Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming MD600+MS600 review

MD600/MS600 review here.

http://www.hifi-advice.com/Meridian-MD600-MS600-review.html

Phil.

Some intersting findings there. Networked audio is proving to be as tricky to get the best out of as al the other formats.

very interesting review. quote from it: "Note: the Sooloos name will in the near future be dropped to change into "Meridian Streaming Audio".

I am in disagreement with a few of this chaps comments.

The MC200 is far better over its analogue outs than a 506.24 in 99% of areas.
Especially in its treble and handling of complex music. The 506 would quite often lose composure whereas the MC200 never loses composure but is just as smooth sounding, both are too smooth at times if you ask me but the MC200 doesn't put me to sleep like the 506 used to with certain music - I don't mean that in a bad way but I seriously used to dose off at times ... and it's not old age .

Now the MS600 is supposed to add the next level to the sound, however he seems insistent on the reference to the 506 as the standard of the sound.

That's a way off the mark comment / thought process the MC200 is way better, therefore the MS600 must be even more so.

Kind of fits in with Meridians thinking concerning network cabling, with magnetic isolation on the ID41, and using ferrites on SpeakerLink in the Anniversary set up.

Shame he didn't switch off memory on the MC200 to see if the difference was core related.

Mind you, isn't this the guy who can hear which socket in a block in being used for the source? Nothing wrong with that though...

Lots of tinkering to do then!

Or simply try a shielded cable... Although the ferrite cores that Meridian have investigated do sound more plausible.

Sounds like Meridian should sell a range of network cables.

Comment about 'green' drives was curious - particularly the attribution to Meridian. I was under the impression that M actually recommend 'green' drive for the MD600, for example. Can anyone clarify? FWIW, I have been using WD Caviar green drives in my MD600 without any issues so far.

Hmmn, count me in the 'skeptical' camp. I'd really hoped that with networked audio we'd put behind us all the absurd, unsubstantiated claims that have so damaged hi-end audio's reputation across the broader consumer base. Comparing MC200 with MD600 (into ID40), with various cables, and in varying degrees of proximity to the 861v6 I have detected no difference between the two. Don't doubt that the MS600 will outperform the MC200 as a source, but as to the rest .....

I think the review is right on

As an example, if I place my TwinStore on some isolation devices
(Aurios in this case) the system sounds much better
This has been repeatable in two different houses/systems. BTW both locations have the TwinStore located in a Midatlantic rack in the basement

Simon - about "green" drives in MD600.

I asked my dealer who received the following information from Meridian in recent days.

Meridian recommends low power "green" 3.5" SATA drives for the MD600.

However, these "green" drives are NOT for use with TwinStore or Ensemble.

Thanks, that is sort of what I figured, but nice to get confirmation.

I can just about get my head around digital imperfections, "bits aint bits" and the effect of jitter but I'm really getting confused by the latest claims in our hi-fi world.

First Martin Colloms reports hard drives sound different, now network connections are changing the sound.

It would be great to know more about Meridians view of all this - can the particular core decoding the 'lossless' files (FLAC and/or WAV) and then transmitting pcm packets influence the sound quality arriving at the end points.

Can the decode and network transmission process create jitter or other timing issues?

If this review was right then the all-in-one devices like MC200 and Control 15 should sound best on their SPDIF outputs as these should eliminate the network connections (or perhaps they don't, maybe internally they use network connections, or is the EM environment inside these boxes so noisy quality doesn't stand a chance).

If the network can impact the sound quality would M be better transmitting the lossless files and decoding at the end point (ignoring synchronisation issues with multiple zones). Is this something they or Sooloos have tried?

regards

Chris