Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems HD621 Does it support 4K?

No I have a Sony 4K server and have had it for about 18 months. Sony has 4K movies that you buy and download (about £15ea).
Trouble is the selection isn't great as it's only Sony stuff etc but still up until now it was the only way we could watch a 4K movie on our 4K PJ's and TV's.

I don't ever stream anything from the net as the quality just isn't good enough for me.

Sorry this is missing what I meant - that is all I would use the player for - however I wished I had bought an Audiocom upgraded Oppo over my Marantz.
I feel the benefits of good power supply, good clocks and rfi attention is just as important for digital as analgoue.
So if the Panny does have a torodial - proper power supply for sound quality it might be a keeper for those without HDR based PJ's

Other than that I would want all to go via the M kit for 100% sure lets hope the HD621 replacement has a torodial supply also [/quote]

I own the Audiocom modified Oppo 105D Signature.
It is visibly and audibly better than the stock version, even though i am just using the digital audio/video upgrades via the HD621/861, and my TV/Projector for movies.
The analogue XLR 2 channel sound quality of the 105D Signature, outperforms the XLR output on my old 861v4. So i connect my headphone amp to that.

That's not surprising and good to know - have you fed the 861 from the Audiocom Oppo via SPDIF into the 861?

Sorry this slightly off topic

FWIW, today, I had the opportunity to have a lengthy conversation with a John Lewis staffer and visiting Sony rep (who previously had worked for LG).

The JL staffer confirmed online reviews on the fragility of Samsung 4K panels, in that they were prone to cracking: not only on unpacking, but even once on the shop floor. Samsung ranked as their highest turnover for returned/faulty panels.

Both guys openly admitted to the fragility of both Korean brands compared to their Japanese rivals: this is because Sony and Panasonic include metal framing in their panels rather than relying wholely on plastic. The advice from both guys was to buy either Panasonic or Sony for their manufacturing quality and longevity.

Unfortunately, the latest Panasonic DX902 wasn't on display - although the magnificent Panasonic OLED was.

Or buy an LG OLED...mine has a metal frame

Rod

His advice was to buy Panasonic or Sony

The same advice was given by John Lewis.

The irony is only LG currently manufacture large screen OLED panels.
These are what Panasonic, and now Phillips, buy directly from LG, and then stick their own badge on them, and inflate the price

They just change the framework for their own design, and in Panasonic's case they use an improved video processing board to get even better picture quality from the same panel.

I upgraded from a 55" LG 1080P OLED to the newer generation 65" 4K OLED. Both are fantastic build quality. the 55" had carbon fibre back panel casework, which is stronger and lighter than any thin metal and plastic frame.

So seen as though most modern Bluray players such as Oppo, have dual HDMI output, simply use one for extracting audio via the HD621/861. The other goes directly to the display. So no need for HD621 to support 4K. Of more use is whether the HD621 can support HDMI2 and the new Atmos/DTS X sound formats, and convert them to PCM. Sadly it cannot.

Yes I have tried this for listening to 2 channel music. It sounds the same as routing via the HD621 which does the Apodising and FIFO buffering, instead of the 861 doing the apodising directly. The shorter path, lower jitter and ground isolation of direct optical connection to 861, instead of HDMI via HD621 to 861, did not make a difference to my ears.

The DAC and output stage in the analogue XLR output card of the 861v4 are beaten by the upgraded Oppo. It may be the other way round with a newer 861v6 or 8 analogue XLR output card?
But with the ultra low jitter and noise, in the Audiocom Oppo and all the other improvements, plus a better DAC chip, including separate PSU; it is probably unfair competition for the old v4 XLR analogue card.

However i may be upgrading to an even more superior external DAC to feed my Stax head amp, and Earspeakers. So this will also beat the DAC/analogue output stage built in the upgraded Oppo. Will be either an MSB or a lampizator external DAC.
Both these use discrete low noise super accurate ladder resistors to do the PCM D/A conversion, and do not use a DAC chip or op amps. It is all discrete components. Same ones as used in satellites, instrumentation, and military systems where accuracy is essential.

The reality is most DAC's are not ultra accurate. Modern Sigma Delta DACs use high speed mathematical guesswork, and need an accurate clock to keep jitter low.
Older more expensive to manufacture DAC chips from the 1980's/early 90's based on a Ladder resistor network were also not highly accurate, though they were very fast as no processing was involved, and they were not so dependent on clock accuracy (low jitter) to get a good sound.

What will be interesting is taking the apodised/FIFO buffered digital coax output from the tape/bypass out of the 861 and into the external DAC.