Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Why has the Meridian Music Server die?

This topic was presented as a side note in the early F80 discussions (http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=15542773) but out of curiosity, does anyone know why Meridian shelved the 880 music server?
And a more general question:
If, just for speculation, instead of a DVD-Rom Drive only, the G08 would have had a 500GB Hard-drive and the digital info would have been sent from the HD to buffering and than the DACs, would the existence of the Hard Drive deteriorate sound quality? (by adding noise/jitter)
If not why do you think Meridian is not interested in enhancing the existing players to include digital input of some kind and an option for storing media like CDs, DVDs, web downloaded media files (PCM or MP3)?

Thanks,

Doron

I hope they shelved it for the right reasons, which are that there is no place for M special sauce in the server end of the system unless they went the whole way and did a Kaleidescape (which is a different proposition from the 880 idea but would fit well with their current apparent focus on custom installs over standalone units). For a standalone server, it's far better dealt with using a commodity PC or NAS unit talking over ethernet or wireless to...

...the place where M can do something really special and where this board has been making noise about for some time now, which is a G-series front end media receiver which could talk to multiple flavours of back end, eg uPnP, Squeezebox, itunes.

My hypothesis is that approximately zero people would buy an M server, whereas they wouldn't be able to make media receivers fast enough.

Regards

Mark

But if this is the case why would anyone in his right mind, buy any Meridian spinner, G08 or else? (even not a used one).
I think people buy M spinners for the M magical sound quality they provide.
CDP sales are in decline in the non-audiophile market but who would have bought G08 at $4,000 to begin with? The average Joe or some "crazy" audiophile like us?
Who buys F80 at $3,000?
Now if the G08 had a hard drive to store your CDs and digital input to accept some other sources and a USB to be able to communicate with a computer/download files from the internet would people not buy it? (if it would not cost $17,000 like the 880 was supposed to).
Is that what you refer to as a Media Receiver (like Slim Devices Transporter for instance?) as opposed to a Music Server?

Cheers,

Doron

Over 2,500 people so far...

No I don't think many people would buy a G08 with HDD. It's just not as good a solution for digital media as a PC/NAS network setup. By Media Receiver yes I am talking about a Meridian equivalent of a Squeezebox.

Regards

Mark

I agree. Meridian is not (and should not be IMO) in the business of data storage.

I personally think that there is a benefit for M producing a server - it makes client / server integration better and more reliable - just look at the issues affecting DLNA servers with various clients. I do think that the use of external discs should be the users choice - USB, NAS etc.

The killer app for me would be a HD-DVD/blue-ray player that would RIP (encrypted?) music/videos to external USB/NAS discs (in a variety of formats including MLP) and play them back. There would also be room for a client for use in other rooms although a client in a �1000 G series case would seem somewhat extreme.

No more so than a Transporter...

IMHO M would be best served now by some sort of partnership with K to store DVD-A and (gasp!) SACD and perhaps build a dedicated player with the proprietary MHR digital outs or standard analog outs- M could lend its seal of approval on the player end. Since K uses Faroudja deinterlacing in its players already there might be a chance of something like this though I agree that I am simply making it up out of my bottom right now!

best regards,
Jerry

I will eat my hat if Meridian ever "approves" another manufacturer's player for integration into a Meridian system. The Meridian way is in-house, slow and as near to perfect as possible.

In general, I don't think M is really into partnerships, at least not partnerships where the partner is doing something that M could do itself. (Ferrari did composite materials on the F80 so that didn't cross into M "territory"). I have my doubts on the Faroudja thing, but only M management really knows how well or badly that has gone.

And maybe M realizes that, actually, the majority of those who are into streaming audio are quite happy with their Squeezeboxes and Sonos clients so the market is fairly limited? Just speculating...

Personally, I'm still puzzled by the G68 USB input. Great if you have a HTPC though.

I fairly puzzled too about that. I'm not sure I agree that being happy with a Sonos or SB3 means that the market is limited. If so, the same would be true of paying �4000 for a 598 vs �200 on a player that did almost the same job.
It's about the implementation and the perceived 'extra' that you get with M.

If M made a client device for �1500 I'd bet that 95% of the Hiker's here would have one within 2 years (allowing time for ChrisL to get one of course ;))

I'd be amazed if they couldn't sprinkle a bit of their magic digital dust on such a device to make it irresitable. How and what server solution it partners with would be the challenge. I'd be pretty happy if they used Slim to be honest.

One thing that surprises me is the time M is taking on this given just how far ahead they might have been with the 880.

I have an iMac, which I rip my CD's to in Apple Lossless, I then play them through iTunes to an Airport Express that's connected to my F80's optical input.

Assuming I already have the iMac because it's my computer, it's an �80 solution.

I'm not being flippant, but it sounds damned good so what does spending thousands on the ripping/transfer stage actually buy you in sound terms?

Surely my Mac is ripping the CD's and storing them lossless so no loss of information there. The Airport is streaming the music and outputting it via optical, and the DAC in the F80 is doing the conversion.

It does seem that with the uber-expensive solutions a large part of the cost is for the interface and ease of use vs. things that are directly related to the music?