Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Meridian 218 : Set-up tips & tricks etc.

Placeholder / pre-empting the first deliveries of the 218....
[Apologies if you thought shipping had started !]

Please list / assist / suggest - with instructions for getting the 218 up-and-running ASAP - and any hints / tips / tricks associated with its installation & use.

I will be using mine purely to enable MQA through my 861 / DSP8000 system with Roon.

My speakers are currently connected using "home run" topology, so I assume I connect one cable from the 861 SpeakerLink Master / Out to the 218 SpeakerLink in, the 218 SpeakerLink Out to the DSP8000 Master speaker, and the DSP8000 SpeakerLink Master Out to the other DSP8000 speaker.

And, of course, I connect the 218 LAN input to my network and therefore Roon, which would then hopefully be identified (by Roon) as an Endpoint.

Open question for me is the MSR+ and 861 : would anything need to be changed in their setup to enable / ensure switching between the Roon input & all the others that are currently programmed?

Volume is then controlled by ... Roon... and the MSR+ ... through the speakers? Do I have to ensure that one of the DSP's is the system Controller and not the 861? Or...?

I would be surprised if the quality of the SpeakerLink on the 218 is equivalent to the SpeakerLink output of the 861.

Wiring as suggested (861SL -> 218 -> DSP8000) will likely bring the output performance of the 861 down to that of the 218.

For audio, consider investigating instead wiring the 218 in parallel with the 861 using D2 on the DSP8000's. Not sure how comms would work though - you may need to keep that in series or put 218 indo D1(SL) and 861 into D2 + comms - latter may be treated as a second room system as far as D8k's are concerned. Or comms may not matter although IIRC that MQA capability handshake occurs over comms.

As detailed by Bruce elsewhere on the forum, I added MQA full functionality to our system with a Cat 6 ethernet AB switch.

SpeakerLink outputs from our 861 and (in my case) 818 into the switch, common output line from the switch to our Master front speaker (with the other front speaker daisy chained off the Master). Both 861 and 818 programmed as Controller.

Position the switch to "A" and I run 5.1 out of the 861; switch to "B" and I run 2-channel (full MQA capable) our of the 818. It works well, albeit a bit clunky. (Using a remote controllable switch with Crestron or equivalent would be smoother.)

I did worry about SQ of the 218 versus 818, so applied a windfall that fell into my lap to the higher quality source.

John

You are run SL outputs in a ethernet "switch" ?
Which model/type is your switch?

You know that SL have nothing to do with ethernet.
Please tell more info here.

Robert

We are using an ethernet AB switch that allows you to switch all eight conductors of tbe cat5/6/7 cable simultaneously. These switches are used in data centers for network fail over. There are manual versions such as the ones he and I are using and RS-232 versions that can automate things nicely.

Sorry for the confusion. I am talking about a Cat 6 RJ45- compliant "mechanical switch", not an ethernet "switch" from which you can support multiple ethernet devices from a given network.

For completeness, I am using the Model 8086 RJ45 Cat 6 Manual A/B Switch from Electro Standards Laboratories (based just down the road from me in Cranston, RI)

Hi

I think that is what they are talking about. SpeakerLink does not use network packets.

Bruce - can you post the model make and number?

Cheers
Tom

Mine is QVS ABC switch that I got from Dalco electronics. See Gallery.

Internal 818v3 latency aside, why is this switched solution better than routing the 861v8 main L/R outputs into the 818v3 SL input?

I have been told that doing that would cause comms issues and other problems.
Having been told that I have also not tried it.

The switched solution maintains everything as if they were separate systems. It even updates to the correct source when switched and as soon as volume is pressed is syncs correctly.

In my system when I automate the switch I will use the trigger from the 818 to signal my Crestron system to send the RS-232 code to switch to the 818. All else will be on the G65 and will default to it when the 818 is off.

There is a way to do this using a AC12 and comms are maintained. There have been a couple systems set up in the US by Meridian. The one caveat I have heard is that the source display on the slave front speaker is not always correct

Thanks for clarification, I like the idea to get more possibilities without disadvantages.

Robert