Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems UHD722 Obsolete?

To get the best audio into the 861 should I connect the optical from the Vertex2 or connect an HDMI from the Vertex2 to a HD621 and then MMHR to the 861?

HDMI

That is such a clumsy way to get modern audio formats into the 861 - using the HD621 just for MMHR audio out...

Does anyone know if Meridian plans to produce an 861v8 input card with HDMI? It sounds like it would be a quite simple and very useful card - I bet anyone who owns an 861 would get their credit card out straight away! I for sure would.

Hi Dgerol,

Unfortunately HDMI is not simple, but the main reason Meridian went for an external device was to avoid injecting HF noise into the internals of the 861's case to the detriment of SQ.

That said, I do feel the UHD722 (and to a degree the HD621) are missing some functionality ... such as internal decoding of the Dolby Digital / DTS and their more recent variants (including Atmos) upto 8 channel PCM to feed the 861.

Regards,
Carl

What would providing the "internal decoding of the Dolby Digital / DTS..." have done to cost and upgradability to serve what proportion of the UHD722 target market?

Would it have been trivial, or would it have significantly added to the cost for a majority who may not have needed it. I'm not being argumentative or provocative; I'm curious and not qualified to answer my own question.

Such a capability would have allowed the decoded multi-channel signal to be upsampled either in the HD621/UHD722 and/or upsampled in the downstream SSP. This might have provided a more or less marginal improvement in SQ.

As to your other questions, I too am unqualified to comment.

Hi Richard,

Gianni coved the DD/DTS part ... which as the 861 can already decoded is really about a potential SQ increase but is lossy anyway so it likely to be marginal.
It was more the support for the new codecs which unless the source device can decode them the to PCM we can utilise the streams with Meridian equipment.

Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) also known as Enhanced AC-3DD+ that is popular on streaming video boxes and many of those boxes don't support vanila DD ... which is a problem for Meridian.

And even more so with Atmos, I have Sky-Q the best SQ from it is with Atmos enabled however I can't use so have to fall back to plain old DD, which hurts.

As for costs, no idea, but the UHD722 is not inexpensive ... I've always felt it (and it's predecessor the HD621) have missed some significant use cases.

Regards,
Carl

The UHD722 is now obsolete as it can't do HDMI 2.1 and there are now sources and devices that use it.

The UHD722 and HD622 are also obsolete in the sense that, since the transition to streaming provisioning of content, and that content is DD+ or DD+Atmos, which these devices cannot handle. The problem is that almost all the streaming devices (with the exception of the Apple TV 4k) do not decode this content, because they (utterly reasonably) expect the AVR to do the decoding. But neither the UHD722, HD621 or even a $20,000 861v8 can do what a $250 Yamaha AVR can do. While DD+ is still compressed, it's compressed less.

With regard to the XBox, I strongly recommend getting it to output LPCM. (I assume it can do so - I have a PS4 and it can). The difference between 5.1 DD or DTS and 5.1 LPCM is stunning.

I have used an HDFury Vertex 2, and it was unable to handle 4k60 HDR from my PS4 without black screens of several seconds every few minutes. I spent several hundred dollars just on HDMI cables, including the ones recommended by their support team. I do not have this problem with my UHD722 and PS4.

But I do have a similar problem with, of all things, the only device that can decode DD+ into LPCM, the Apple TV, quite often shows a black screen, and the Apple TV or the UHD722 need to be rebooted.

I am seriously considering the Marantz + analog + 271 TBH, or maybe even Marantz + analog + Dante.

Does Meridian even employ any audio engineers anymore to undertake such a task? What was the last significant product it produced? The UltraDac? How long ago was that? Apart from some re-vamped in-wall speakers it seems to be rather moribund these days. I hope I am not being unfair.

"Significant" is in the eye of the beholder. If you mean "retail products that Meridian of olde might have produced for traditional HiFi customers" then the answer is probably zero. Meridian would say that every new product that they have developed for the CI market since the departure of Bob, Richard, and most of the DSP team, is "significant" and important in their portfolio.

Yes I would definitely agree the Meridian lineup is now largely outdated as far as their traditional customers go.
The products are great for what they do but outdated.

Where is the modern Surround Processor? Where's the HDMI 2.1 switch? The DSP speakers are ancient now despite refreshes (very good though).
It's sad to see.

I hate to switch to something not Meridian so I just hang on to what I have. When I switch more or less everything needs to be replaced, so I just wait ...

Yep, it looks like a lot of second-hand HD621s will be bought soon to go down what I called earlier the "clumsy" route to get audio into their 861 - especially now that the new Apple TV 4K supports DD+ and Atmos. The newest audio formats seem to have adopted HDMI 2.1 as the necessary replacement for SPDIF and without HDMI 2.1 support natively into the 861, I can't see any other way. If someone has a better idea I would love to know!

It is so much cheaper just to get a HD621 for the audio only then refresh everything I have that is Meridaian - I've been a loyal customer for over 20 years, and am also sad to see the lack of focus on modern audio formats. MInd you, my ears are 20 years older too so I'm not sure I would benefit from having them either... ;-)