Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Seeking: High Quality D-to-D Converter

M Friends:

I'm seeking a device to put in front of my DSP6000s that will accept any and all digital streams (768 PCM, Quad-DSD, etc.) and output 24/96 PCM into the speakers.

Obviously converting DSD to PCM is non-trivial, so it has to be done more-than-right (I have a lot of DSD content) and I appreciate this is perhaps an excessive ask. But up and down-converting PCM should be straightforward.

I've poked around and don't see much of anything on the market. I know people (like me) usually do this with software on their computer source files. AL my music is digital and I'd like to feed the 6000s the best they can take.

Any pointers or suggestions? I'm concerned I'm fishing in a kilobuck pond - even an M UltraDAC can't do this, I believe (and more than I'm willing to spend)...

Xoxo,
Doody

Roon perhaps, I know it's software but with a suitable end point?

I'd have to say an 818v3 is what you need.

It cannot do the high rate PCM stuff but it does handle dual rate DSD over USB, it can do first stage MQA decoding, and it can act as a Roon endpoint.

I hadn't considered Roon, excellent thought, just route through the network, let a $1000 computer do the math and then route the 24/96 to a simple endpoint. I've been looking into Roon anyway - will dig.

The 818 is a SICK piece of kit! I still miss my old 518, but the 818 price point is brutal. Plus it won't make me gleeful since it can't do quad and octo DSD - nor the 768 stuff, but a computer can (albeit maybe not always in real time). For that kind of money it should wash my kitchen floor when it's not converting audio!

Gonna do some Roon digging, maybe a Raspberry Pi based endpoint to the 6000s...

xoxo,
doody

You didn't say what your source was "USB, Ethernet, SPDIF"?

I assume USB.

I think this unit comes close.

This has an SPDIF Output and it appears looking at the manual you can limit it's output rate for Meridian devices.

M2Tech Hiface Two It's around $600

This does "EVERYTHING" and has SPDIF Output. But I'm not sure there is a way to limit the rate on the SPDIF Output. The manual stinks.

iFi Micro BL It's around $550

It is designed as "portable" device so has a battery in it. I got one on sale for $400.00

Also not sure what both devices output on SPDIF for DSD Source. The iFi uses a Burr Brown DAC that supports DSD Natively. the M2Tech unit is an XMOS type device so it may convert it to PCM for the SPDIF Output.

Roon can run under JRiver (Windows) and JRiver has extensive sample rate conversion.

Foobar2000 will also handle any file format and output anything you want [I use a HiFace2 ($200 USB to SPDIF) or Mojo (Almost any Native format to Analog Only)]. But FooBar doesn't support Streaming from Roon/Tidal as far as I know.

This is the way to go. It will happily convert everything you mention (I think) to 24/96. And has both growing potential in this area (for example if Sooloos endpoints and Meridian speakers ever accept 192 PCM), and a gazillion more features you may find useful.

Then get a (s/h) Meridian MS200 to get the 24/96 into the speakers.

Very helpful guys - thank you!!!!

xoxo,
doody