Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861v6 upgrade thoughts

I assume that your comments are precise and refer to the 808 and not the 808.2?

5* summary and thread VK,: many thanks.

Yes Joel, the ID40 would turn your 808.3 or 861v6 into a Sooloos Client, typically in another room.

Apologies if it wasn't clear, but that was the point I've been trying to make. The ID40 Card enables Accessibility and Control features not possible over Speakerlink (I believe)

However, in terms of Audio Enhancement specifically, it does nothing (again what I'm being told, and from a conceptual / theoretical point of view, I agree with the conclusion)

At �1,000 for the ID40 and if you already have the main Sooloos system in another room, then adding that �1k card is quite a cost effective way of Accessing and Controlling that Sooloos based Music. You can only control Already Queued Playlists however. Not exactly "Control:10" type User Interface, but nonetheless "handy" if you already owned Sooloos in another room

Understood.

It does reduce one transfer between components.

Absolutely. Sooloos is still beyond me for the time being (I am persisting with Squeezeboxes, particularly now I've discovered iPeng on my shiny new iPhone), but it does make Sooloos a much more sensible proposition. What they need is an ID40 in a standalone box to connect to the G-series or directly to a pair of DSP speakers. Or does such a box already exist? (I don't count the Control:10).

Sorry Joel
Not sure how the ID40 does this over and above what is already possible with Speakerlink??

Example: Sooloos Source and 861v6 in the SAME Room

Option A........Connect using Speakerlink (and likely MHR???)

Option B........Connect using Ethernet and Sooloos Network protocols using the ID40 at the 861v6 end

How might One of those be potentially Superior to the other from a Qualitative point of view??

I meant my 808.2i.
The HD621 has the same apodizing filter - the 808.2i has to read the CD - then error correct it -.
All that are on my Apple TV has been lossless ripped with Max with the error-correcting power of cdparanoia. That means that all is bit perfect.
Some CD tracks can take 2-4 minutes before beeing imported because of the error-correcting of cdparanoia. The 808.2i does this on the spot


Me and some friends with similar setup listed to them both en concluded that
Apple TV HD621 combo had more detail in the top range and sound image seemed to be more defined in my setup.

The best about our "hobby" is that what is best for me might not be the same for others.

PerS

In Option B, there must be a dedicated master clock on the card. The ethernet packets are buffered and the master clock is used to produce a PCM stream with as-near-as-dammit perfect jitter properties.

In Option A, the Option B process takes place in the Sooloos source, but then the "jitterless" PCM is transferred to the 861 via SpeakerLink, adding jitter (even SpeakerLink is not perfect). Although the 861's de-jittering will probably take care of most (or all) of the jitter, the PCM post-861-FIFO has lost "master clock" status.

Thanks for the thread Joel (VK). I agree lets not speculate here. In my case I will find a way to hear the v6 at some point before the trade in window closes and I'll share my thoughts here. My opinion is Meridian has always been a company which at its core is run by music lovers, enthusiasts like us. Where they are not like us is that they are also experts in the field; and not just experts but often they are the authority or at least among those in the industry who are at the top. So my feeling has always been with M, while expensive, the expense is justified because you're paying the the expertise and the fact that they know which choices, and tradeoffs to make, so you don't have to figure it all out and find out you guessed incorrectly. Without getting into specifics I believe although there are some changes I believe my initial take is still largely accurate and so I view V6 as having been designed by Mr. Stuart and all the other relevant people. To me, that's what we are paying for. And they have not let me down in the past (I didn't buy during the time they were discussing upgradability to 8 channels)- so I trust them to deliver. I'm not trying to say those who feel like they were misled are wrong. If that is correct then I think you have a legitimate concern to discuss with Meridian. For me though, I am biased to do the upgrade now. But I'll have a good listen first.

Hmmm................We'll have to agree to disagree on that one

I also think MHR will be preferred not PCM transfer

But anyway back to regular programming.............

I didn't say it would be a PCM transfer, but that the PCM will be transferred.

I imagine the process will be a reconstruction of the audio from ethernet packets to PCM, then an encoding to the SpeakerLink protocol, whatever that is - balanced MHR?

The error correcting of CD ripping apps is highly overrated ... most of the work is actually done in the drive and is just mandatory processing described by the disc format.

Did you get your CDs from the public library? Only badly scratched discs will give uncorrectable errors. Most discs can be read perfectly fine (100% accurate) with almost all CD drives.

My point was that HD stored music done right can get u better sound than from CD.
This is also a point Meridian makes! Soolos hooked up to 808.2i playing the same CD - it seems that u get a bit more detail from the Sooloos combo than playing straight from the CD with the 808.2i

PerS