Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Controlling Meridian/Transporter with a Duet Review

It seems there is no one perfect solution. The ideal system should allow you to navigate your library quickly and in many ways. It should be wireless (operate from any room) and should be two way communication. It should allow control of the audio system as well and not just the music server. It should allow for the maximum audio quality offered today. How does the Duet/Transporter stack up with the rest?

Sonos has a great interface. But is limited to 16bit and has no means of controlling the Meridian system. Not nearly as customizable (e.g. HDCD plugin) as SqueezeCenter (for some folks that a good thing).

Sooloos which I really know very little of and probably way out of budget sounds like it can control everything but you are locked down to a single location with all the cables. It needs a wireless solution. Doubt it will be very customizable. But I`m sure it will sound good in the long run. As far as audio quality, supported formats, word size, not sure we know yet.

iTouch with Transporter/SqueezeBox, This has just as nice an interface as the Sonos without the 16bit limitation and customizability but is still missing IR control. I seriously considered this option but I just sat on the fence. Hmmm I wonder if WOL would have worked with this setup.

Duet with Transporter. Supports up to 24/96 (24/48 with other receivers) not the best screen interface given its size but it had this huge plus of an IR transmitter allowing control over everything else. However initially there was no software to drive the IR. Recently someone did the work to drive a B.O. system and thanks to Cliffs (local Hitch Hiker) he ported it to Meridian. And a few minor tweaks by me.

Now that it was available I waited for the itch to add something to the system. Also it really helped this was not an expensive addition to the system as I`m on a very limited budget this year. I was still concerned that having the album covers in your hand along with navigation was more a gimmick over just using the regular remote.

Well I`m happy to say it`s not a gimmick. I absolutely love it. And integrating the IR was a must. I often tend to turn on the system when I first get up. It generally fills the whole house which is not that big. Now I can have it sit next to me while I eat breakfast and I have way more control over selection. I can have sit on the night stand and in the morning turn it on the second I get up. This is my best opportunity to listen loud and to what I want while the wife is not around.

It`s hard to put a number on this. But I`m sure you know the feeling you had of switching from spinning CD`s to a Music server and how much it opened up your music world. Let`s give that a number of 100% improvement. I`d say adding the Duet added another 20-30%. It gives you that great sense of feeling in control of your music. I`m not locked into standing or sitting in front of the system to select the music. I do still have to be in IR range to adjust the volume though.

The unit works flawless (except for one bug where the Duet sometimes reboots when you first wake it). I think this has been fixed but I`m not ready to upgrade squeezecenter at the moment due to other issues I ran into on newer versions (WOL issues). It literally took 5 minutes to get it up and working.

When the box first arrived in the mail it occurred to me, oh crap, will Wake-On-Lan (WOL) work with this thing, or does the server need to always be up. It`s a pet peeve of mine to have things off that are not in use. Anyway The WOL has worked flawless. You hit turn on Transporter and it says connecting to squeezecenter and it wakes the server.

I was concerned without a touch screen navigation wasn`t gonna be anything that great. Well I think they did a really nice job. It always seems to do just the right thing with timing and default certain buttons to do the right thing. The wheel is also very nicely implemented but not quite a slick as iPod wheels. The small screen size does allow for one handed operation.

The IR control works perfectly although it's a little tedious to navagate to the Meridian each time you want to turn it off or on. But I think that can be customzied further. As far as volume control it works better than the logitech Harmony or even the Merdian remote which both tend ramdomly step by two even with the quickest touch.

I think the more perfect solution would be a larger touch screen (i.e. iTouch) and a WIFI to serial interface to control the Meridian. Or have SqueezeCenter control Meridian. Problem is my Music Server is not at the same location as the Meridian system. And I refuse to add get noisy computer to the Meridian stack. But I probably could find Ethernet or Wifi to serial gadget to expose Meridian RS-232 control to SqueezeCenter or direct to some sort of web-applet.

The cool thing about the Duet though is it`s infinitely flexibility and open design. In fact it would probably easier to implement RS-232 control of the Meridian over WIFI through the Duet than any other scheme (on a budget).

I‘m in broad agreement. I recently added the Transporter to my system and I consider the Transporter/Controller combination (with tweaks) just about the top of the music server tree at the moment. The Controller is a bit quirky at times (and still a work in progress) but overall it delivers and with its affiliated community you have much more control over future development than any Sonos or Sooloos system.

I may buy into the Sooloos system in time but until it offers a lot extra over what I can get for much cheaper, I`m sticking within the Slimdevices (Logitech) camp

Cliff

Hi George,
nice write up. I'm close to another equipment move which could put my SB+ out of sight along with G68 etc. I strongly suspect that a Duet will be joining the ranks of the army of remotes I seem to have. Your comments re: flakey response/double response apply to the Harmony I have so I look forward to trying out yours and Cliff's hard work on the applet. I know nothing about these so am very happy you guys have figured much of it out.

cheers

Has anyone used iPeng for iPhone/SqueezeCenter?

Great writeup on the Duet. I've owned Squeezeboxes for years, the Duet since it came out, briefly switched to Sonos after getting the Duet, played with Sooloos and use iPeng. Impressions:

- Major YEAH, it's cool to have the album covers in your hand, kinda puts a foot back in the camp of actually pulling a CD from the shelf. Connects you w/the artist a bit, and besides, my kids are always asking to see a picture of who's on, so it's fun to show them.

- The Duet to begin with (got on day one of release) was a near disaster IME. Wouldn't hook up with my SBs reliably, and the new SC software to support it destroyed my previously rock-solid performance. Stuttery playback, all kinds of problems -- became hit play and pray. Got so frustrated, I bought a Sonos system. Tech support is great, and they patiently reconfigured my whole wifi system. Result was pretty solid, though sometimes no digital out from some of the ZP90 head units. Mysterious, frustrating, and also, it reminded that I like a one handed, slim remote better than a two hander. I never used the M remote. So that and the occasional dig. out issue, along with just wanting something to f--ing work (a hangover from the Duet partly, so unfair) led to retrying the Duet. Worth pointing out too that my initial few years w/the SB were one of those rare, beautiful, painless tech. experiences (why I love Apple, eg.). I plugged it in, it found my network and played music. No prob. solving.

Turns out after what seemed like 20 or so software updates, the Duet got reasonably solid. Updates are few and far between now. It works. iPeng lets me use my old iPhone, but the interface is its own and takes a minute to figure. It doesn't mimic the Duet, or say, the simple iPhone interface for Apple TV. Since I had an old iPhone though, it's a great deal at $10.

The Sooloos interface is cool, and the big screen makes all the cross referencing available easy to use. But where do you put the screen in a multi-room setup? OK, you use the iPhone interface to travel around, but then what's the advantage over the SB. I don't really get the high end server thing w/SB and Sonos around. Dealer touted automatic backup as a major plus. Worth thousands no doubt

Looking forward to a 24/96 SB head unit to feed a good DAC as we move into hi rez downloads.

Yeah I think it helped my experience sitting on the fence waiting for the IR solution for Duet to mature. I was a late bloomer for the squeezebox itself as well.

In regard to your 24/96 head unit, I concluded that a 24/96 "transporter" will not happen for a long long time, if ever. A SB4 or Duet II with analog & digital and support 24/96 will probably happen. But doubtful a transporter transport only. If SlimDevices had not been bought by logitech it may have happened, but with logitech they are gonna be more main stream.

Gonna have to figure out IR volume control from the Duet for the Tact Mini. Will be interesting to see if the rumored forthcoming Apple tablet will have or get an enhanced Sooloos-like interface remote app for iTunes/Apple TV.

Speaking of Apple TV, can't get a straight answer on whether it will output 24/96 via optical.

That's a good point about Logitech/mainstream vs. a future 24/96 SB. Wonder if the Transporter would have been made if Slimdevices had been acquired before it was developed.

I doubt it but I'm glad they did. I just waited for a good deal at about the price of what a transport only transporter would be.

I would buy one, for form factor and 96kHz support.

Am I right in think that the SB3 now gives you 96Khz support?


Cheers
Tom



edited from the Slim Devices website:

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Release_Notes#Squeezebox_Controller

7.3.2 Release Highlights

Improved playback of high-resolution audio tracks. Sound eXchange (SoX) now resamples higher-rate FLAC or Ogg tracks to lower sample-rate FLAC compatible with your player. Previous 7.3.1 release resampled only to MP3 format.

Summary of higher sample-rate capabilities:

New in 7.3

SB2, SB3, Receiver, Boom 24/48 tracks 24/88.2, 24/96, 24/176.4, 24/192 tracks

Transporter will actually output 96/24 from its digital output.

SB3 had poor 96kHz support in that it used to drop half of the samples. i.e. it wasn't properly downsampling.

The changes in 7.3(.2) are to apply proper downsampling. This is, of course, much better than before and there is now no issue with storing and playing native 96kHz files on/from your server.

And pretty good they sound too.

Cliff