Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Hardware with Roon Application Has Roon changed?

Hi

Been away for a few weeks and returned to play some material from my Roon setup on laptop via 210 to Meridian 7200SE.

Now the MQA from TIDAL seems to have diminished. Now played Cat Steven’s Tea for Tillerman which used to be 192 MQA now moved to 192 FLAC.

When I play I get this on signal path …

SOURCE
TIDAL FLAC 192khz 24bit 2CH

BIT DEPTH CONVERSION
24 bit to 64bit float

Sample rate conversion
192 kHz to 96 kHz

Bit depth conversion
64 bit float to 24bit

Meridian 210
Roon advanced audio transport

Output
Digital output.

Displays on 7200SE AS 96 MHR

Are others seeing this ?

Have we lost something or is this a gain. Sure previously this was 192 MQA on 7200SE

Kevin

You’re not dreaming nor having a nightmare, unfortunately: many MQA titles are being offered as FLAC.

It would be nice if Meridian could indicate upgrade to 210 or and DSPs to benefit from this change. Feels like it has been coming since April last year. Can’t see any comment from Meridian. I thought Roon / Tidal / 210 was the optimal source. Is there another option to get 196 / 24 FLAC into my 7200SE?

Kevin

It’s up to Tidal and Qobuz how they deliver their files, and is nothing to do with Meridian.

I am likely mistaken on this - but I thought the SE still were just 24/96 (yes I know they display MQA info but that isn't the same thing)?

Yes but the specs still say (on Meridian's site for specifically the 7200se)

"AUDIO INPUTS

Meridian SpeakerLink (RJ45) & RCA phono digital inputs accepting 32kHz to 96kHz sampling rates at up to 24-bit"

As in, regardless of what the speaker display says - they are only actually getting 24/96. There are many threads referencing this and from what I've looked at so far it is simply oversampling the 24/96 stuff. I don't have any SE's myself but the easy test is to send non-mqa 192 material to them and see if it works. But from what I have found (so far - happy to be corrected) they can't handle that. If they were - why do the specs say they can only get 24/96?

Roon is capable if upsampling anything to 24/192k or down to 24/96.

*edited to add "rendered at" reads like "upsampled to" in my head*

You need an MQA source file to achieve 192kHz on SE’s.

If you’re fortunate to own DSP9’s…

So where do I get the 192K MQA source from now? Could I purchase files and store on Roon server?

Am I right thinking 24/96 FLAC will be no worse than 24/96 MQA have I just lost the very top level from Tidal?

What would have been nice would have been some parallel availability. We could then have compared MQA to the FLAC versions to see if they sound the same or better.

Kevin

One way to access 192 MQA is from Tidal is through BluOS. For example, you could acquire a Bluesound Node. I am using one with the 818v3 and have access to all of my MQA material on Tidal.

I thought a lot of this issue was Tidal only streaming FLAC. Hence is it just a matter of time until the BLUESOUND node losing MQA. If not surely Meridian should upgrade the 210 & 218 to directly go to MQA tidal.

Alternatively could Roon just reopen access to the MQA streams from TIDAL?

Kevin

It is my understanding that Tidal has eliminated MQA albums in favor of high resolution FLAC. I’m unhappy that they don’t offer the choice.