Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems CD jukebox to conect with Meridian 568 needed

All,
I am looking for advice and recommendations on a top quality CD jukebox to connect to my 568. I really like the convenience of having all of my CD's loaded and ready to use.

Anyone have any good or bad experience with CD jukeboxes connected to Meridian processors?

Thanks much in advance!

Al

I run a couple of Sony CD-XP 450 mega changers through the optical inputs of my 861. The only drawback to using the optical connections (there are no coax outputs, though convertors are relatively cheap) is that the two changers can't control each other (that requires an analog pass through from one to the other, which sucks (not that I've even bothered trying Sony's DACs)).

As for my experiences with them, the fact that I own two is due to the fact that I bought one, loved it so much, I bought another (as I suddenly started buying CDs again and filled the first one up). You won't look back from having all your music ready to go.

Typing all the CD title and artist names in is quite a pain (even with a keyboard). However for the terminally lazy a company called Nirvis (www.nirvis.com) make a nice controller for all Sony S-Link equipment. This can enter the names in from CDDB amongst a wealth of other features.

TomO

Although I have a few CD jukeboxes, I'm in the process of switching to a hard disk "jukebox". Right now I'm in the middle of ripping all my CD's to .WAV files. It takes a lot of room, but disk space is cheap. When I'm done, I'll have improved usability (speed) and possibly greater reliability, plus the ability to do multi-zone output if I wish. There are a number of units that do this, but I'm using the one from Lansonic.

I'm still keeping a changer around to handle 96/24 and SACD discs.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I would love to hear what you think of the hard disk solution from Lansonic after it is done Chris. Especially how the audio quality is. It would be very nice to free up all of my CD's!

TomO, have you found any irritating hi-frequincy sounds on the edges? I was told by a friend that some of the CD jukeboxes when played with Meridian had been fatiguing to listen to for long term play. Let me know.

Thanks again.

Al

[This message has been edited by Al (edited 10-28-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Al (edited 10-28-2001).]

I use 3 Sony CDP-XP 450 changers controlled by an Escient Tunebase 100 (http://www.escientconvergence.com/tb100.htm) and switched by the Nirvis DXS switch (http://www.nirvis.com/dxs.htm).

The DXS switch is pretty neat for switching digital sources. All the changers are digitally connected to it and the most recent source routed to its outputs, so it gets over the analogue pass through problem. It is also powerful enough to drive long lengths of coax, the jukebox is in my loft, about a 25m run away from the Meridian kit.

I'm really happy with it. The sound quality is great (probably because the Meridian kit is excellent at cleaning up the signal). The Escient unit really makes navigation of an entire collection simple.

I chose this solution over Hard Disk based units as I didn't want compressed audio plus I figured that given it takes 20 mins to rip a CD, working 8 hrs a day at weekends and 2 hours a night during the week it would take me nearly 4 months to rip my collection of 1200 cds. The advice from my dealer on this point was to hire a student to do it!

You could still add a CD writer to the set up if you needed to make occaisional copies for the car etc.

I've never noticed anything like that. In comparison to my other CD playing devices, via digital output, the sound quality is pretty much on a par (though no serious tests done on this). I also agree with Tim that the Meridian does a fantastic job cleaning up the digital signal.

As for your second question, my personal best for listening to music from the jukeboxes is about 10 hours. However it would be unfair to comment on the level of fatigue I was feeling because I was revising for a professional exam... Never noticed any fatigue when just listening for 3 or 4 hours.

TomO

Thanks,

TomO and Tim Cartledge

excellent links,
personally no problem with my sony CDP CX 450,but with my digital satreceiver(european sat)