Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Which way : 271 + Marantz 8805 or G65 + UHD722

Hi

At major decision point in my system. I have 10 DSP5500s and D33s, which I really want to expand to a 7.1.6 system. Resigned to converting with Revivers etc. for future proofing.

Now thinking I could stay Meridian digital through out with the G65 but not have ATMOS, or go with the Mmarantz 8805 + Meridian 271 option, but not have Meridian room correction / Trifield etc, and accept a digital to analogue then analogue to digital between 8805 and 271. But get by 7.1.6.

Other option just buy another used G68 and wait.

Also can I get a MQA music solution with the 271 using Tidal as a source? This might swing it as then I get high quality music and 7.1.6 movies.

Opinions appreciated as can’t find a solution without some negative.

Regards
Kevin

NAD wil come with a nice upgrade card soon, perhaps worth checking this brand as alternative plus 271 you can keep DSP.
NAD Atmos + Dirac upgrade card

Tidal via Sooloos to a 218 to two channel passthrough on the 271 will let you have your MQA cake.

The 271 route makes best use of all those speakers IMHO. ATI are releasing their 'affordable' ATP16 preamp-processor soon which probably comes out of their acquisition of Datasat. Maybe worth waiting to see if it has any digital outputs.

Hi

So what hardware do I need for the Sooloos option as well as the 218? Can I just run it on a PC or Mac?

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

You would need to have a Sooloos Core somewhere on your LAN, that could be Meridian MC200 (or MD600), or it can run on QNAP NAS (Intel i3).

However, it needs to be said the Sooloos seems stuck in a timewarp ... with little to no development these days and you may wish to consider Roon. Roon can stream to Meridian Sooloos endpoints as well many other devices.

The Roon (GUI/Core/Endpoint) runs on: Windows PC and Macs.
The Roon Server (Headless no GUI) runs on a multitude of devices: Intel NUCs (Win, Linux, ROCK), MacMini, QNAP (i3, 4GB RAM or better).

Roon have also recently signed a comersial agreement with MQA limited, so we expect MQA decoding to be added to Roon at some point in time.

Regards,
Carl

So if I got a MC200 do I still need the 218, as it has SL outputs, if say just using Tidal MQA.

Kevin

The Sooloos Core does not decode MQA, so you would need a Sooloos Endpoint that can ... like the 218 (or 808.6/818.3).

As far as what will be better for movie surround - until the 271 is released and people replace there M processors with different ones it will be hard to know.

The 861v8 is a great product and I’m sure the G65 is very good also. To replace it with the Marantz may be a step sideways versus up even though you would gain some height channels. I heard M's theater demo room at CEDIA with the 271 and another processor (I believe it was a Denon) and I would not trade it for my own system. To be fair I realize it was not the ideal room setup etc. and used different M speakers than I own but again I was not overly impressed. I would need to have heard it in my own setup to see if it compared at all.

My thoughts are you would need to use a more advanced processor to gain real benefits but again it’s hard to know without listening which is going to be difficult to do in your own system (without a demo).

It is nice that M is releasing the 271 so we do have the choice to use other products with DSP speakers but I feel it also tells use that M will not be releasing a new processor for home theater use for a while if at all. So if you want the latest surround formats you may have no choice but to get a different processor.

I also agree with others that the 218 is the best way to go whether you use Sooloos or Roon as you can use it for two channel (MQA) or multichannel music (with a processor that offers it) via the digital coax out of the 218. That may soften the blow of losing Trifield.

I have a 218 downstream of my G68 with Ethernet input for MQA. Saves using 2 DACs. I can control it with the G68 and iPad / iPhone.

Also have a turn table plugged into the 218. Not sure what the 5000’s will do with the signal when they get it as I have analogue main Left and Right. System still sounds great in Trifield. I’m getting 5000’s rears to complement the 5000C for HT duty.

Well, reinstalled a 565 into my system, interesting how good it sounds for a product in its 20's. Had to adjust the HD621 to 2ch not 2x, and not using speakerlink as per the info on Duncan's section. Also various sources (Bluray, SkyQ, XBox 1s) needed to be reduced to standard DD or DTS. Now was going to try the following:

Sky Q optical to 565 giving 5.1 output which 565 turns into 7.1
Sky Q HDMI to Marantz 6011 set as DD+, ie atmos
Height channels Pre outs to DSP33's via AD converter. Connected to comms of 565 with M lead for volume control.

Basically use Marantz to extract Height and drive DSP33s.

In theory I have a 7.1.2 system from a 565. Biggest issue I think could be timing and the height channels being matrixed into surrounds. But if works perhaps gives an option on G65 with heights from the Marantz as alterbative to Marantz Analogue to Digital into 271.

Finally Meridian and dealer have told me I can't connect G65 to 271 digitally, why!! Surely it would at least allow paralell option so I could use G65 for Music and say a Marantz via analogues for Atmos. Meridian have built connectivity fot Trinov, Datasat and Storm Audio via digital, why not their own processors?


Any thoughts.


Kevin