Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming MiniDSP U-DIO8 Multichannel USB to 4x SPDIF Interface

Ok so, my MiniDSP U-DIO8 has arrived.

I used some adaptors as the UDIO snake has BNC connectors



I then plugged the UDIO-8 into the MD1 (digital SPDIF multichannel) input of the G61R. Using the Meridian Config Program I created a generic multichannel digital source and in the software connected it to the MD1 input. I set the default DSP to Discrete.

I also created a virtual two channel (stereo) source using the D1 input (front left/right of the MD1 input). This allows the UDIO-8 to be used as a stereo source (using just channels 1 and 2). It also allows Meridian 2 channel music DSP (eg Trifield) to be used. the Multichannel MD1 input will accept two channel audio but because it's a multi input, only multichannel surround sound DSP presets are available (eg, Cinema). Hope that makes sense?

Initial findings:

It's DTS/AC3 transparent, in other words it can pass a DTS or AC3 encoded signal to a Meridian Processor (in my case G61R) which will then automatically sense and decode the DTS or AC3 stream using the Meridian DSP engine. The DTS/AC3 signal is accessed using the Virtual 2 channel input. DTS/AC3 sensing and decoding is not available directly from the MD1 input.

The Meridian G61R correctly routes 4 channel audio (quadraphonic)!!!! What I mean by this is that in 5.1 channel audio, channels 3 and 4 are the center and LFE channels. In 4 channel audio, channels 3 and 4 are Rear Left and Rear Right channels.

The Meridian G61R correctly senses when there are only 4 channels being sent into the MD1 input and correctly routes channels 3 and 4 to RL and RR. I've confirmed this using a 4.0 channel identification test track. I must say, I was very pleasantly shocked it does this, this capability is not mentioned anywhere in the G61R instruction manual. I'm really looking forward to listening to the Chicago Quadio Boxset (Which I have as 4 channel FLAC files) as well as my extensive collection of other 4 channel material

Am I maybe the first person to discover that the Meridian Multi-digial inputs correctly route discrete 4 channel audio?

B-Format Decoding Yep, using a B-Format test track I can confirm the Meridian G61R can decode 1st Order B-Format files played using the B-Format music player. More experimentation needed for other B-Format types. The "Ambisonic" setting is not automatically chosen, but it's easy to manually select it. The 'row' option is not available (unlike with 2 channel UHJ material)


As an aside, I should note that setting up the U-DIO8 requires some knowledge of setting up soundcards and routing audio in Windows, as well as creating MD inputs and virtual inputs in the Medidian Config software. I use Foobar2000 as my main audio player. Once the output settings are set correctly, it works perfectly. I can't speak for other audio players though. I suspect it's just as straightforward due to windows seeing the U-DIO8 as a multichannel audio device (once the drivers are installed of course).

One thing I really find confusing is that on the Meridian Config Software, on the 'products' page which gives a visual diagram of all the sources and connection, virtual sources are not shown. Which is really not at all helpful.

Ali.