Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Why has the Meridian Music Server die?

My 565 accepts 24 bit inputs, or thats what it says in set up.

Input to 518 is 16 bit, output from 518 to 565 is 24 bit. Input at 565 is set to 24 bit.
Whatever is going on, it does sound good.

Random thoughts, Chris

The Absolute Sound did a bunch of articles about music servers in a recent edition. One of the accompanying articles by Robert Hurley was "Do hard drives sound better than CD players" and his conclusion was yes, they do. I was surprised by this, not because I disagree, I don't, but because this was in a high end audio magazine and other such magazines I read always tend to fall on the side of traditional mechanisms, either because their setup is compromised or because of some bias. It's nice to see that servers and hard drives are gaining ground in tradition circles.

Mark

Please Define surprisingly high.
The 596 for instance has 159.2 pS.
Is this high?
Here is a Nagra Concept CDP data sheet.
Their jitter spec. is:
"Negligible (Less than 200 pS)": http://www.nagraaudio.com/highend/doc_en/Brochure_NagraCD_eng.pdf

So what is "surprisingly high" and how does it influence sound quality?

Cheers,

Doron

I agree guys about the storage- its clearly the future- but it not quite here yet. Your example of 8GB for 46 smackers= 2875 or something like that for 500GB of storage. I can buy a 750 SATA drive for what- like 200 or so.. Soo thats like 10x higher pricing. Thats just retail component cost. Im with you- my wishlist is solid state- but I dont think you can say its there today for a manufacturer.

Interesting about gold not corroding- but are we worrying about rusting or corroding in home installations? Have Meridian missed something?

btw- regarding the thread title- this thread certainly hasnt died so clearly our imaginations are here.

best regards,
Jerry

SNS,
we had yesterday the whole day Hendrix celebrations in German Radio stations. With his music we never talk again about jitter.
Don't get me wrong, i like JH a lot.

Best
Armin

As a user of a high quality Music Server feeding a Sonos system throughout the house, I agree that sooner rather than later, all our Music and Movies will be based on these Servers.

However, I still think that it`s a leap to say the performance of these Servers (and most importantly) Client systems produces a Sound Quality which is equivalent to what is possible from a Meridian Player / Processor combo. They will get there one day, hopefully once Meridian or somebody develops a better Client, but not yet.

Hence I do find the recent headline below to be a very selective, it has to be said

Perhaps a more accurate headline would have been
A few questions for this thread

a) How is the performance of e.g. $18,000 Server relevant to the $700 PC / Mac Servers that have been touted on this same thread??

b) How is this article relevant to the performance of the “Server to (Wired/Wireless SB3/AE) Client” type systems that are touted in this thread, i.e. the Servers are NOT directly connected by Coax to the external DAC??

c) How is the performance of a non-Error Correcting; non-FIFO Buffer; non-MHR output CD player; with its Resolution Enhancement disabled for the test??? relevant compared to a Meridian Player which has all of the benefits or 3 Layers of Error Correction; 3 Stage FIFO Buffering; Resolution Enhancement to 88/24; and importantly Output-Jitter eliminating MHR.

(I would love to hear an explanation of why the author disabled RE on the CD player, especially when the Same reviewer was jumping up and down only 12 months ago about how much better the same player was with RE Enabled)

It`s also interesting to note (especially for those who have dismissed Jitter as an issue) that the same author devotes 434 words (or more than a third) of the article to the performance degradation caused by Jitter on the SPDIF OUTPUT, and about ways to reduce it

He goes on the say (sounds like an advert for MHR)
So if we are going to promote his findings, then we should listen to ALL of what he has to say, rather than conveniently ignoring some of it

For those not keeping count, it`s interesting to note that of the posters to this thread only, when “answering” the question below

“When connected Digitally to a Meridian Processor, Do you hear any difference between a Meridian Player and a Wired/Wireless Client (SB3/AE) receiving Data Streams from a Hard Drive Server with EAC Ripped Lossless files??”

* 6 people have said that they observed NO Differences

* 11 people DID hear a Difference and thought the Meridian source slightly to noticeably better

Then again, the 11 people must have been on drugs at the time, as there is no possible way a difference could have been heard!!!!

The standard Squeezebox requires modification to get the best from it. So it's no surprise that the Merdian can outperform it. But when you consider the cost vs quality differential the Squeezebox looks a *lot* more attractive. However, if you modify a Squeezebox (which is relatively cheap) then performance goes to another level and I would contend that those numbers above would then swing in favour of the Squeezebox (and thus cheap servers)

Mark

Neutrik have in the past few years changed the plating on their XLR connectors from gold to silver. If memory serves they did this to improve sound quality.

Mark S

Mark
I agree with you or anybody who says that even if there is a slight performance benefit to the Meridian player over the SB3 / AE or Sonos client (that I own and use) then it is extremely difficult to JUSTIFY that difference

If one chooses to spend their money to get the extra benefit then that's fine too. I have and I don't regret my decision, but there is no way I could justify it for everybody.

My main point is that some people do hear a difference (as you appear to, and I had you counted in the 6!!!) and shouldn't be shouted down by those who say they dont hear a difference because they DEMAND that there can be NO difference

The combination of Cost, Relative Performance and Convenience of a Server/Client (SB3/AE/Sonos) type system has the Meridian Source beat hands down. But when people say that Technically there can NO Sound Quality difference, then that's a different matter..........

Hopefully Meridian will develop a client which will make the most of the current state of IT Technology. This would apply to SOund Quality AND Convenience of Operation

I rarely listen to what people say any more. My journey has taken me to the high(medium?)-end - I have 800/861/DSP5500 digital cinema and Mark Levinson Reference/Revel Salon analogue system - and then plummeting to the "low" end when I heard Squeezebox. After 20 years of listening, I simply trust my ears and, perhaps more importantly, my subjective response - that's what it's about after all - nobody can tell you what to hear. But to me now there is little value left, beyond bragging rights, at the high-end when something like the Squeezebox and particularly things like TacT digital room correction can tear down many of the supposed benefits of the high end kit, or at least elevate average kit into high end performance at significantly cut price costs.

Mark

Its been a long time since I looked at my Meridian cables but my memory was that the connectors were silver or silver color at least. Perhaps I am transposing their and someone elses cables?

when we reach holographic nano whatever something else will be even better!

Regarding quality- the video quality from my Kplayer is superior both subjectively and objectively than that from my 800. The audio is not as good do to the 800-861 upsampling. Audio quality wise- whatever teeny tiny bit I am giving up, which is not even noticeable to me with the music I listen to- is easily made up for with the ability to go from any of my over (currently- I have more to put in) 800 albums or 1,100 movies on the fly with a wonderful interface to go along with it. The only component in my system that I question the value of (for my purposes) is the 800- until I play a DVDA that is.

best regards,
Jerry