Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems G68 Digital Signal Handling

I just hooked a new CD player up to a G68 and noticed when the player is turned on or off, the 68 makes a clicking noise. Presumably, this is the digital signal being received by the G68 but what I was curious about is why the G68 doesn't make a clicking noise when the DVD player or DVD recorder I have hooked up to it are turned on. All components are connected with coaxial digital cables. Everything works fine so there doesn't seem to be a problem but I was just curious if anyone else had observed this or knew why it was.

What sort of clicking noise - mechanical like a relay? If so, the relay is used to ground the output when there is no input - this may be due to loss of digital lock, or sometimes if switching DSP mode.

It may be that your new CD player when turned on keeps the digital signal on and valid at all times, but the other ones only output a valid digital signal when they are playing things. Just a guess.

@number6.mi - Do you have any analogue speakers connected to the G68? As Ian says, the G68 has relays which cut in to protect such speakers from nasties when digital PCM/bitstream lock is lost. Many CD and DVD players do not handle silence well. i.e. They break the digital stream rather than passing digital (0) silence. The relays also click when a different DSP mode is selected.

Why not cycle through the displays to get the input format? It should show NL for sources that have shut off the output rather than send silence.

BTW - Having had a 518 driving a DAC and a power amp in the past, trust me - those relays clicking sound sweet. The alternative is a tweeter killing transient at the slew rate of your amps (or AA filter within the DAC). Remember the Linn advert that showed a crying woman with a tagline about feeling the emotion in the music? She was just technically minded and heard the same thing.

Thanks for the commentary. I do have analogue speakers hooked up. What surprises me is that when I have another source like a DVD playing and I turn on the CD player, the relays click even while the source that was on continues to play. I guess what's surprising is I assume this means it's recognizing receiving a new digital signal even though it's already receiving and playing another digital signal. Also, the relays never click as audibly with my DVD player or recorder. It seems to work fine and not a problem but I was just trying to figure out what it was technically doing.

When some sources "mute" they just continue sending digital silence while others might turn off the outputs or switch to another format with digital silence.

When in doubt the Meridian will mute. If it's just a change in "content" of the stream it won't.

It all depends on how the source behaves.

Remember that the G68 actually has the concept of playing three things at the same time - main, copy (zone 2) and zone 3. Could your "inactive" source be copied to another output zone by default?

Viruskiller, That was a pretty clever question. Zone 2 was switched on and when I turned it off, the relay stopped clicking when the CD player turns on. Cheers.

I was pretty pleased I thought of that myself!