Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos Control:PC User Guide and Volume Levelling

Am late chipping in here but wanted to confirm that volume leveling has worked for me and its effect has been to lower the output volume of all my songs to that of the quietest track I have. It was a significant difference - about 10 clicks of the volume knob to the albums I play most often....

I have my C15 connected directly to my G91 so no ID40 or MS600 complicating (but no doubt improving) things in between and I set volume leveling to songs only using the Control:PC settings tab and then clicking on the settings box next to the zone I am using - I do not seem to have the option to set it directly on the C15 as others have mentioned.

I have imported using a mix of Control:PC and directly through the C15 and have a number of differing track sources - CD, DVDA converted files, FLAC downloads etc and it seems to work with them all.

Hopefully this answers what it is doing when it works and demonstrates it is something that can work now - unlike the sorry Trifield business which frustrates me and I don't even have a width setting on the G91!

Dolf,
Yes it is pretty simple as you described. All I did was to choose the relevant zone on my C15 and check volume level track. As Ronnie said it doesn't matter if you rip with Sooloos or on a PC as I have ripped my entire collection on a PC and leveling still works.

As mentioned above, you have the choice of Volume Leveling by Song or by Album

"By Song" would be the best choice whilst playing Songs from different Albums (like a Playlist or "Swim")..........while "by Album" would be best when playing from one complete Album and then another Album when finished the first

If you look at the Metadata below, you can see that Sooloos calculates the the Gain and Peak for an Entire Album...........as well as for an individual Track

Selecting Volume Leveling "by Album" means that the Album average Gain and Peak Values will be used..........while "by Song" means that the Track Gain & Peak will be used

V1 {
Sooloos.Msg.Music.Internal.StoreAlbum {
MetadataVersion 39
AlbumName "Gaucho"
AlbumId 0s'1:1:34979b8d-ecba-423e-9b4b-e24ef336ce9a'
MediaNumber 1
MediaCount 1
ArtistName "Steely Dan"
ArtistId 0s'2:1:d400692d-1de3-41e8-b9a5-860f9cfb30f0'
Rating 10
AlbumGain -6.42000007629395
AlbumPeak -1.00999999046326


Tracks {
TrackName "Hey Nineteen"
TrackId 0s'3:1:11efe43f-6519-4b97-85d7-531b327cb517'
Length 310
IsPick t
IsUnpick f
TrackNumber 2
PlaybackOptions {
RealStartMs 0
RealEndMs 310100
NoiseStartMs 28
NoiseEndMs 332358
Gain -4.38000011444092
Peak -1.03999996185303

Hi Jack
It seems as though you have two Sooloos "Sources" (or "Audio Endpoints" to use Meridian terms)

One Endpoint being the Control 15.........and the other Endpoint being your MS600

Does the Volume Leveling work on BOTH systems, when you have it selected for each Zone......i.e. when you select Volume Leveling on the C15 Zone, does it work.........and similarly (separately) does Volume Leveling work on the MS600 Zone, when you have it selected to operate on that Zone????

I assume it's fair to say that you are using the latest v2.324 of Sooloos firmware???

Thanks

Ok...here is my theory:-

A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread that said x-fade was screwy because it had a nasty effect on volume and my perception of resolution/detail.

I had flu so maybe I was being nuts. I tested it again a day later and could not replicate it at all.

So, I deleted my post as I didn't want to set any hares running.

Now, I've just retested to see how my ID40 handles replay gain.

It does NOT seem to work on either album or song setting.

HOWEVER

If you select x-fade (the next option beneath on the same settings page) then it DOES WORK.

I've queued The Who/Tommy with Cooder/Slide Area and the only time volume is adjusted is when I select a value for x-fade.

@Dolf, here is the screen shot of the exact settings page. Set yours the same and see if you get the levelling to work.


So, this means

a) I wasn't going mad and should have left my post there

b) there is some inter-dependency between x-fade and replay gain.

Can I ask a HH premium dealer to seek clarification from HQ about this please?

Thanks Nick
And do you like the Sonic Results with Replay Gain & Crossfade??........or is it still too much of a compromise.......or as you say, is it still "Screwy" with a loss of resolution / detail???

Hi Ronnie,

I'll have to go with my original gut feel which was that I didn't like it. As you know the SQ of the ID40/v6 is really quite excellent (would go as far as saying awesome), so, when I felt over a few days that all was not quite as good as it should be I started to worry.

I had no idea that replay gain was on so all my listening was done by playing at whatever volume I felt like (to my ear not the volume scale). But, it was like the shine had been rubbed off all the nice highs and "tings" of the treble, hi-hats etc. I even thought that 3D placement/imaging was lost to an extent also.

With it (Xfade) switched off it all came back in spades (because levelling then switched off)

I can only think that I'd set replay gain as a test and forgotten about it as I probably didn't hear it do anything.

When I then wondered how x-fade worked and it is when gain was affected. I didn't initially link the two as they were a couple weeks apart.

FWIW - Xfade would work much better if M implemented it only to work with songs from different albums. That way it would not destroy the gapless albums e.g. DSOTM and any DJ mix type albums.

Thanks Nick
The combination of your Sound Quality comments with the apparently non-sensical need for Crossfade to be on for Replay Gain to work..........does make one wonder what Meridian are ACTUALLY doing to implement Replay Gain........i.e. exactly HOW are the using the Gain & Peak values posted above

If properly implemented, Replay Gain should NOT have the effect of losing Resolution / Detail / Highs / 3D Imaging that you mention above......i

Obviously, Replay Gain or "Volume Leveling" should only affect the perceived Volume..............and not the perceived Sound Quality

Makes you wonder???????

I've just had a search through all online guides and documents, FAQ's etc.

I cannot find anything related to X-fade.

Not that this will tell you much, but ...

and from the ControlPC Guide ...

Ronnie,
As I said it is working in the zone where the C15 is and I just tested it in the zone where the MS600 operates and it works there as well. Yes I'm using the latest firmware.

It works!
Thank you Nick.
Thank you all HH'ers, once again you came through.

Now I don't care why it works and why it didn't and what cat entrails were searched to figure this out. The only concern is my understanding that setting the X-fade may have a negative effect on SQ. I haven't heard any difference yet, but I will continue to read this thread in case I have to make another adjustment.



Aloha,