Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems G98 vs. BDP-LX52

If it's any use, I have compared CDs played on my low price (Panasonic BD35) Bluray via the HD621 with direct from G98 via SPDIF both into my G68.

IMO the G98 is better for music reproduction than the BD.

The situation is reversed for playing standard DVDs where the BD player is preferable for video. I can't tell about the film soundtracks.

Sadly I don't have experience on the HD621, but I hope I can add a little something to this interesting thread with my perspective on the lossless-v-lossy debate.

I'm using multi-channel analog to listen to lossless from my Sony 550: what I've found (on what I would call my entry-level high end system LOL ~ Does Denon THX qualify me at the bottom of the high end?) is that the best DD & DTS soundtracks continue to delight me, but that the better lossless soundtracks have an ease to them. They feel very organic. It is not night and day, but you can tell - even when you're not in Meridian land!

In a way I feel the same way about the picture - a well upscaled, top-notch DVD will make you forget you're not watching HD (I'm thinking here the big multi-disc versions of the Lord of the Rings, The Star Wars Trilogy, Pixar animations like Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life among others) but the step up to blu-ray brings an ease and authority and promotes a relaxation in the viewer like your brain doesn't have to work as hard at watching. I hate terminology like 'wow that really pops' as I don't want to be bludgeoned, I want to be seduced. And the best blu-ray is very seductive, IMHO.

I've tested a lot of Bluray players and owned the Pioneer LX51-FD before getting my Oppo. They all seem to perform equally well with Bluray disks over HDMI, but the differences in usability are enourmous.

The Pioneer I had was, as David2350 found with the 52, incredibly slow. I can't understand why the Open/Close button can't have it's own circuit to let it extend and take a disc while the operating system loads. The Oppo is a remarkable departure from the slowness of all the other machines I've tried bar the PS3 which I hear is also lightning quick. As usability is such a big factor in enjoying using your player I'm surprised that manufacturers have made such poor implementations of basic functionality. Even the big Denon DVD A1UD is slow. All the money there goes into video processing and the analogues and so you wait ages for the machine to start up, just like the cheaper players, and even then we put it last when we tested it!

For usability I don't think you can beat the Oppo at the moment. Multi-Region for Bluray as well as DVD, Universal disc playback, SACD, DVD-A, CD, DVD, BD and with DSD digital output for SACD it's a remarkable piece of kit. But really useful for me was the Yellow Button on the remote. It only works on DVDs but it's brilliant. You load a disc and as soon as it's spun up, hit the yellow button and the Oppo takes you straight to the start of the main feature on the disk. No menus, trailers, warnings - just the movie. Now that is what I call FAST! Why buy anything else?

Meridian have had that option for as long as I can remember.

Ian, the defeat user prohibitions only seems to work on R1 DVDs for me. Does it work on R2 for you?

Well I don't have a M spinner any more but I never had problems skipping adverts and 99% of my collection was R2 so I guess, yet it worked for me with R2 discs.

Moving to a non M spinner (Panasonic VHS/DVD recorder for family convenience), the long power up times (partly because I have turned into a skinflint and use power save mode) and being unable to skip the adverts (plus me never bothering to learn whether its the 'top menu' or just 'menu' that takes me to the play menu) are serious mood killers.

I can imagine that having to wait for Bluray to load is like having to put on a condom before sex.

Ian and/or Malcolm (or someone else), can one of you please inform me which button has to be pressed to skip the adverts/trailers on a DVD. I'm very interested in that possibillity. I do find it very annoying that the adverts/trailers can't be skipped. So I wait and wait and wait ... till this topic!
Thanks in advance, Paul.

If you have the OP Prohibition option set (or is it disabled?) in the hidden 96 menu then you can just press IIRC the chapter skip (or is it the menu button?) to skip each advert.

You need to do a search for "96 menu" to find out exactly which key combination is needed to bring it up (something like open DVD draw then press 9 then 6) although I think with G98 many of the 96 options also appeared in mconfig.

Sorry to be vague, but I no longer have a Meridian spinner and its the sort of thing you setup once then forget about it, which I conveniently have.

96 menu: http://www.meridianunplugged.com/wiki/index.php?pagename=MeridianDVD96Menu

Malcolm, R2 skipping the DVD crap works for me on my 598DP

After spending about an hour comparing the G98 and LX52 / HD621 as far as CDs are concerned, I have to say that I am extremely surprised. I had expected the G98 to outperform the LX52 in every respect but this was not the case. In fact, I found myself spending more time listening to the LX52. Whilst the differences were relatively minor, the LX52 did seem to provide a deeper base which meant that the sound was more balanced and engaging.

Whilst not easy to pin down, the way in which the music was portrayed differed slightly with the G98 and LX52. Neither were better or worse in this respect, just different.

Keep in mind that this is only my interpretation of the music and others may completely disagree!

I'll spend some more time on this over the weekend.

Regards

David

I'm not surprised. I've noticed a marked improvement in CD and Squeezebox replay via my HD621.