Hi William

I think you're taking an entirely sensible approach to power :-)

Are you using your Meridian speakers for the AV system? You should be able to get fantastic sound quality from them, but I suspect it will be dependant on how good the source is. Sadly, I no longer have my Meridian surround sound system, but in its day, the 568 hooked up to a decent DVD player blew the socks off any cinema I visited at the time!

If so, I'd be inclined to test using SPDIF from Bluray over coax into the 808 to see what level of quality that gives you. Assuming that works well, then you should be able to work backwards to figure out where the issue is. [PS Bluray players aren't necessarily the last word in digital audio output, but I'm willing to bet they're better than a Sky box!]

Interesting to hear Chord's taking a new approach to HDMI cables, I'll do some reading up on this...

As for ethernet switches, I highly recommend the SOtM at the top end (if specified with their master clock) and UpTone's EtherRegen (a bit more fiddly to use in practise, but less expensive and - to my ears - almost as good). Second hand AQVox SE's may be found for reasonable amounts too - they take second place to the SOtM, but can probably now be bought for much less money. BTW I've just bought SOtM's USB re-clocker and it has made a huge difference to my headphone setup!

Hope some of this helps - let me know if any of the ramblings above didn't make sense!
J.

Last edited by Jeremy A-H; 2020-12-11 00:53.
Prolific music listener / Hi-Fi addict!