Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Explorer² with a SBT

Sorry for the off topic and possibly dumb question; but I didn't realise the Explorer² would work with a SBT as I thought drivers had to be installed?

Or are the drivers installed on whatever device you have that runs Roon i.e NAS or PC etc?

Thanks

I just plugged it into the Touch and it worked! I don't need volume control, of course.

Thank you; that's good to know.

Presumably; therefore I could also use the SBT > Explorer² output into the preamp of an analogue amplifier > analogue speakers?

Absolutely. Use the fixed line out output rather than the headphones output.

Thanks again.

This seems like a significant discovery.

The Squeezebox Touch is probably still the most widespread Music Media player around. If it can pass through downloaded MQA material or replay (whenever it happens) MQA via TIDAL; it would seem the SBT + Explorer² is the currently most cost effective way of getting MQA into non M analogue systems.

And probably M analogue systems too.

Indeed!

Shouldn't have sold my squeezebox Dan, who know lol Chris 😎

Yesterday I got a used Explorer² (s/n E20181) and with a great deal of help from ChrisLayerUK managed to get the latest firmware and drivers installed. – thanks (again!) Chris.

However; I’m having problems with it working correctly with both my PC (see separate thread) and at all with my Squeezebox Touch.

As with Rolski in the Roon, SBT, Explorer² setup help ... trying to play MQA thread my SBT doesn’t want to talk to my Explorer².

Prior to adding the Explorer² the music pathway was: Netgear Ready NAS > SBT > Musical Fidelity DAC > AMP. I recently borrowed an Audiolab Q DAC (capable of 24/192) and added the EDO plugin to SBT and all worked ok using the SBT's USB output. Hoping that I would just be able to put the Explorer² in place of my MF DAC as VirusKiller managed and it would work; I added the Explorer². I guess I was being optimistic! The first white light on the Explorer² is on; but I presume that is only because it is getting power from the USB input?

When I try to play music on the SBT there is no output from either the line level output or the headphone output. When I quickly tried this yesterday; I presumed that a signal was going into the Explorer² and that nothing was coming out.

Repeating this today; I’m not sure that a signal is going the Explorer². I have noticed that when I use the EDO/USB output and select the Explorer² DAC from the audio output options and then try and play a track; the progress bar does not progress nor does the time elapsed or time remaining counters appear.

As I said; I have used the EDO USB output before with another DAC without problems – so there must be some peculiarity about the Explorer².

SBT Screenshots:

‘Normal’ digital output from SBT. Note elapsed time and time remaining counters either side of track progress bar:



Explorer² selected in SBT Audio Output Menu:




Output via USB into Explorer². Note elapsed time and time remaining counters are not shown. Progress bar does not progress; even though the screen indicates 'now playing'.



As VK has managed to get the Explorer² and SBT to work; there must be some variation in the settings of one or both devices.
I have the 0.8 version of EDO and the version number on my SBT is 7.7.3r16676 and the hardware revision is 5.

Has anyone any thoughts as to what I could change or try?

Thanks

Needs to be 7.8.

Thanks.

I guess that 7.8. is not an official Logitech release?



Can I ask where you managed to get 7.8.?

A dumb question - but 7.7/7.8 refers to the firmware of the Touch device itself and nothing to with which version of Logitech Media Server you are running? I believe there are different versions of LMS for PC and other platforms. So the fact that I'm running LMS on a NAS has nothing to do with what version of 7.8. I get?

There's basically a 1:1 relationship between a LMS and the firmware version.

You'll need to uninstall the EDO plugin first I *think*.

LMS 7.8 is not an official Logitech release, but is a community supported release which has been around for ages. You can get it here

When you connect the Touch to the server (with EDO uninstalled), the Touch will download the 7.8 firmware.