Alan Ainslie, Melco's General Manager for Europe, sums up the special features of the S100 as follows:

• The fundamental secret of the S100's sonic performance is its architecture.
• Connections 1 to 4 work with 100 megabits: they always sound better than those with 1 gigabit, even if you wouldn't change anything else.
• The clock is not important, provided it's not really bad.
• What’s important is the way the data packets are processed internally in the S100.
• Melco has succeeded in carefully identifying the audio packets and optimizing the quality of service (QoS) for ports 1 to 4 for providing connectivity to network players and streamers.
• Some applications, such as a Roon Core, require more than 100 megabits of capacity, and that's why the S100 also has a section that carefully manages audio packets in a 1-gigabit environment. This avoids losses in sound quality that are otherwise normal with a Roon Core.
• The mechanical design is also crucial to the performance of the switch. This had been already experienced during the development of IT switches.
• Switches react very sensitively to the power supply. The S100 therefore features internally several low-noise controllers and a bank of audio-quality capacitors. Nevertheless, improvements are still possible with SBooster or Plixir linear power supplies.
• Routers are anything but audiophile. Therefore a router should be connected to ports 5 to 8. Melco has found some clever solutions to improve the sound quality of connected cloud servers like TIDAL on the further signal path.
• Routers are usually supplied by internet providers and are optimized for video streaming, as the providers also generate revenue from this. Melco therefore improves the audio performance of the switch by using a massive packet buffer of 1.5 megabit.
• The two optical SFP inputs are future-proof and constitute another big step forward in the use of media converters. Simon Nash, the designer of the MinimServer is an expert on this. I am still learning from him.
• For best sound performance, all indicator lights on the ports can be disabled.

Mika Dauphin, the director of „Drei H Vertriebs GmbH“, which handles the Melco distribution in Germany, sent me an S100 and would have also added a 12-volt SBooster linear power supply, but I am already using one in my listening room with our editorial ripping machine. He also asked me to have the new switch burnt-in for a few days before any critical appraisal – a request that would probably have caused headshaking or amusement ten years ago, but which I am happy to comply with today. To perform this, I simply implemented the Melco with the included switching power supply instead of the SOtM switch and let it run continuously for a few days. I noticed that the Melco's LAN sockets are positioned much closer together than those of the SOtM: With these four connectors, only two of my currently preferred Goebel Lacorde Statement LAN cables can be connected . But that's fair enough: The router is connected to one of the 1-gigabit ports and the cables coming from the Melco N1Z H60/2 and the Auralic G1 to two of the 100 megabit ports.