Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Kraftwerk box - CD vs. server

I was just about to ask that too. I've had rips that sound terrible, although they were ripped "lossless" but before I used dBpoweramp with it's Accurip which essentially compares your rip to everyone else who has ripped it before you. Since reripping and getting a good Accurip CRC, they've sounded much better.

When ever I read a thread like this with no mention of verifying you tested your setup is CONFIGURED for bitperfect I tend to dismiss it.

I'm not saying there is not real differences. But it is was to easy to misconfigure any of these music servers.

It's always worth doing a sanity check. Especially if you think you are hearing differences you want to eliminate other possible causes before blaming or crediting hardware.

Here is how to check it:

http://www.meridianunplugged.com/wi...if%20your%20process%20is%20Bit%20Perfect

I suggest a second hand 518 between the sonos and your G91, the 518 works well with the sonos players.

I rip with iTunes and uses a Lacie DVD drive connected to my iMac through Firewire. Format: Apple Lossless. And btw: I've re-burned some of my music from the ripped files, just for fun.

Same thing happens: The burnt CD sounds the same as the original, even if it has passed through iTunes and been compressed (but not reduced) first.

Curiously enough CD burnt from MP3s also sound far better than playback through Sonos if burnt as standard red book CD and played with G91.

Would the HD621 do a similar thing as the 518 for 2-channel audio? An SPDIF input on a scaler, such as the VP50pro, could be used as input before the HD621. Or is it not recommended to enter the HDMI path with potentially more jitter to solve a jitter issue?

I don't now about Sonos but if it were SB3/SB+/Transporter then I'd be checking that the volume control is set to max and not damaging the signal by any volume adjustments.

I'd also check the file conversions table to make sure that it wasn't doing something daft with your input file.

No idea if there are any parallels to Sonos here.

Do the CD's have any form of copy protection? This can impact ripping quality although I have seen a protected disc for 2-3 years now.

George's 'bit perfect' test would do just that.

Cliff

http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208jitter/index.html

Perhaps some interesting reading. You can find the Sooloos and the 808 measurements in there, although under different categories.

IIRC, the paper was out before the Meridian - Sooloos deal.

There are so many places this can go wrong. It sounds like you know what you are doing with the ripping. It is possible the output is being resampled- cheaper sound cards from years ago did this and its possible the sonos is doing this. Its difficult to test for because how do you truly know if youre getting bit accurate information out of the sonos? Well, one way is during playback press the display button on the face of your processor to see if it will tell you 44.1/16- if its not- if it says say 48khz then you have a problem with the sonos. You should check the information on the files in itunes to see if it says they are 44.1/16. They should be. My favorite test of all is to take any DTS encoded CD- there are some around and if you don't have one send me an email at jerry@levyhouse.com and I will email you a track you can import as a test. The DTS CDs (NOT DVD) work by putting the DTS data inside the normal CD files so what happens if you have a DTS decoder it will decode the sound but a regular CD decoder will just play it back as static- it will recognize the file structure of the DTS CD though because its the same as a regular CD. Because of this, you can test if theres a problem with ripping or playback by seeing if you can import a DTS CD and successfully play it back- so long as you have a DTS decoder- which I believe you do. If you get static when using a ripped DTS CD track then the problem is either with the apple lossless ripping or the sonos. The thing to do is to import it as an AIFF or WAV- 16 bit 44.1khz settings - and then try playing that track- if that does work then the apple lossless is the problem. If it doesnt then the sonos is the problem. Now even if it works, its still possible that the sonos has much more jitter than the Meridian CD player but in my experience in comparing computers and my kaleidescape to the 800 CD machine I find the difference is more subtle than you describe - so I suspect there is a problem with either the sonos or the ripping- when Ive had that problem- the difference in sound is night and day as you describe.

I have converted DTS WAV and DTS AIFF files to Apple Lossless on my MacMini, they both playback perfectly.
The playback path is iTunes on the MacMini, output via 10m Toslink to 518 (goes into DTS bypass mode) to 568. The 568's DTS logo comes on and music (or test tracks) are played back without a hitch.

What I'm trying to say is Apple Lossless encoding doesn't affect the bit perfect replay.

Steve.

If you don't have a DTS CD to test with, the simplest thing on the Sonos to do which *should* ensure bit-perfect between what goes into the Sonos and what comes out of it is to go into the settings for that zone and ensure the digital output volume is set to Fixed. I've previously confirmed bit-perfect in my system with the volume set to Fixed. The only issue now is you have to use two remotes to control the system.

Volume is "fixed", so no issue there (Sonos volume is 24 bit, and therefore not critical anyway). My "reburn" test tells me that there is nothing wrong with the files themselves. It's the method of retrieving data that is the matter here, not the data itself. At least it seems so. But as I said, I have absolutely no idea why it sounds different. And I really want it to sound the same!