Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Help with equipment choice for a music first movies second room

Sounds like I'm getting there. Can anyone tell me what the DAC in the 218 sounds like? I have an endpoint for Roon that I like the sound of. £800 seems like a lot of money, for that I could buy a Chord DAC and keep my Pi with Allo digi one board. I don't stream so MQA is not really a selling point.

regards

If you’re not streaming/interested in MQA, I would take the 218 out of that equation for now, the 568.2 has very capable and very nice sounding DACs.

Is the HD621 needed for now? What’s your source for movies, does it have digital outputs? If so, that’s budget which, for now, could go on a 568.2mm and a DSP5000C centre. Both great pieces of kit.

As you have and enjoy the B&W 'speakers, I'll propose a different solution:

- 568.2mm with a 558 5 channel amplifier (or other quality 5 channel amp, as the Meridian ones are rare and expensive)

- Get a B&W centre to match the CM5s, or even a single CM5 (this will sound better as all three fronts will match acoustically)

- Use the M&K sub

- Use the M&K 'speakers for surrounds (or go with B&W CM1 etc to acoustically match)

- Sell the 501, 555 & Onkyo 818 to fund the above.

As mentioned above, depending on your video source, you may or may not need the HD621?
DTS and Dolby Digital are very good and are better on BRD than they are on DVD (higher bit rates), I never felt the need for a HD621 just for a few bits more on movies, which for me aren't critical listening.

If you don't need it, a 568.1 or 568.2 can be had cheaper than the .2mm as you won't need that multi-channel input.

Just my thoughts!

All the best,
Steve.

It may be worth considering delaying the HD621 if you can depending on your future sources / TV? I never had any problems with it all the time I had it but I can't say the same about the newer UHD722 unfortunately. It still won't run my Oppo 203 reliably. The ever-movable feast that is HDMI is due to bump up to 2.1 over the next year or so and I think the HD621 may max out at 1.4, plenty good for hi-res audio but could conceivably have problems with latest gen Apple TV 4k / Amazon Fire / UHD players / 4k TVs.

~M~

No probs, forget the 218. (192k MQA sounds great btw).

I reckon you should still go with the 568.2mm and the 5000C, (make sure it’s 24/96). Great bits of kit that can be bought at nearly a tenth of what they originally sold for. Capacitor refresh kit for the centre I think is about 30 quid but can wait as well because unless it’s had a really rough time the 5000C will sound fine.

Keep your analogue fronts, HD621’s are great but you should get one for under 500 quid. I would do your homework, hunt about and grab a couple of old, quality balanced mono amps.

Decisions, decisions...

My movie source is an Odroid C2 SBC using Kodi fed from my NAS. It’s the only thing I've found that can handle streaming The Dark Knight Bluray (I don't convert to MKV) with out stuttering, it's also capable of 4k.

So as soon as I get a UHD drive and the new DVDfab for 4k for my PC I'll be testing 4k streaming.

I've been doing a lot of looking and I may have to move from Meridian as much as it pains me. I've seen that the Naim 202 has HT Bypass and I may couple that with a Naim power amp and buy a NAD 758 v3 home cinema amp.

Decisions
Arrghh

I'll be back on here to let you know what I decided.
Thanks for all your help

The Lad