Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming MC200 Owners Thread

Hi Nick
I have my Front Pair Cabled as part of a 7.0 Mch Setup, but I also have them Cabled separately into D2 from my 800, to allow them act as a Stereo Pair

For many Music Types I prefer to run in "Cable Direct" or Stereo mode as opposed to routing the Stream thru the 861.........that preference certainly applied with the 861v4 and while the "differences" are dramatically reduced with the 861v6, I find that I still prefer to run from the 800 to the DSP Pair, as opposed to Trifield thru the 861v6

Trifield adds certain benefits with some Music types that overrides this preference, but only with certain CD's IMHO

And from several PM's with a few other owners over the years, I know that I'm not alone in cabling Direct to the Front Pair........

So, it wouldn't surprise me to find that running "Cable Direct" from the 808.3 might outperform running thru the 861v6

On a mostly un-related note, you may recall our comments on the day in Bristol that using the Direct Soundfield from the 861v6 sounded a little better than Trifield thru the 861............even though that was most likely due to the Fireplace located directly behind the D7K2HC

On a more related note, I would again refer to my Post Bristol comments that I preferred the results of an 808.3 Spinning a CD to a "similar" Track into the ID40 inside the 861v6........and then Roland's follow-on comments that those inside Meridian still say that the 808.3 is still their Premium Sounding Device (based on their Listening Tests and Optimization etc.)

The above comments do make me wonder why Meridian choose on that day to demonstrate their System as an

808.3 ----> 861v6 / ID40 ----> 5.0 DSP's

One can begin to read something subliminal into that, until I say that it was late on the 2nd day before the lack of Apodizing / Upsampling in the 808.3 was brought to their attention...........so I'm not sure how much can be read into their choice to have the ID40 in the 861 when their own recommendation is to have it inside the 808.3

Hi Ronnie,

Good points made.

I think the +3dB tweak has narrowed the gap between source-DSP and Source-SSP-DSP.

Have you a chance to compare this sceanrio ? It would give a feel for what else the 861 was adding or taking away from the result.

Also, the other downside of the going direct to DSP is the lack of MRC.

Certainly worth recalling that 808.2-8k at HH2 sounded very good despite its location in the reception area at HQ.

Meridian converts everything analog to digital. Therefore I have no good way to try the MC200 via analog. Try to arrange a loan as that would answer your questions.

I purchased a MC200 and ID40 for my 861V6 . Currently I am waiting for my Revivers to arrive from Austria so I am listening to the MC200 via digital coax into my 861V4. I have been a Sonos owner (currently 7 Zones) for multiple years ...

Yes, it sounds amazing. I have only imported a few albums so far, ones I am familiar with. No troubles with IP addresses or installation of Control:Mac. Added Rhapsody and Last.Fm scrobbling (I find it interesting that this is not mentioned more often around here, Sonos also scrobbles and it is nice to have them keep track of what artists etc I am listening to.).

Adding support for Pandora is an obvious next step in USA, probably other priorities in the UK and EU. Sonos recently added internet streaming for Sirius/XMRadio , which most people that listen to music subscribe to for their cars (digital satellite radio) is a nice to have.

How do I find out how much disk space is left/consumed by my imports? I'm pretty impressed so far . Can't wait for the revivers and the ID40 card to be fired up :-)

Michael,

you got a mail on your regular email adress

Robert

Hey guys. I brought a MC200 from my dealer this friday. It's connected with my 861v6/ID40.
I have a question about ripping music.

What do you guys recommend to do with ripping?
The internal one in Control-PC/Mac or something better? I tried the internal and it took forever.

I also have 50-100 DVD-Audio records.
How do I rip and import them?

I have both Mac and PC, so anything is possible.
Thanks in advance for help in this matter

You can rip them on your PC with something like dBpoweramp, then use Control:PC to import those files. I too found the import CD very slow.

For DVD-A you can rip the 2-channel and convert to FLAC.

Try http://www.computeraudiophile.com for some ideas.

M

I use dBpoweramp for CDs and foobar2000 + a plugin to rip DVD audio

Rush just released Moving Pictures in CD and 2 channel and 5.1 DVD audio.
I bought a copy to encourage the studios to keep the format alive but now I am buying more from HDtracks.com

Hello!
I've just purchased a shiny new MC200 and have integrated it into my analogue system. The improvement in sound quality over a Mac with an external DAC is astonishing (I tried several DACs including Chord QBD), and I'm really happy with the sound quality.

However, I am having inevitable teething problems! The most irritating is that I can't import any CDs by sticking them in my Mac's slotdrive, the only way to get any music on there is to import it over the network.

Whenever I click on the 'Import CD' button on ControlMac with a CD in the drive, it doesn't do anything. If there isn't a CD in the drive it pops up with "'Drive 'default_drive' is empty or the CD is unreadable", so it must be recognising the drive... any suggestions?!

Thanks in advance,
Henry

Oh - and my ControlMac software keeps blanking out to a white screen and forcing me to quit the program and restarting it. I hate computers sometimes

Hi Henry

I usually get this error message on my Mac if I press the import button too soon after loading the CD. You need to wait until the CD symbol appears on the desktop and pressing the import button again usually works. It's normally a 5-10 second wait before you can press the button.

Tony

Never got my Mac to Import CDs either. I just use dBpoweramp with a laptop PC and then import the files. Nobody is entirely sure what the MC200's capabilities are in relation to, say, a Control 15.

At the moment you can't Swim or save Playlists but these may be added later.

M