Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems The new 'Director' DAC

And I wonder if the cable shoot out will be a Double Blind Trial?
Chris

It's really weird but I am currently using a network dongle connected via USB and the moment I download aud10 it corrupts the data and/or stops working or realtime DSP I was doing from a Roland Quad I was sampling would never produce the same results twice

The Director and various 3rd party s/w for OS X users.

I received my Director a couple of weeks ago. I have tried the following s/w with OS X.

BitPerfect
PureMusic
Fidelia
Amarra
Audirvana Plus

While each offers their own unique interface, features, yada yada yada. My favorite so far is the Bit Perfect. It seems to work well with the Meridian. Some of the others have either crashed, skipped, or just didn't work as well as I had hoped. Some sounded nice, but s/w crashing is unacceptable, so is skipping and hanging. Plus, I like to be able to control the volume from the software which some companies won't do.

I am still playing around with the Audirvana s/w and so far, it does do a good job sonically, but it puts everything at 192 and there's no changing it, and so far the volume doesn't work so I can only change the volume at the pre amp stage on my powered speakers. But sonically, so far, it's pretty nice and I'm playing 16/44 files, mostly Apple lossless, AIFF, and some 128 and 256 AAC files. I reinstalled the s/w and for SOME reason, I couldn't tell you if I wanted, I got the volume to work somehow, but it still forces the Audio MIDI to 24/192, but it does sound pretty darn nice. I'm still listening to various tracks, but what used to suck, doesn't anymore. I'm going to compare using Audirvana with and without the Director, just to see how much difference there is. I just figured out how to not force the DAC to 24/192. Obviously, the s/w has to be stopped and then you have to reselect the Meridian DAC an then you can go into Audio Filters to not force the DAC into 24/192. Then you can choose between using Audio Core filers or isotope 64-bit SRC and then you can play around with that if you wish. And that's how I was also able to turn on the Volume control, which it's best to set it to dithered. So far, this has not skipped, or crashed and once I learned how to change the forced up sampling and volume, it works pretty darn well. I'll update if I find anything else good/bad.. Obviously, you can get free trials of these apps, but Audirvana gets thumbs up so-far.

Obviously BitPerfect just runs in the background and you use iTunes Volume control. For some tracks, I actually prefer just iTunes by itself. I'm still doing tests, but this is just after about a week of playing around.

I'm sure some of these companies may have to deal with the way Meridian does up-sampling since it's probably not good for the software itself to do that in addition to the Director.

Obviously, this is a new product and typically s/w developers have to have some time to play with various new hardware devices to ensure proper playback.

If anyone has any other experience with s/w let me know.

Update: I managed to find JRiver's software which you have to go to their forum to download it for the Mac. It's a little different than the other players. In some ways I like it, but I'm getting used to it. But it seems to work after figuring out how to get it to play through the Meridian. I'm just going through the worst files that I have to compare them to the others. Audirvana, so far, does the best job with the worst sounding files until I can get better versions. But so far, the JRiver actually does a nice job.

Who knows? I did have a discussion with people at both MIT and Transparent and they indicated that high end DAC mfg seemed to be giving them the thumbs up since USB cables don't always work well.

Apparently, they look at velocity of propagation, time delay, etc. All I can say is, talk to both MIT and Transparent, or anyone else and ask them what types of measurements they perform. The two I talked to do measurement tests in addition to listening tests and they both deal with the high end DAC companies getting their opinions and they seem to like the product. At least they aren't as expensive as Light Harmonic cables which start at about $1000 that are designed to work with their DaVinci 24/384 DAC.

I just got my MIT StyleLink Plus to audition, so I have to do it's little burn in for a couple of days before I do any listening tests. I'm still getting used to comparing which software to use with the Director.

One thing that I have gotten conflicting information on with regards to using the Director with OS X is the Audio MIDI settings. I've heard to have it set to 192kHz, but another said to set it to whatever the file sample rate is. When I set a 16/44 file to 192k, the DAC switches to that, obviously, but I'm wondering if that's the optimal setting. I thought that if one is playing a 16/44 file, that the DAC should be set at 44 and then the DAC does the internal up-sampling automatically.

One thing that I noticed that's a little strange is that when i go into the Audio MIDI settings, it at 24 bit, not 16 bit.

Hi, would the Director work with my 508.24? If so, do I only need a pair of interconnect cables to plug it in? And how does the device get its power?

Sorry, if the questions are very obvious, but I blame it on being Swedish and having trouble getting in to English texts that are very technical...

Thanks in advance!

Hi Per,

If your 508.24 has an optical SPDIF output (only rear photos of the 20 bit machine are on Duncan's Meridian Info site) then all you'd need is a Toslink to 3.5mm mini jack optical cable to use the Director.

Here's one made by Chord.

Cheers

George

Thanks George! And yes, I think my CD-player have an optical SPDIF output.

Can someone tell me what improvements the DAC has given to their system?

What will it do for my G98 and Rhapsody / Napster fed through Apple TV?

Cheers?

The Director also accepts a coaxial SPDIF input using the included adapter.

You can read my review here where I compare the Director to the internal DAC in the G08.

Can the Director be used between SqueezeBox and DSP Speakers?

Why would you want to put a DAC before DSP speakers ?

DSP's need a digital input.

Hi, finally I hooked up my trusted 508.24 with the Director. I have had the same CD-player for almost 15 years, so I now exactly how it sounds. Anyway, I was not sure what to expect but thought that there should be a chance that new technology would make a little difference.

I was wrong. It made a huge difference. Deeper soundstage, warmer sound (that I like) and most of all I suddenly hear details I never heard before. It�s really great that Meridian produce such an affordable product.

I also should mention that the optical cable I am using is Van den Hul Optocoupler Mk2.

Now, a question. I found this device on eBay. Any thoughts about it?

Power supply

I think that an external linear power supply is a good idea for the Director (though I have not done any listening tests). There are a few options (as you need the USB pass-through) and that device is one of them. I have no idea how good it is.