Originally Posted by Dr Nick
Originally Posted by G997
Bad advice.
I think you'll find the digital out on the MS600 is far superior to the 200 series.
Hi G997,

I have an MS600, an MS200 and recently an MC200. I have had the MDAC on them all. And I'm sorry the MDAC won every time to my ears. My wife and daughter both thought the same so it's not just me. The difference between the 200's and the 600 using the digital out I thought was minimal. Certainly get better bang for you buck putting the substantial $ saved not getting the 600 towards better amps, speakers or whatever. I really wanted the MS600 to be better - I spent a lot of cash on it, but the other is better IMO. So yes I was disappointed. I should say it's not bad... it's just that I now think you can do better if you want to use an external DAC.
This is good news for those who wish to use their external DAC with the MDMS system Dr Nick, thanks for the post. It's always been a bit disappointing that Meridian makes you pay for functionality you don't need in order to get the best digital out performance (it kind of reminds me of those "packages" you need to buy on a new car just to get the one feature you really need!). Good to know if you just need digital out, the MS200's performance is pretty much on par with the MS600. If that wasn't the case, it'd be a shame to have to pay all the extra money for the DAC in the MS600 when you already have a good DAC. Also, you'd be crazy to spend close to $20k for the 818 just to get the best digital out performance - that's like buying a whole digital front end and pre-amp when you just need a CD transport.

I love to see Meridian coming out with things like the MS200 and Explorer. It's a great strategy to make it easy and affordable for new customers to begin to adopt great Meridian technology without making the rest of their system obsolete. If someone already has a top of the line audio system and wants to get into network digital audio, products like the MC200 and MS200, along with the iPad app, make it easy for them to access MDMS's state of the art music library and playback system without having to purchase things they already have (i.e. a DAC or a pre-amp). Now I'd love to see Meridian continue this trend by allowing customers to upgrade their MS200 or MS600 to the best Meridian has to offer without having to buy functionality you don't need (e.g. a version of the MS600 with an ID41 card and 818 quality analogue outputs to provide top of the line digital processing/DAC in a stand along device without a pre-amp).

Roon, MS600, Simaudio 780D, Simaudio P-8/W-8 and Revel Studio 2s