Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Launch date for 818v3 ?

Even if MQA wouldn't take off, upgrading to 818.3 means playing native DSD or DXD in high bitrate with DoP.

Actually I was expecting a bigger wow factor than what I experienced. Let me explain before anyone jumps to conclusions.

One other gentleman and I were the only two in the first demo session. After hearing the first couple of tracks I questioned the speaker set-up. I was basically hearing the sound emanating from the two speakers and not imaged between the two speakers. He indicated that the demo space was set-up expecting a larger group so the speakers were crossing ahead of our seating position. I have only heard 8000 series speakers a couple of times and they were set-up up much better in a different room.

As he progressed thru the different demo tracks I heard some that were very, very impressive including Roberta Flacks's "Killing Me Softly" which sounded so much better than any version I had ever heard, even considering the speaker set-up.

So I have come to no conclusion on MQA. I need to hear it in a more familiar set-up where I can compare it against Redbook versions. I believe it has the potential to give us great sound but if all we get is re-relases on old music, It won't interest me.

Back to the forthcoming 818v3/808v6, I spoke to Meridian just now and it is in final testing. Things took longer than expected, as sometimes happens.

They wouldn't commit to a release date but they are working as hard as they can on delivering.

The spec remains the same as in the January data sheet (as expanded by John Buchanan's info that DSD would be supported, as DoP via USB).

Does "via USB" imply that DSD (DoP) not supported via ID41 on 808.6 and 818.3?

I sincerely hope not.

No, it doesn't imply that.

Referring to John Buchanan's post here my understanding is that all Sooloos systems will be able to stream from DSD files. I use that wording to mean that you can store DSD files in Sooloos and stream to any Meridian endpoint. However, at what point DSD gets converted to PCM is unknown and we just have to see. The answer may be different for different endpoints.

What is clear though is that you can plug a computer into an 818v3 via USB and stream DSD to it without a Sooloos system being involved at all.

Bearing in mind that "standard rate" 64FS DSD requires 176k PCM in DoP form, this leads to a couple of questions:

1) Can (and will) 4x rate PCM (176k and 192k) be streamed to the ID41 in the 818v3 and be passed to the new digital decoding card?

2) (If not) what is the audio compromise in performing DSD to MQA conversion in the Sooloos core (presumably on-the-fly) vs. using the raw DSD bits via DoP and the USB input?

Note that 128FS DSD requires either double the DoP PCM rate vs. 64FS DSD, or needs to use a different method of packing to fit it into 176k PCM.

See the DoP open standard document.

8x DSD and DXD is mentioned in J. Buchanans post via MQA...

8x sample rates, not 8x DSD. 8x sample rates = 352kHz and 384kHz PCM. DXD = 352/24 PCM.

The latest spec, including the DSD aspects, is available on the web. I wonder if the imminent release date implies anything about the MQA launch date?

Which spec? Which web?

Just cancelled the order for my 818v3.

They are only preliminary specs, most just copied from 818v2.
under NDA so I can`t say more.

In norewgian

PerS