboards, different power supplies, literally nothing is shared between them and when you listen to them it is really easy to hear it too, especially with the S38.

As with all of the Melco models integrating them into a system is pretty straightforward, you can connect to a USB DAC (the most common method in my experience) or to a Network Streamer via the Player Port. Roon users also have the option run any current model Melco as a Roon Endpoint (via a USB DAC). When connected to a USB DAC any Melco will stream from both Tidal and Qobuz as well as serving files stored on the internal hard drive and they work brilliantly as a streaming device.

After several discussions with this customer about his N100 and the various options for his system we decided that the N50-S38 was the most appropriate product for his requirements, a home loan ensued so he could put it through its paces in his system and it didn’t take long for the customer to know this was the right upgrade for him……

“I’m thrilled – it’s a superb upgrade over the N100/Plixir. I was immediately struck by the much greater scale, authority and gravitas  to the sound. Images are now truly life-size in front of me – something I’ve never really experienced before, even with my Klipsch Forte III’s which are large and certainly never sounded small. The sound is rock-solid and incredibly lifelike.

Rhythm and timing are now far more sure-footed, with excellent drive. The sound is far more relaxed and natural without any sense of being forced. There is now what appears to be a complete absence of digital artefacts such as hardness, edginess and glare. One sees much further into the music, with detail, pitch of notes and musical interplay and phrasing being far more coherent and explicit than before, but all in a completely natural and un-forced way which is just lovely. Dynamics are much more expressive. Transient slam is superb yet conversely there remains a lovely sense of delicacy when needed.”

Some great feedback from a very happy customer, he traded in his N100 which is for sale on my pre-owned page. We keep the whole Melco range on demonstration and are one of the longest established and experienced dealer in the UK, demonstrations are no issue as are part exchange, if you have any Melco related questions please get in touch