And there is another thing I'm allowed to reveal: A considerable amount of time during Alan's visit was spent trying out the 'Melco HD' app! The beta version we played around with already includes all functions and features to conveniently control the Melco, wether that means sending out data through the ethernet port (and to the attached Aries bridge in my setup) or through the USB port into a DAC directly. Some early images also prove that the graphical interface will be superb. This proves that Melco is keeping their promises made when first introducing their Digital Music Libraries – the Melco machines will indeed evolve from being well-equipped audiophile network storage devices and become fully fledged music streamers. It's a shame that Alan insisted on taking his iPad with the app's beta version on it with him when he left ...

I admit, when I first laid hands on the N1ZS I wanted to have one, not the least because of its beautiful build quality. But, alas, even a stripped down selection of my music library without the recordings from which I took the free sample downloads available on hifistatement.net is already larger than 1 TB. So the N1ZS can't be my choice for storing my digital music. All the more reason for me to be eager to try out the N1ZH60. First of all, I downloaded and installed version 3.11 of the Melco software – the manufacturer has issued a warning not to use version 3.10 due to a technical problem – and transferred around one TB of music from my Western Digital NAS. The same music and software version were already waiting on my N1A, ready to be compared to the newer model. During my first round of listening tests I used either of the Melcos with the the router connected via a Cardas cable and the Auralic Aries Femto connected to the Melco's dedicated 'Player' port via an Audioquest Diamond ethernet cable. I used the Aries with software version 3.3 instead of the pre-release 4.0 version as with that the Aries would have cached all incoming audio data before rendering, thus making it potentially impossible to analyze any differences between the two sources.

With Arild Andersen's 'If You Look' the N1ZH60 managed to render the metal percussion somewhat more brilliantly, offered more depth as well as detail and made the kettledrums sound even more ominous. In absolute terms, these differences were about as significant as you would get switching from an okay USB or ethernet cable to an excellent one. But considering the very high level of performance that we are talking here, these improvements are still very impressive. The music I use for listening tests has a focus on dynamics, depth-of-field and richness of detail and the N1ZH60 had to offer just that little bit more in all these areas. Although this certainly means that listening to music is more fun it is not really hard to go back to the 'smaller' N1A. Without a direct comparison to its 'larger' sibbling you will not miss a thing.