Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Music Server owners how often do you spin CD's now?

I have ripped all my CD's to WAV Files on a Uvem Media Server (and then converted these to Apple Lossless for iPod use)

Playing these directly using a coax out to an 861 and feeding an 8k system leads me to the following

The Media Server output is more than fine for casual listening and many of my friends wont hear any difference.

However, a back to back comparison of the same tracks playing from an 800 reveals detail and musicality which is simply missing from the Server. Is it a Slam Dunk?? No. But the 800 is unquestionably better

In my opinion, it is great to have the option and essentially the best of both worlds. Convenience from the Server and then detail, musicality and extra enjoyment from the 800 when you're in the mood

Jerry

I would imagine the Kaleidescape offers a fantastic user experience and as you quite rightly infer the price on a par with Meridian.

I am fairly new to the streaming concept and, albeit so far impressed, find myself wanting more. Whilst the Squeezebox offers an inexpensive way of delivering data to the Meridian, it is lacking, particularly where the user interface is concerned. The Kaleidescape is the first system I have seen that really has the 'wow' factor. In essence, it demonstrates a completely new approach to home entertainment, as opposed to just another way of doing the same thing.

One for the future perhaps? Right now, I'm sad to say it's outside my budget, but glad you bought it to my attention.

Regards

Jezclayton

Kaleidescape wins its court case:

http://www.cepro.com/news/editorial/18137.html

Regards

Mark

CD's have still got life in them.
They archive well
They can now sound exemplary with the right mastering.
(ie 16bits fully utilised.)
Back catalogue is cheap.
I prefer stereo to multi channel of which there is little.
I can't see downloading being the norm for the hifi fraternity just yet,so ripping to hard drive storage fits the bill.
But sometimes , even though it sounds excellent, it can feel a little 'mechanical' in attitude.
ie in 'Artist'mode all of Richard Thompson's catalogue plays during a dinner party, great for a fan but not friends.
'Shuffle' can be akin to a lunatic radio station with no music editor or pure heaven with that magic selection segued by God.
In many ways it liberates your music but shows how much crxap there is in the form as in any creative activity.
My main concern is finding a way of normalising
music in I-Tunes ( I use 'sound check' but this has only a moderate effect of leveling).
I don't wish to compress , just to aligne levels.
This will come .

Roger

The only Normalizing I'd ever consider is ReplayGain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_Gain

A PlugIn for SqueezeBox could be built to control Volume over RS-232 to the Meridian Setup.

"Sound Check" should be called "Sound Corrupt". "Sound Check" will compress, it has to !!! Whatever floats your boat.

Shuffle is the best thing since sliced bread. You can Shuffle Albums, by Genre, or within PlayLists. It's wonderful for some of us. I wish SqueezeBox had a button though that when shuffling songs that when I hear a song, I could just click "Play Album for Current Song". Yet another SqueezeBox Plugin could probably do that.

Hooray for Kaleidecape!!! Hooray!!! The CCA seems likely to appeal though...

best regards,
Jerry

Roll on Meridian 880 Version 2

If you build it , we will come !

~M~

Sound Check" should be called "Sound Corrupt". "Sound Check" will compress is has to !!! Whatever floats your boat.

Sorry George could you decode this please.

My I-Tunes "Sound Check" has no compression
evident (I-T 7.1.1 (5))Mac version.
I only use it in playback preferences with
Apple Lossless codec.

Roger

Do you really want a server?

Roger,

You're confusing data compression with dynamic range compression. "Sound Check" will normalize your data on playback and normalization will apply dynamic "compression" or expansion to normalize the volume (i.e. it will muck with the data stream, which for some of us is a no-no). Adjusting the Volume on the Mac or any computer that is feeding your system digitally is generally considered a bad thing (to some of us). The convenience (of normalization) may out weigh any loss in quality for some people. But I would never do it.

Now if you`re hooked up with analog outputs (on the computer) it may adjust the Analog Gain (I doubt they would bother to be that careful). But the analog outputs of any computer I know of is not that great (not to mention the added D to A and A to D for most of us DIgital Preamp folks) and the whole point of discussing quality is moot.

"Sound Check" does work like Replay Gain. But both would suffer as discussed above if you adjust volume in the digital domain. The only way to do it right would be how I suggesed above using the RS-232 interface which I might take on has a hobby project one of these days.

George,

My CD levels are all over the place.
Early ones are quiet ,newer ones loud.
Sound Check does seem to change this situation, but not completely.

I use the optical out into a 518 (gain at 0) and levels are never high, pre amp set to max on the Mac, no clipping on the 518 ever, even with hot 'finalized'cds.

Without SC some cds (new ) clip by 2-3 db
Web radio needs 10-12 dbs attenuation.
What should I do?
Leash the system with SC
or risk crushing on some newer recordings?
Lowering the 518 level by 3 db and defeating SC is probably the best choice .

Replay gain sounds interesting
But how to implement with I-Tunes and a Mac
Questions, questions.

Roger

I-Volume is designed for I-Tunes.
Anybody used it? ttp://www.mani.de/en/software/macosx/ivolume/index.html