The new black N10 and N100 will join the existing full-width N1A, N1Z and N1H audiophile digital music libraries, which are already available in both silver and black finishes.  

The black option also extends to the D100 audiophile CD loader/transport and the E100 3TB audiophile digital storage drive.

Check out our N100 and D100 Review Now!

Melco Intelligent Music Library

Also launching at the Munich show was the Melco Intelligent Music Library. The new music software combines the SongKong for Melco metadata engine with the MinimServier UPnP software to enable you to find music on your servers much more natural than before.

MinimServer, SongKong and Melco together, are (for the first time) able to integrate the full functionality of a powerful metadata engine that delivers in-depth and accurate metadata to a very versatile UPnP server pre-configured to know what metadata to expect.

The result is precise, speedy and straightforward browsing, search and play, even with extensive collections of varied genres. Furthermore, the performance is independent of which control point app, network player or connected USB DAC is used.

By carefully tuning SongKong to deliver precisely the metadata set that MinimServer requires to provide the search functionality, Melco Intelligent Music Library has made it possible to break away from the notion of an ‘album’.

Many CDs or sets of imported music, especially classical, are not really ‘albums’ but collections of songs or works. Conventionally, browsing for a whole album is easy but finding the constituent elements or works becomes very difficult without Melco Intelligent Music Library; multi-disc sets or compilations, for example, fail to browse correctly if treated as albums.

The level of integration to create the Melco Intelligent Music Library suite has only been made possible due to the time-proven MinimServer and SongKong applications. Melco Intelligent Music Library unites the specialist, highly customisable UPnP server abilities of MinimServer with Intelligent Browsing, with the accurate metadata implementation that SongKong is renowned. The new system automatically senses whether each CD or download is classical or not and returns searches based on works (if necessary) rather than albums; unless albums were requested.

Thanks to ‘Profiles’ you can tailor your browsing experience based on the main types of music searches – rock and pop, jazz and classical etc.

Daniel Raggett, Melco Business Development Manager, told StereoNET:

Finding CDs on the shelf was always easy and has never been replicated on a music server until now with the Melco Intelligent Music Library. However, sometimes finding the right CD on a shelf was tricky with CD so often an assembly of various pieces of music; remembering what is where is not so simple. So now Melco Intelligent Music Library with MinimServer Intelligent Browsing incorporated is even better than finding CDs on a shelf, as the browser is automatically optimised based on the type of music. And based on the deep metadata of SongKong, MinimServer will present an accurate and logical browse tree whatever the control device or player. Easier than finding music hidden with a CD on a shelf? – I really think so. Now, there is no going back to the old days of inconsistent metadata and confusing browse algorithms. A fine-sounding music archive is not a lot of use if you can’t find the music that you know is in there, somewhere.