Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos Control 15 Test please

Morning Carl

Yes, the NAD takes 24/192 and has been used in this configuration for some of the reviews. (NAD seem to be a little more transparent with their specs than M IMHO)

To quote from Stereophile March 2010:

"According to Greg Stidsen, NAD's director of product development, even though the M2 does adjust itself to operate at the incoming sample rate, the display shows the sample rate set by the appropriate status flag in the datastream. Unfortunately, if this flag is left blank, as can happen with some source components, the display will default to "44.1kHz."

Whilst my M2 (and the other on the forum) is not defaulting to 44.1 it would appear to be defaulting to 48kHz in the display - what's actually getting through to the circuitry beyond I haven't a clue but I'm sure this is the source of my issue.

Behind the scenes the wonderful dealers on the forum (Alan & Rick) have been very kindly hooking their Control 15 units up to 3rd party DACs on my behalf to confirm the output at 88/96kHz

Whilst I remember, I completely agree with the thoughts about a selectable frequency output (or upsampling factor). I can see no reason why the Sooloos shouldn't be able to pass a 24/192 straight through to the outputs for those have systems capable of handling the higher resolution (the majority of new DACs it would appear)I would have thought one of the reasons behind the all-in-one Control 15 was to appeal to a greater audience of not necessarily M devotees.

I've also been researching the mechanics of upsampling and the imposed limitations by embedded DSP processing on the fly.

The ID40 may be providing a superior output not necessarily due to the internal environment (power supply / clocks etc) but because there is a greater DSP processing capacity in these machines which can perform the operation more accurately with a more complex algorithm.

The other option available is to use a PC to upsample files and store as 24/96, thus avoiding M's inferior upsampling in the Control 15. The obvious drawback is the 500GB limitation. I'd certainly consider the Weiss Saracon software package (about $1k) which seems to hold high respect within the pro audio field.

A dopo...

Some more info after the latest update:

I have a late Control:10, MS600 and an Mac MDA1000.

The MDA1000 only goes to 96

So here is what I have (all SPDIF )

From Control:10

Red Book CD's 88
96 Downloads 88
192 Downloads 88

Ticking the "Force 1x upsample box all formats still show 88 as above

From MS600

Red Book 88
96 Downloads 96
192 downloads 96 (remember the MDA 1000 only upsamples to 96)

I'd like to know if anyone who has 192 upsample capability if the MS600 actually puts out 192

Hope this helps

GJ

Many thanks - appreciate that - it shows that the NAD is having trouble picking up the incoming frequency.

Did you tick the force box and then reboot? I think it's necessary to reset the upsampling option.

It would appear that 192 output is beyond M gear at the mo - it can store a 192 file but then downsamples it to 96 for output... duh!!! lol

Maybe yes maybe no. If the NAD cannot read the M data flag then who really knows. Did you hear back from NAD?

No And if you do have to reboot it's a firmware flaw

Can't really answer that with what I have as the MDA1000 only ups to 96 so who knows if there is 192 comming from the M gear...