Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Upgrading my system, DD+ into PCM then HD621 or UHD722 or not?

Hi to all the audiophile nutters such as my self, what an expensive hobby we find our selves indulging in!

It seems so easy to get this wrong. I had a Yamaha Z11 which I felt was performing poorly and it eventually stopped working so I sent it in for a service and replaced some caps and put it up for sale and went down the road of separates. It sold in under an hour and its new owner raved about it in his system, turns out his interconnects where far superior to what I had. Meanwhile thousands later I had a Meridian 558 power amp and a G68 and HD621 under the bonnet in the cabinet. The fellow who I bought it off upgraded all my interconnects to solid silver core analog RCAs between the processor and the power amp and upgraded my banana plugs on my Chord Oddesy 4 speaker cables, plus quality silver HDMI leads. Then I slotted in an Oppo 205 for CDs, the speaker system was definitive technology BP7001SC fronts, a CLR2000 and BP2X rears and the processor was calibrated to the room.

Cat Steven, pink Floyd and anything jaz or classical sounded awesome.

The Obvious bottle neck was the CLR 2000 and the tiny BP2X rears ... plus I had talked my self into thinking that the Bipola aray of the def techs wouldn't produce that class A sound we often lust over. I tried to find a CLR 3000 in Australia and a pair of BPVX rears to tonally match the 7001 but couldn't so I considered starting again with the speakers... oops now that can cost more than the rest of the system! and sometimes a great buy on the fronts leads to more money on the rest.

So what turned up? a pair of Dynaudio confidence C2s the price was to good to pass up. wow now Pink Floyd where performing in my lounge room, the system was sounding great now. But now the Def Tech CLR2000 at 92 dB was stepping forward of the 88dB Dyns, I had no Subs with out the 7001s and still needed rears that where worthy. Of course if you look hard enough you will find what you are looking for, this time a Dyn confidence C1 center came up, Damn going into debt now, this sort of kit isn't cheap, it turns up next week and I still need subs (hopefully a couple of Rel subs) and Dyn surrounds.

Now getting to the point... anything heavy like rock sounds like crap really after all that. So now what are the new issues... the aging processor doesn't like Dolby Digital Plus etc. or any of the newer codecs so I am using a $120 Western Digital to convert to PCM into the Oppo then into the Meridian HD621 before I can get DD+ to work, so there is still more to do and here is a question for those familiar with Meridian.

Do I buy the new UHD722 switcher to process the new codecs or sell the G68 and get a Marantz 8805 pre amp and be up to date or get a better media streaming box as long as it can send through PCM to the HD621?

A huge question is... would the hi def codecs converted to PCM sound poor compared to the processor being able to process them itself? Is this a bottle neck or is the bottle neck the $120 Western Digital live converting the PCM stream, being digital generally its ok even at lower price brackets isn't it?

I want to stream movies and music so any thoughts? Surely I haven't made a mistake going to the top end Dynaudio kit, great for music hopefully with a great sub or two and the dyn center they will be ok and also haven't re calibrated the processor for room correction again as I haven't finished changing the speakers yet.

I have got to say though the two channel sound is great, I have just got to get the high def signal into it all... MQA... mmm, but the age of my processor... mmm or will the UHD722 fix most of my issues and even then I wouldn't be able to do Atmos etc although I could get another 558 or should one go to Digital class D low heat... and so the questions continue to upsurge through into the mind in this state of madness we call Audiophile (:

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum, I'm still mulling of your system's history and thinking about likey paths for you, but here some initial thoughts.

I think a lot depends what you balance between music and movies. Most of the mid-range processor that support Atoms are second cousins to how they handle music compared to a Meridian processor. Checkout this topic Which way : 271 + Marantz 8805 or G65 + UHD722.

Whilst the UHD722 supports 4K HDMI switching, which many have been asking for ... like the HD621 it does not perform any decoding, so you would still need some form of external DD+ to PCM conversion to feed a M processor.

I'm not realy current on analogue speaker setups and amps, I have a DSP system, so I'll leave others to comment on that aspect of your system.

Regards,
Carl

Hi Carl,

I didn't know that the UHD722 didn't decode anything wow now wonder people are annoyed with the expense, if it is just a 4K switch.

I wonder if I could sufficiently convert the newer sound codecs to multi channel PCM with something of quality, that considering that I have a HDMI 2 input and output in the Oppo 205 maybe I don't need to buy a UHD722 at all.

Would I build a NUC media streamer, possibly a Nvidia Shield would do the job???

Any suggestions anyone?

Cat Stevens and Pink Floyd - you probably don't need to spend anything - they were recorded on wax cylinders or magnetic wires.

Not sure what you are looking for from your post better? Update? Music/movie? What can't you play now? What are you hoping to gain?

As long as it supports decoding audio to PCM you're fine. I used to run HTPCs, then Dune players and mostly use a Shield TV with Kodi these days, which supports it. It does of course not work with the new codecs such as Atmos or dtsX.

More and more streaming boxes don't support decoding to PCM, so bitstreaming is really the way to go, no matter what Meridian says.

A 218 between your g68 and analogue fronts will give you 24/196 mqa from it’s Ethernet input. Hunt about and you should get one for under a grand Aussie so no import duty.

Hi Fitcaz,

I wrote the information originally to document my upgrade path and then to talk about the issues I have ran into by getting into the G68 and HD621.

I was hoping changing to the Dynaudio Confidence from the Def Tech wasn't a wasted of money which could have bought a more modern processor, maybe it was

I do watch a lot of movies and TV series which the Def Techs do a good job of, but I also enjoy my 2 channel listening, so before spending on improving the def Techs (CLR3000 and BPVX surrounds) I switched to the Dyns. I suppose I was looking for confirmation that when set up the Dyns should be better, for movies as well.

I hit a wall with the codec compatibility issues and then the UHD722 upgrade and whether or not I needed it.

This is my upgrade other than what I am doing with the Dyns and needing subs and a 4K media streamer, but I am frustrated with the how to get Meridian to process the newer codecs. PCM?

Hi Stephan,

I have not been able to configure the Oppo 205 to output the Center channel for DD+ when configuring it to LPCM??? I get the surround sounds and not the center channel for speech.

In this case with Meridian, is processing PCM different to LPCM?

I am thinking seriously about the Nvidia Shield and would believe it to be a solution.

How is the connectivity, does it have two HDMI outlets?

HDMI2 direct to the TV and an optical cable for the Meridian or would I do one HDMI2 into the Oppo and then split off the sound and picture?

Is the sound and picture quality coming through it good?

Hi Struttmaster,

The 218 sounds good I just read up on it.

Does it have it's own control of the MQA and Tidal streaming, Roon as well?
If it is two Channel input and output can the Trifield DSP setting on the G68 be utilized?

Paul

218 two channel audio : or does the Meridian G68 convert the 2 channel audio into the various surround multi channel variants.

Can the Nvidia Shield convert the dtsX and Atmos to multi channel PCM or is it just pass through?

If so this means the Meridian couldn't process the bitstream and would not have sound from the Meridian ... and thus have to rely on the TV sound alone?

I use Trifield and it sounds fine to me with my old analog kit and equally old DSP5000HC. The blue light comes on when streaming MQA stereo via Tidal/Roon to its Ethernet input. I use digital out from the processor for CD/HT duties and din comms to SpeakerLink comms cable for control. It doesn’t have the functionality of some Roon ready endpoints like the the Pro-ject Digital S2 but it can be integrated and controlled by legacy Meridian processors and be part of a HT set up and stream MQA. Sounds very nice too! Note that the streaming protocol is not the same as RAAT, so you will not be able to link zones to get the party cranked unless you use other Meridian endpoints such as the MS200.