Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian Triple FIFO Buffering

I noticed my 861 and HD621 support Triple Fifo Buffering which apparently reduces jitter timing errors which severely affect sound quality.

However products lower down the range such as MC200 and Explorer2, only support Apodising, and not also Triple Fifo Buffering.

Many manufacturers charge expensive premiums for super accurate clocks with as low as 30 Picoseconds accuracy currently.
However does the Triple fifo buffering eliminate the need for super accurate clocks in source equipment?

Can a cheap digital source such as a CD/Bluray player with HDMI output with standard clocks and the associated high jitter timing errors be magically tidied up and rectified when fed through the Meridian buffering?
Thus negating need for an expensive digital source which includes a very accurate clock system and high spec low noise fast power supply.

If my understanding is correct, the FIFO buffer is on the SPDIF input side, hence would be listed for devices with an input only (so appears on speakers datasheets as well - i.e. DSP3200)

Being USB output devices, MC200 audio board and Explorer2 wouldn't be using an SPDIF input buffer

Matt.

ok, but the MC200 is Coax digital output (SPDIF), and not USB.
I am even more confused now

MC200 SPDIF is output not input.

You want the buffering on whatever MC200 is connected to, not the MC200 itself.

The HD621 supports FIFO Buffering and that includes Coax SPDIF output. But there is no Coax input. So it cant only be for SPDIF inputs.

Input on HD621 is HDMI only, so is it applying the buffering to the HDMI input?

Cut and paste from the:
You can't buffer outputs at the output stage (from a data point of view, not electrical).

The MC200 and Explorer are:
A: Output devices
B: Input to both is USB (the MC200 is a USB audio board and minature computer) - USB will have its own way of dealing with data.

Ok thanks.

I though I noticed there is no USB input on the MC200.
Is it a Sooloos network cable connection only?

Trying to break this down as simple as possible:

The MC200 is a box
It has a computer in it
The computer has a custom Meridian audio board attached inside the box via USB

The audio board is inside the MC200
The audio board has USB input.

The audio board inside the MC200 is 'like' the Explorer, hence the same lack of FIFO on the data sheets.

There is a picture of the insides on Duncan's site if that makes it easier.

Yes I understand thanks. I am a software engineer

I was just pointing out that externally it is a network connection to interface with the Sooloos software, and the output includes digital SPDIF.

It is basically a mini PC running Linux with an audio board, probably an explorer1, attached.

To answer the original question - in theory yes, on the proviso that the jitter is not so severe to negate bit perfect transmission.

ok thanks for confirming this.
I note it says in the brochure for the 861 v6/8 there is a 40% improvement in accuracy of the master clock to reduce jitter.
I assume therefore that on the 861v4 the clock is 40% worse jitter.

Wonder if the 40% improvement applies to my HD621?
If so then it would be negated by the less accurate clock in the 861v4.

So i guess the fifo memory buffering is still limited by the accuracy of the master clock?

Hopefully the clock in a future 861 (v9/10?) will be even better still.
I think in the industry they have got down to around 30 pico second clock accuracy.

but can you hear jitter below 30ns?