Brimstone Core: native Meridian V3 progress and RC26 testing

A quick update for those following Brimstone’s work with original Meridian equipment.

Our native V3 playback engine is now playing through an original MS200 in listening tests. We have traced and corrected faults behind stuttering, dropouts and a failure when moving to the next track, and the feedback from the working system has been very encouraging. Testing with Sooloos equipment is continuing alongside this work. The native MS200 network route is stereo.

The cumulative RC26 C08 testing candidate is now online as a fresh installation ISO and a separately signed update for compatible installed Cores. The exact build, checksums and installation notes are linked from the downloads page. Normal installation, cold boots and preservation of the same user session and profile through the tested boot slots passed on an isolated VM.

This remains an engineering test candidate. Physical HP EliteDesk display, mouse and automatic login checks, broader audio hardware testing and longer endurance runs still need completing. Please use spare hardware or a disposable VM for fresh installation testing and check the installation notes first; the installer erases the selected system disk. Existing installations must meet the signed updater’s compatibility checks.

The latest progress and current availability are here:

https://core-audio.uk/rc26-update-20261113.html

Downloads and build notes:

https://core-audio.uk/downloads.html

If you are testing Meridian equipment with Brimstone, feedback on the model, source format, track changes and reconnect behaviour would be especially useful. Thank you to everyone helping us test on real equipment.

Brimstone is an independent project and is not affiliated with Meridian Audio or Roon Labs.

Various music kit, lots of IT stuff