Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming 808.3 to 808.5 upgrade disabled digital output--is this normal?

When I had my upgrade to 808.5 done not long ago by my local Meridian dealer (who has, incidentally, since gone bankrupt and closed their doors), I was informed that the upgrade would necessarily disable the digital output. To be honest, I didn't think much of it at the time--after all, I had never used the digital out. But last night I wanted to test a DAC briefly, thought I'd just plug it into the digital coax output on my 808, and sure enough, it doesn't pass any signal.

So I'm really just asking for confirmation that this disabling was really a necessary part of the upgrade? I know for a fact that my upgrade was the first (and perhaps only) 808.5 upgrade that this dealer performed, so I don't have a huge amount of confidence that they knew what they were doing.

Thanks!

Did they take the card out? You should have a single coax SPDIF and twin SpeakerLink outputs for digital.

Definitely NOT necessary, the whole point about M's philosophy is going digital throughout.

No, they did NOT take the card out. And the coax is the only digital out that I tested so far--not sure I've got a SpeakerLink cable to even test with.

If this really wasn't "necessary", I'll go back to Meridian (somehow) and ask why it was disabled and if it can be retroactively fixed.

Thanks.

Does the 808.5 need configuring? It could be that they disabled it for whatever reason. Worth looking at MConfig?

I think I would re type it using Type 1. Page 32 of the user manual.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely check things out when I get home tonight. I did read through the manual pretty carefully and thought I checked all of the user configurable items, but I'll double check. I've always used Type 1 and am quite certain that I don't have variable output enabled for the analog outs, but it never hurts to reset things.

What I do seem to be hearing is that losing the digital output is not and was not necessary as part of the 808.5 upgrade--so, barring some configuration change that reinstates my digital output, my next step will be to contact Meridian, I guess.

Thanks again.

I am guessing that the unit was reset when it was upgraded and you were returned to default status which does not have all of the digital connections working.

The 808.5 user manual clearly says there are balanced and unbalanced analog outputs (of course), 2 channel digital coax output (SPDIF) and two 2-channel Meridian SpeakerLink outputs
(Optional MHR encryption on digital outputs at high rate).

Perhaps the MHR encryption is causing the DAC to silence itself?

I would also agree that a heavy perusal of the manual and a retyping is in order.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this -- out of town guests have been complicating life at home...

Anyway, I reset to Type 1 (though it appeared to be on Type 1 already, based on the way I read the instructions in the manual) and had no luck. I reset to all 4 types (1, 2, user 1, user 2) with no luck. I then located a SpeakerLink to XLR custom cable I had used successfully in a past configuration -- no luck.

I'm not trying to push through anything exotic, just CD output and/or the Sooloos output of the 808.5, so I'm inclined to think that the now-defunct dealer that did the .3 to .5 upgrade actually, somehow, disabled the digital outputs in the process. If I hook my Benchmark DAC up to either digital output, it clearly sees 'something' -- but I just get a flickering red incoming LED rather than the locked on solid red.

I appreciate the suggestions, and any more are welcome! My next step will probably be to try the next closest Meridian dealer to me or someone at the company itself, if I can find a contact there.

Thanks!

If I remember correctly 808.3 to 808.5 included ID40 to ID41 card swap. I could be wrong but card must have been removed and replaced. You should have also been left with ID40 Card, SMPS and redundant rear panels.
This sounds very odd to me.
Hector

Have you switched MHR off in config? MHR encryption will stop any non Meridian DAC from using the signal (sorry if you know this already).

Believe me, I'm taking nothing for granted here, including my own stupidity. So I'll doublecheck the MHR encryption in setup. Thanks for the suggestion!