Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming 218 evaluation / testing

With the arrival of the first shipment of 10 218's this week, they will undergo testing in the following setups:

218 vs 818v3 into DSP8000SE

218 to 258 in a multiroom audio system to include multiple 218's in the same network.

218 to ATI amp and Monitor audio Silver 12 speakers

218 to DSP320 with 218 powered by the DSP320

218 vs MS200 in every setup I can come up with.

218 vs MS600 same as above.

I will let you know how it goes!

Thanks Bruce
Re 218
I look forward to your valued comments on the proposed different comparisons and set ups

Hector

+1

If by any chance a vs. MS200 can be thrown in, especially in an headphone or earspeaker set up i am very interested in that.

Cheers!

Is this correct? I wasn't aware that the 218 could be powered by a DSP speaker.

Brian

Yes , I will make sure to compare the MS200 vs the 218.

Any current 218 users with thoughts on its performance both MQA and red book?

With MQA into SE loudspeakers, it sounds sublime. But then again, I am very sure that the output from the 218 will be *identical* to the output of the 818v3 in this scenario. The rest of the magic is the rendering in the SE loudspeaker hardware.

Again, for MQA decoded into DSP loudspeakers which are capable only of 96/24, it is my understanding that the decoded MQA core is always 2x sample rate, so again, the output of the 218 and 818v3 should be the same.

For non-MQA, it's up to our ears, and I have no opinion at this time.

Initially we were told this was so. With one in hand, this is not true

Bruce - could you please clarify?

I don't think VK was suggesting that the 218 through DSP8000SE would sound identical to an 818v3 through same, merely that the digital output bits would be identical for MQA decoding to work. The 818v3 will presumably have better jitter stats and should sound considerably better than the 218.

I'm honestly not sure about "considerably". In absolute terms, the 218 sounded sublime into my 5200SEs with MQA material (I can't remember what it was in particular). The 818v3 could (should?) be better, but I think that we're talking small margins here. I could be wrong, but it's not an experiment that I can be bothered to perform, because I'm not about to drop another £8k on a second 818.

Not sure that will make too many 818v3 owners feel good about their purchases, of course maybe there aren't too many of them in the first place hence the 218 performance, glad I sold my 818 when I did.

Russ

Wasn't Bruces's reply to the ability to power the 218 from a DSP - i.e. It can't be done?

Matt