Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic Airplay setup?

Hello~

In addition to my Sooloos setup, I also enjoy the beauty of simplicity of Airplay, taking an advantage of additional coaxial input in the master speaker.

I use Apple Airport Express as an airplay source, which only has optical output, where my DSP only takes coaxial input. So I bought cheap optical-to-coaxial converter to do the magic, and it is working, but it is highly suspicious that this converter is causing various SQ issues, (more jitters and etc) as well as some connectivity issues, as music disconnects from time to time, even the signal is max.

To resolve this problem, I thought about idea of adding DDC (digital-to-digital converter) which is will reduce jitter, and also re-clock sample rate to the max that my DSP can process, which should improve overall SQ.

Has anyone tried this Airplay-DDC setup with DSP? And are there any DDC product that has optical input? (majority of DDC inputs are USB, as this is most used for PC-FI.)

And please enlighten me if I am think (doing) something wrong here.

Appreciate your thoughts in advance.

I've never used one, but isn't a 518 something that may be suitable?

The only audiophile AirPlay device on the market, with coaxial output, is the Arcam airDAC.

Thank you for the suggestions.

AirDac could be possibility, but I cam across with this product X-DDC which has optical input and coaxial output.

Will this work with my DSP5200?

Thank You.

how about testing your cheap opt to coax box using eg a CD player with optical out. That way you rule out the wifi interface if that is the problem and confirm if the cheap box is a problem, before buying more boxes.

Hi, all

I decided to go ahead with my $300 experiment by "adding more boxes" between Airport Express and my DSP, and here are useful findings, followed by some questions.

After adding the DDC (linked in previous reply), the sound improvement was instantly noticeable. The sound is much thicker, and refined, felt like I was listening to different music. This would be probably because DDC's main purpose is to reduce the jitter which I believe Airport Express produces plenty. Up-sampling also works just fine, and x2 gives 88.2Khz which triggers beautiful amber light in my DSPs. Overall very satisfied, and decided to keep it in my system, but here comes the biggest problem.

I hear very frequent disconnect(skip, click) in sound (about 0.1 sec), which sounds like there could be some sync issue. This is obviously something I don't want, despite there are lot to gain in the SQ. Can experts share their insights on why this would be the case. (It is also same when I use "pass" mode which outputs 44.1Khz) However, during the 88.2Khz output the amber light in DSP does not blink, which should mean that the incoming signal is "locked"

The technical specifics that I am aware of so far, regarding this DDC is that the optical input uses "asynchronous transmission." to deliver best possible audio quality. Would changing it to synchronous transmission resolve this issue?

Thank You in advance.

Sorry Cujo, but the best analogy I can come with is.......

You have a fantastic 3-course meal available to you at ANY time of the day or night.....flick a switch and it's there in front of you

But instead you choose to get a burger delivered from the local fast-food joint......fine for a quick fix.......but not a substitute for the always available 3-course meal above

And you've no doubt guessed that the Airport Express and Airplay are the "burger" in this analogy!!

The AE will alter and compromise the sound and NO amount of playing around with it.......or adding special equipment or "sauces" will ever allow you to recover the damage already done by the AE

The "3-course" meal here is to simply use your MS200 [or upgrade to an MS600......or even better the 818v3]......and use that to feed your DSP's.......that is the best solution and the one you should use 24/7/365 IMHO

You might also want to try Roon.....which allows a variety of devices for UI........and will also play the files to your MS200

FWIW, the AE will resample EVERYTHING back down to 16bit / 44khz........so even 24/96 files are resampled to 16/44......resulting in compromised sound.......and this doesn't even mention the huge amount of jitter typically added by the AE

Thank you very much for this brilliant analogy, and the point well taken.

However, we want the Big Mac and Fries from time to time, and I am planning to do further experiment on making that special sauce to spicy up the burger.

So far, my finding is that it is difficult to mix audiophile grade equipment with normal electronics (e.g. AE)... if everything fails, I might just get AirDAC or Sonos Connect to use the Airplay.

Quick question. Seems like AirDAC is over 2 times more expensive than Sonos Connect, and while we are only interested in digital output, leaving out the DAC capabilities out from the equation, would the quality of digital output of both gears be any different?

Thank You~

Arcam AirDAC

While it is good, it isn't the best solution for the money.

A Meridian MS200 would be much cheaper and a better match for your system.

Hi.. Thank you for the info..

Are you suggesting that my MS200 can be used for Airplay?

How can it be done? Could you share your knowledge please.

Thank you

No, I'm not suggesting that an MS200 can be utilised for AirPlay.

AirPlay is restricted to 16/48 playback, whereas an MS200 is capable of 24/192 playback.

If you value high-quality music playback on your expensive Meridian speakers, then the MS200 is the perfect match.

If the issue purely centres on your speakers' coaxial input, you could either buy a Meridian AC12 or a Reviver to solve your MS200 input problem.

However, you already have a Reviver - so how are you currently using this?

Cujo, please would you clarify something?

Is your MS200 already connected to your 5200s?

If not, why not?

And are your experiments with Airplay just that: experiments? i.e. a bit of fun