Daniel J SaitMelco, the audiophile division of Japanese computer peripheral company Buffalo Technology, has announced the launch of its Digital Music Library range with its first two products – the N1A and N1Z.
Featuring audiophile-grade components and construction combined with the company’s own data transfer and protection software that requires no network setup.
Melco Music Libraries (MML) are billed as the first dedicated music storage solutions for installations requiring safe and protected storage of music files and playback at the highest possible quality.
The maker argues installations generally require centralised media distribution to multiple players around the property.
For Video, there are special issues relating to the protection of intellectual property requiring HDMI or other solutions through Matrix switches, whereas audio is generally much simpler and many solutions exist using IP distribution based on UPnP DLNA or possibly proprietary systems in order to achieve scalability or synchronisation.
Common to all these solutions is the requirements for reliable centralised storage of music.
Melco says practice has been to use IT Industry NAS drives for music storage, but there are risks due to what the company describes as the unsatisfactory and unreliable nature of these products for long term installation without backup UPS and regular maintenance.
Melco argues the solution is its purpose designed network music storage system which offers a reliable solution even in event of unplanned power failures, a well suited 43cm form factor with robust metal case and included power supply.
The unit also has simple configuration using front panel OLED display and uses an internal (RAID1) or external backup with minimal configuration.
Expansion is also described as easy with no configuration, with several options for transfer (UBS stick, USB3 or network) or loading music including integrated High Res download services.
The concept also offers heavy duty UPnP server to deliver a user experience in many rooms and dual Gigabit Ethernet connections.
The system connects to a main Hi-Fi without any data switch or network setup for optimum sound quality.
The set-up also delivers a user interface that interacts with the streaming player control point or systems integration interface, offering a detailed navigation tree, with folders at the top level including formats and sample rate as display fields if required.