Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 598 question

Does the coax digital out (non-MHR) work with non-M DACs and processors?

Thanks all.

Yes I would have thought so.
Its just a good quality digital signal on SPDIF.

Cheers, Chris

I would have thought so too, but have heard second hand from M that it does not. Am hoping to check in the next couple of days.

-- Bob

But be sure to realize it won't output 24/96 on any secure media (DVD's and most DVD-A's)

Can't imagine how/why an M tech would insist the coax out doesn't work with anything but M, but I'm told that's the case. The brochure says it can be used as a 2nd zone or record out to complement the MHR outs on the DP model.

Anyway, hooked it to my Audio Aero DAC and it works perfectly.

If you leave MHR turned on it will not work. Turn it off and it will work just like any other DVD player. Someone from M said that? Wow! Looks like M has turned into a big company with customer assistants that are not very well trained. The cusomer rep probably doesn't know MHR can be turned off.

I just don't want to see others newbies get confused here. It will play CD's fine into a DAC. But it won't play most DVD's or most DVD-A's. Kind of a waste of hardware. Even though the player can decode DD/DTS I believe it can only Decode into MHR.

As George says, if you want to use a 598 with a non-Meridian DAC or processor, you're better off with a 596.

George,

are you sure ?

I always found that limit to 48k and MHR off will link to whatever external DAC you want. It is a waste of potential nevertheless

Nick,

I think your right, it should down sample it. Because in theory you should be able to hook it direct to a non 24/96 DSP Speaker.

Thanks for correcting me.

So with the MHR turned off and perhaps downsampling, can you use the coax to pass DD/DTS? I have no way to test this.

It's been a while, but when I had 598 & 568.2MM in my showroom, the MM (MHR) was so unreliable I had to hook up the additional coax out to an available digital in on the 568 to get any sound at all from various DVDs.

There were also 598 setup-menu settings that impacted whether this additional coax out decoded in the 598 or farther downstream, and whether the additional output was 96/24 or 48.

Point being they were concurrently active, and (although I didn't try it), there should be no reason the additional coax digital out wouldn't feed a normal signal to an outboard non-M processor or DAC...

John