Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems G98 died - replaced with an Oppo

I purchased an Oppo 105D today. I ran a coax cable to a digital input. I played the Emerson Lake and Palmer "Lucky Man" DVDA and was very disappointed. The resolution was lacking and poor 5.1 channel execution. I then played Roy Orbison's DVD and it sounded good. Why? I am not one to completely understand the technology and want to be sure I am not missing something.

My processor has 5.1 analog inputs and I am wondering if that would be a better connection for my Oppo.

I know the best solution is a HD621. If I were to buy the HD621, what would the connection be to the input of the HD621. I would like to understand why the HD621 is the solution for loosing MHR connection with my old G98? I want my DVD audio disks to sound as they did with my G98.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Brad

You are listening to compressed multichannel now.

You are hoping an Oppo 105 passing HDMI/PCM via HD621 is equal in SQ to an M G98 running MHR directly into a G68J. I'm not sure it will be on DVDA.

With a HD621 you will have access to lossless audio on BD movies/concerts (usually 16/48 source material) and that will be an upgrade from DVD lossy multichannel audio.

Do you know what failed in the G98? If it's just the power supply, it's a cheap and easy home repair to replace it. Alternatively, Mark Koval on this site repairs M gear.

My G98 stopped playing DVD's although it was ok playing CD's. I purchased an Oppo 95 (the previous model) as I wanted Bluray capability and to be able to continue using my DVD's. It was a great player, extremely well built and fantastic at decoding any file type, the picture quality on DVD was maybe slightly better.

The sound was no match for the G98 so I had mine repaired. I ended up selling the Oppo but kept the G98. I would get yours repaired if it can be done for a fair price.

Regards
Brian

When I had my 5.1 system with 5200s and a G91 I tried an HD621 vs analogue out of the Denon Bluray I was using at the time, can't remember the model, and the Denon was just as good, which was a huge surprise.
On music discs the HD621 has an edge, but not enough to get me to buy it.

So worth trying it if you have some phonos lying around to hook it up via analogue.

I have an Oppo 103D which feeds an HD621 via HDMI and then 3 x RCA digital smart link to G61R.

This configuration is not 'purist' enough for many on this forum due to jitter issues over HDMI etc. however, it works well enough for me for occasional SACD although the decoding is done in the the Oppo.

I do not own any DVD-A discs but playing DVD music videos with 5.1 format over the HDMI connection I do notice an improvement by enabling LPCM conversion in the Oppo, over sending the AC3 bitstream to the G61R. The 5200s also indicate 96KHz when the Oppo is set to LPCM and 48KHz when AC3 is sent to the G61R.

Playback Setup -> DVD-Audio mode should be set to DVD-Audio
Audio Format Setup -> HDMI Audio LPCM

For your non-HDMI set-up try changing the Audio Format Setup -> Coaxial/Optical Output setting to one of the LPCM settings. 96k should work. Compare that with the Bitstream setting.

Experimentation is the key!

Thanks guys.

I will try the analog connection and look at the settings in the Oppo. I was suprised to hear the HDMI via a HD621 does not meet the purists requirements. What does?

Brad

I always thought that M developed the HD621 in order to solve the issue of jitter in HDMI.

I think Meridian developed the HD621 as a way to make HDMI sources interoperate with the multi-channel digital audio inputs they already had on their processors. It fits in nicely but (as I see it anyway) it was mainly a way for their existing architecture to continue working as the world adopted new standards.

The HD621 is designed to clean up jitter and does an awesome job. HDMI has the jitter problem and the HD621 is a very necessary solution.

How unique is the HD621 in this regard? Making FIFOs that operate at audio frequencies, even 6 x 192khz, should not be that big a trick. Is it really the case that other mfgrs of processors with HDMI inputs haven't also solved this problem? I don't mean to disparage Meridian at all, but is this box really notably better in this regard than competing solutions (that may be more integrated with the processor)?

What more integration with the audio processor other than passing the HD audio is required? At least with a two box solution, upgrading to e.g. HDCP 2.2 shouldn't be as expensive.