Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems The Quasi-Official Meridian CEDIA Q+A Topic.

I read through John's interview post and BTW, thank you John for doing the work to get us this information. Primarily, I'm focused on this whole HDMI support issue. I also have a personal vested interest in how any solution coming from Meridian would support my gear if at all as I own a 568.2MM. The HDMI section of the interview didn't say anything about whether they're looking to do or committing to an external solution which would also support legacy gear. So should I combine what was said in the interview with the reports from those who attended Cedia to get some sort of hybrid answer/conjecture?

The inference - and insider opinion at CEDIA - is that any Meridian HDMI audio processing will happen either in a Bluray player (bitstream-to-PCM) or in an external box (PCM-to-MHR). If you accept the latter as gospel then it would be incredibly foolish to not have that HDMI box support all of the current processors in use (861, G68 and 568). Seems to me the only ones left obsolete would be 565/541.

I am comfortable this is coming shortly and will be a best-in-class solution. My only worry is a 'replacement' 3xSPDIF pass-through on the HDMI box, but I am in the significant minority so suspect I will be out of luck (perhaps Shawn can add a 3xSPDI input to the HDMI box :/).

Firstly Thx JK; Simon, I dont like that word Obsolete, as They do what they are intended as well as ever, also not everyone is that bothered by the new codecs.
It is all very much material dependant. I do take your point though.

You can also add 561 to the "Obsolete" list.

The 541 was always analog. When Meridian made that, I bet they never thought digital would move on so quickly. Still great kit though!!

Cheers, Chris

I would be very interested in a USB to MHR "sound card". I think the pioneering efforts of Linn, iTrax, Music Giants, Chesky, et al point to digital downloads as a major delivery vehicle for high-resolution audio over the next few years. Getting bit-perfect multi-channel digital downloads into a Meridian processor right now requires some fairly specialized pro audio sound cards. There are a couple of announced HDMI sound cards forthcoming, but I'd be more comfortable with Meridian controlling the audio driver.

I'm a bit confused by Bob's response on the USB input for G68. Yes, USB is not copy-protected, but there are a considerable number of multi-channel USB sound cards out there, all of which work just fine with copy-protected content (e.g., DVDs). Most of the content from the providers I list above is not copy-protected; not surprising since it requires only a moderately knowledgeable programmer to get bit-perfect digital audio copies of anything that plays back on a PC anyway.

Thanks JK, an excellent job as always. And many thanks to M for the answers & all things said and/or implied.

That is a good point. Obsolete is regularly mis-used, as you suggest. 'No longer useful' is very much about personal use and individual importance. 565 would be obsolete to me (I used to own one) but perhaps not to someone else.

It would just be a switch, anyway.

Kal

Thanks for asking my questions, JK.

Not so sure, I think many of us would welcome this feature . At least 2 subs out.


Many thanks for the lightning fast report this time!

juno

Thanks John for a much appreciated job.

I do appreciate the confidence I get from Meridians answers. I will never be in the technical league of my fellow hitchikers and I usually inderstand less than 20% of the forum content, but I still want great sound. With Meridian's direction I can just buy, plug it in and listen.

George, now that we have a tentative date for HH day V2 would it be appropriate for me to start a thread for interested parties?

Hi Dolf,
I'll put something up as and when we know something e.g. date, time, possible numbers and any other details that might be required. I suspect M will need to order in a few slices of humble pie for a few folks here

Cheers

Understood, but it would obviate the need for me top also use a second switcher. Who knows if it would even be possible - and, shoot, perhaps I will be pleaseantly surprised to find there is a 3xSPDIF pass-thru already.