Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Source or speaker?

Prior comment was not directed at you (though the way it was written it may seem like it was). I don't think that anything posted by anyone so far was off topic.

Cabling and room treatment do both relate to the main topic as they are all things to consider in terms of the OP. Even 8ks in an acoustically terrible room will not do their best. And a shoddy, corroded interconnect will make even a great source have issues. This is a space for opinions. And the topic is about opinions. Do you spend 80% on speakers, and the rest on sources? Or 80% on sources and the rest on speakers? But what about the room? Most rooms are awful and for very little cost one can improve the room *before* or during speaker upgrades and have a room that makes great speakers shine and crap speakers sound okay. etc etc.

Agreed, I don't want to stifle a topic. I commented because several other threads have been derailed over a heated (and binary) debate on whether cables etc make a difference and I can't see any benefit in having that particular conversation again. At least not in this particular thread.

PS I should have said, we should all be sensitive to other peoples' feelings :-)

Speakers /room interaction first, in my view! Then everything else.

The fun thing is, this hobby for the open-minded lets you learn all the time.

Now Source or Speaker is a strange question where I'm coming from because ultimately you will have to do both if you listen critically.

And for me, Source today is more complex than 20 years ago with CD/Vinyl. With streaming you have a streaming-chain rather than a simple source. And it starts with the Coax modem or ethernet port in your home and transcends the network to finally coming to the streaming "source" by the old paradigm.

I guess, in my current musical world where the children are now sleeping upstairs, it's been a little different as I had to switch to headphones for most of my listening and bought the best I could find, then incrementally improved the source over the past 18 months (818 -> Chord TT2 -> dCS Bartok -> next stop dCS Rossini) and the alternative would have been to buy new headphones each time I upgraded the source.

Of course, this hasn't gone entirely to plan as Stax then released their SR-X9000

Yes, I think that the ground has shifted into relatively unknown, or at least disputed, territory from the days when we were most concerned about cartridge/turntable combinations and quality pressings. Considering that two $100 power supplies can sound so different in our new digital world, forums like this become that much more important while pursuing the hobby.

Yes, I agree with the last two posts. Who would have thought only five years ago that a switch could have such an impact on sound quality? Does a switch count as a source or part of a source here?

I'd also be inclined to consider the switch as part of the source or, potentially, similar to a cable. They do make a big difference on my Meridian gear - I've recently had to put a Netgear switch at the end of my HiFi chain due to issues with my 818 and it sounds awful compared to the Innuos. My dCS isn't phased by it, but is a newer design.

I have a new toy arriving today to potentially replace the Netgear and Innuos...

Source or 'speaker; I'd go one step either way; recording and room.

A poor recording won't sound good regardless of the equipment.
A terrible room (acoustically) won't sound good regardless of the equipment; DSP doesn't fix reflections...

Apropos to the mention above of 'speakers being the tyres and meeting the road, well think of the room as the road, a well treated room is freshly laid tarmac, a terrible room will be potholed and rutted; I know what I like to drive on..

ATB,

Steve

Au contraire mon ami. There is no such thing as a perfect fix for all sonic problems, but today’s DSP can be very, very good.

OldDogCan,

Are you saying DSP can fix in room reflections?
I didn't think it was possible; you can change the FR to balance the effect of reflections (usually high frequency), but not get rid of them and the resultant time smear that destroys the imaging.

Sykes,

I only have experience with my C61R MRC, which I considered an OK attempt to mitigate resonant frequencies, and Roon’s convolution engine, which I am convinced can effectively address both frequency and timing issues (including reflections) when using custom filters from homeaudiofidelity.com

DSP room correction supports big, wide, tangible 3D imaging in two systems for me. I initially tried HAF filters in 2018 because I had repurposed older equipment in an odd shaped room with lots of glass and stone where I couldn’t employ conventional solutions. The results were so good that I dropped MRC in the designed-for-audio theater in favor of HAF.

Now I’ve measured again after upgrading equipment for a new set that sound better than ever.