Originally Posted by Carl
Bring on the Trumpets (sorry I mean Sooloos)

After an initial period of “playing” and looking at every menu option I could find on the touch screen; I was ready to do some proper listening of the Sooloos and to compare it against my 800D.

So sitting in my modest room (which, as my wife often reminds me, is also our sitting room) and after playing a selection of tracks from my favourite CDs, both on the Sooloos and my 800D, this is what my ears tell me …

My order of preference (one might say most optimal setup):

-- 1) Control:10 via ID40 (PCM 44K)
-- 2) 800D via SPDIF (MHE 88K)
-- 3) 800D via SPDIF (PCM 44K)
-- 4) Control:10 via SpeakerLink (PCM 44K, Meridian flat cable)

All source material was 2-channel.
All source connections are to the 861v6 in Trifield mode (with L.C.R. calibrated to +3db).

I can only speculate on the technical reasons for my preferences; but what I draw from this is that having lower jitter is more important than apodizing and that the 861v6 which is arguably the best digital processor in the world, is not totally immune to input jitter.
Hi Carl
Many thanks for taking the time to carry out these comparisons and for posting your comments here. Much appreciated

As regards the Sooloos versus the 800 into an 861v6, it's certainly interesting that your preference was for the 800 doing the Upsampling, leading to the Data Stream being in the high Sample rate (88/24) format as early as possible (as per Meridian's recommendation for many years now) and thus reducing the effects of Jitter at the Output and Input Stages

It's interesting that you found this preferable to allowing the 861v6 to carry out the Apodizing. I'll bet that you would have gotten long odds on that particular "result" a week ago. wink

Originally Posted by Carl
861v4 to 861v6

In order to eliminate the 7K2s; I first chose to do some listening in DIRECT mode i.e. only the front 8Ks in use. I always like to this with any changes to my system. After an hour or so playing some of my favourite tracks (we all have them). It was quite apparent that the v6 was adding some extra magic or perhaps to be more accurate is was adding less so that more of music came though.

What`s extraordinary is how the 861v6 has reduced the void between DVD-A and CD replay; both in terms of smoothness and dynamic range.

The sound is accurate and has great imaging but is still warm and devoid of any harshness.
Carl
Can you clarify if those comments above relate to 44k or 88k material coming from the 800D??

If it was 88k material (as per your Sooloos comparison comments), then do you think that there is a lot more going on within the 861v6 than just Apodizing (as obviously this would not be in play with incoming 88/24 material)?????

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