Selected systems from Melco Audio now Roon Ready

It is now possible to use selected systems from Melco Audio directly via the software from Roon Labs LLC. as Roon Ready USB Transport, i.e. in combination with a DAC. This is made possible by a new firmware, which is now available for the Melco N10, Melco N100 and Melco N1EX systems.

The Japanese specialist for network and network storage solutions Buffalo Inc. has been very active in the multimedia sector for some time now. The company did not stop at optimising its IT solutions a little bit for the special needs in handling multimedia content, but rather conceived a special brand whose products were completely optimised for high-quality hi-fi systems. This is how the Melco Audio brand was created, even going back to the roots of the company.

Melco Audio has long been providing a wide range of systems that can perform a wide variety of tasks, because in many cases they are not just servers, but can also be used as streamers. It is therefore essential that selected solutions from Melco Audio are now Roon Ready.

It is done, now we can announce that selected solutions from Melco Audio are officially certified as so-called Roon Endpoint, when used as a player with a DAC.

According to Melco Audio, this applies to the following models: Melco N10, Melco N100 and Melco N1EX. According to Melco Audio, however, devices with firmware of v3.92 or below will require the EX update.

For use in conjunction with Roon, the latest firmware must then be installed, which is currently firmware v4.04. Exceptionally, this cannot be carried out directly on the device itself, but the corresponding data must first be loaded on the manufacturer’s website. Afterwards, the data can be transferred to a USB stick and the firmware update can be carried out directly on the device. A major update is expected in the course of the year, namely Firmware v4.10, which will of course include the Roon functionality and can be downloaded directly from the device as usual.

The company expressly points out that the systems will then actually only function as Roon Ready USB Transport. Even if the solutions are actually servers, they cannot function as Roon servers, the Roon Core cannot be installed here due to the ARM processors. It is of course possible to continue to use the stored audio data, but these will first be processed by the external Roon Core and then played back by the Melco Audio systems.

In addition, one has to decide whether to use Melco Audio’s solutions as a classic UPnP server or for playback via Roon. And you have to activate this in the settings, which is done in a few moments. The following steps have to be taken:

• Activate the Melco menu
• Switch to the item “Settings” (menu item 4)
• Select USB DAC settings (menu item 6)
• Change to the control modes (menu item 1)
• Activate the Roon Ready Mode (menu item 2).

To use volume control via Roon, the output must be set to “PCM Mode only”, since Roon can only change the volume of PCM signals.

Getting to the point

It is now possible to announce that selected solutions from Melco Audio are officially certified as Roon Endpoint, when used as a DAC, i.e. Roon Ready USB Transport. Even if they are storage solutions, they cannot function as Roon Servers, an external Roon Core is always required.