Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems My journey with Meridian (and Shunyata, AQVOX etc)

Yes, that’s why it is £60 and not £600! I’m rather hoping that support isn’t needed!
They are second hand.

Can you please tell us the exact model/type? There are some variations

Whats the difference to a basic switch for about € 20.- ?

Someone who listened to the SotM in series with the AQVOX said there was an increase, but not a huge one (about a 10% improvement). As I would have had my AQVOX just lying around, I decided to use that as the switch that precedes the SotM that sits on my desk. I do think the SotM makes a difference, but it's been difficult to measure with the issues with the mains I appear to be suffering with.

I'm still planning to get a PS Audio P12 to use with the 818, which I'm hoping will fix that once and for all!

They heard they'd been overtaken by SotM

It’s a managed switch (commercial) but can be used in auto mode. I can’t currently explain the increase in SQ, I hope to find out in due course. I need to study how switches work... Ping is much much quicker but how that affects SQ, I’m not sure.

The new audio products being developed for/as network switches indicate the relevance. Sonore have a good reputation for substance over snake oil. It’s partly isolation partly switch noise and clocking. I presume the Cisco switch does some of this and manages the data to some extent.

As promised I'm returning with an update on the mains noise issue, just without the pictures as I'd hoped (so far). For some reason, when I go through the steps the pictures don't actually get uploaded, even though I've been able to select them (probably user error due to lack of time).

Well, my P5 (I bought a new, unsold unit) arrived a couple of weeks ago, which has so far eradicated the problem of the sound stage collapsing at times.

I also found the P5 gave a good improvement in SQ when powering my 818 (and plugged directly into the mains supply). My wife's comments were that it much 'smoother', although she questioned whether that was always better. She also questioned whether what I paid was a lot of money to get an increase in SQ, but I digress!

Plugging the P5 into the Shunyata Triton turned out to be a huge improvement again. Both audibly and demonstrably in the (useful) graphs the P5 has. Interestingly, the Shunyata cut by up to 2/3rd's the difference between the 'correct' mains amplitude and what was actually coming in through the wall. Bear in mind, that's not just eradicating high frequency noise (unfortunately, and completely unsurprisingly, the P5 has no FFT capability), but seemingly fixing a lot of issues across the frequency spectrum.

My Typhon is heading back to Shunyata tomorrow to become a Typhon QR and I would imagine the gap will become even smaller then (perhaps to the point the P5 becomes superfluous?).

In summary, my immediate problem is fixed by the P5. With the P5 connected directly to the wall, the noise shows up as taking up approx. 7/12's of upper and lower parts (+ve and -ve) of the screen that show the difference between the incoming voltage and what it should be - I need to ask PS Audio what the scale is before I can comment on whether that is a lot, but I would imagine a decent amount.

I will report back when the Typhon QR gets back into my hands (unless Brexit leaves it stranded in an airport somewhere :-0).

PS For those that are interested, I tried the P5 directly into the wall socket before the Triton as a test, so it powered the DSP's too. All I can say is the P5 was never designed to power the power and number of amps we have in our speakers (that's more P15/P20 territory, I suspect) and the music sounded somewhat foggy.

PPS In response to an earlier question about whether the mains noise was coming from inside the house, all I can say is that, when I switched everything off in the house bar the HiFi (everything turned off from the fuse box, only leaving the listening room on), there was zero difference in the graph produced by the P5. The visible noise didn't change one iota.

On a very different note, I've also swapped my speaker spikes for the IsoAcoustic GAIA II's.

I've since realised I need to send these back as I hadn't taken account of the fact the DSP speakers only have three spikes, so the loading on each support is somewhat higher than if spread over four (and the DSP7200's go way over what the GAIS II's are meant to be doing as a result).

While I'm yet to be completely sold on acoustic isolators for other parts of the system (with some exceptions), this was definitely an upgrade worth doing... and I'm overjoyed with the impact these have had. Definitely worth considering, especially if you can return them if you don't like them.

I have a P5 running a G68 and DSP5200s and even at high volume it’s only using about 25-30% of its capacity. I’m sure the 7200s draw more but I’m a bit surprised that it’s not enough. Interesting...

The P12 has lower output impedance and higher peak output in the same form factor. Might be worth trying one.

Also, the P5 reports THD in and out. I’m usually around 3% in and 0.2 - 0.3% out.

I was nowhere near its capacity, but I still found it blurred the sound compared to the Triton. I suspect the P15/20 in particular would do a much better job.

PS For those wondering, I am referring to the PS Audio P5 (apologies I didn't make that clearer in my previous post).

I’ve decided, after a few days of listening to the GAIA isolators on my 7200’s, that I understated just how good they are. To my mind, the performance improvement is probably as great as going from an 818v2 to a v3.

Definitely worth trying... Just remember the DSP’s only have three feet, so you may have to go up one level on the GAIA scale (in my case from the II’S to I’s, which are on the way). My testing has been on the (currently overloaded) GAIA II’s.

I agree, the Isolators do seem to have a very positive impact on the SQ. You have a PM.