Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Active power cables and mains filters

Yeah, 210 is the preferred option while we "wait" for an MQA/RAAT card.

I put an active powercable on the 210 (Shunyata Sigma Digital + Shunyata Venom V14 IEC->C5 adapter). I don't have an A+B config but must say that it sounds awesome. And when MQA hits the Trifield setup, WOW!

Why would you want an active powercable on the 210 you might ask, well because it literally eats distorsion for dinner so that 210 gets a real smooth powermeal.

Venom NR series is the cheapest active noise eating powercables and will be a big upgrade to any streamer and digital preamp etc.

Venom NR introclip

Shunyata Venom NR series link (Active eaters of distorsion)

How good is the Bel Canto SPDIF converter, it could be reducing SQ quite easily? How is it powered? It’s a pretty critical piece. I use a Mutec (also re-clocks) or Sonore Ultra digital with a good power supply.

Innuos have 8 effectively separate power supplies in their top of the line streamer. Good power is important. I suspect a fancy power cable wouldn’t make any difference with that, the regulation is done after conversion to DC. It may be that Meridian don’t do that much inside so a fancy power cable may help. I think there’s a cart and a horse involved here.

An active Shunyata NR power cable will of course clean the AC before an LPS does AC-DC conversion. That means the DC will have lower ripple and better stats. You will be able to measure this. Just as you will see noise lowered on your AC circuit in your listening room. Again you can measure this with a fluke or other power analyzers.

This is NOT just a wire, it’s an active circuit with measurable impact. It has really no peer in the industry yet.

Shunyata even started delivering their products to the medical industry and hospitals because they were seeing better results on their screens with much higher S/N ratios. Real science, not just a wire.

That’s a big leap to assume that “clean” AC will reduce ripple after DC conversion. Ripple is an artefact of the AC DC conversion. Regulators reduce noise/ripple, I don’t think the mind how much you’ve spent on a cable. Better in doesn’t necessarily mean better out, not that simple.

Noise on the AC circuit may or may not affect your Hi-Fi. According to Bob Stuart, it’s all done inside in any event.

I’ve not seen post regulation measurements. I’m sure they measure lots of stuff, question is, does it make any difference to the sound. I wouldn’t expect anyone who’s spent a lot of money on a cable not to hear a difference though...

Not a lot of science going on there as usual.

I believe I read somewhere (sorry, but I can't remember the source) that in the last two years, Meridian has become convinced of the efficacy of Shunyata products, and is now using them in their showrooms and endorsing them.

This was “Meridian America” , ie the dealership network, nothing to do with Meridian UK.

Why would Meridian admit they couldn’t produce Hi-Fi? This isn’t rocket science.

There are always people who will spend money on fripperies in Hi-Fi. Harmless as long as others don’t fall for the nonsense.

I asked Bob Stuart myself, it was a one line answer- it’s all done inside.

Personally I think Meridian could do more inside and I’d buy more kit if it came with a 12v socket and I could put my own power in.

Thanks for the correction on what part of M it applied to. Do you remember the source of the news (i.e. that M-America was recommending Shunyata)?

Much as I love Meridian and I fully respect Bob's expertise, if they really said their integrated PSU is the final word on power, they are wrong. I've been using Shunyata for somewhere around 18 months and the kit has transformed my system.

Meridian America embrace Shunyata Power and Cable Probably

Anyone watch the Bill Gates documentary on Netflix? In the first episode, Bill is trying to solve the sanitation problem. Big problem everywhere in the world except for developed nations.

One of the systems that is built is an industrial plant that can take "fecal sludge" and convert it into ash and drinkable water. Bill walks up to it, turns the tap to fill a glass, and just drinks it. This is water that an hour ago arrived in a truck in the form of poo. The plant's job is to take whatever impurities your water arrives in, and get rid of them, providing pure water.

I assume that this is the job of the power supply in my Meridian speakers. Its job is to take whatever impure power, whatever noise is on that line, and produce a solid DC for the amplifiers and DACs.

Are we like Bill here? If someone walks up to Bill and says, "Hey, that's a nice $50,000 water plant you've got there. I've got this $1000 system that will remove the feces for you before it goes in" Bills gonna say "No thanks, don't need it. You can literally put human feces in this thing and I get pure water. You can't get cleaner than pure. There's nothing improve. I don't need the input cleaned, because that's exactly what I built: an input cleaner."

Did Meridian not build an input cleaner? Are the power supplies in our kit any good? Are they like Bill's pure water machine? Or do they, in fact, need something to stop the impure power getting to them, because they simply can't do the most fundamental, most crucial job of an audiophile power supply?

I think it comes down to priorities and space inside the unit.

When you design a component, you generally build it to a certain price point and even high price points have a limited budget. Meridian focus on making great amps, great d/a convertors etc and I believe they take sensible measures in power, rather than try to be the final word.

To do so would push pricing up and dictate how customers spend their money on what would otherwise be upgrades. Combined with the fact that one kind of upgrade can sound fantastic until you start upgrading other components, at which point it might become the thing holding the overall system back.

There’s also the issue of space. Fitting a Triton v3 and a Triton QR in each Meridian box would be impossible until Dr Who’s Tardis becomes generally available. What I can tell you is that I don’t regret for a minute the cost of incorporating these in my system. If I didn’t think they made that much of a difference, I would have remained with the v2 and stopped there.

@ogri
It doesn’t seem to matter what views on this your hear from others you don’t seem to accept any of them. Instead you post over and over the same belief that nothing can be done to improve DSP PSU.

Rather than make snide remarks about those that have tested and purchased items, go and get some to test yourself at home instead. Then speak with some experience.