Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Do you use a CD player any more?

I've got 7 days worth of greatest hits songs ripped to my mac mini - havent had to use a CD player in two years (mac mini has CD drive if I ever need it) I put it on shuffle and surf the web - great combo......

I have all my music on a hard drive as FLAC files. I did try a Sonos last year as well as a Cullen Circuits modified Sonos. Neither could quite match my 800 into an 861 sonically, so I returned one and sold the other. Actually, I am currently enjoying spectacular sound quality from my 800 and 861. I am not willing to give up even a little bit of sound quality for the convenience of the music server. Having said that, I am anxiously awaiting the new Sooloos/Meridian product. I have used all the major music server interfaces including computer software through a PC, SB, Sonos and all the expensive brands either personally or at the last Cedia. The Sooloos is a real step above all of them in my experience. The new Sooloos control 20 is supposed to be the first Sooloos product with Meridian "secret sauce" and is supposed to come out sometime in the first half of this year. I have high hopes for it and will certainly audition it when it arrives.

I think it overlaps (probably not huge but some). Because if their "Best DAC" is in their CD player I can see why some would lean towards a CD Player.

Hang in there. There will be a point when it all becomes clear. Enjoy your G91 along the way.

I only use what results in the best sound and therefore a top CD player.

Can M in time give Sooloos a sound quality to rival a dedicated top CD player? If not the convenience of a media player will not be enough for me to not favour a CD player.

Hi Frank,

I hope that I didn't sound negative. I'm learning a lot and in spite of the odd frustrtations, I am having a lot of fun. The G91 is staying put until an alternative is installed and thoroughly tested. It is a great machine.

Hi mwiebelhaus,

Thanks for some great information for me. From what you said I do not understand why you would not be happy with the Sooloos storage and playback now and add the new controller when it comes out?

Hi Dolf,

The 800 has Meridian upsampling as well as MHR into the 861, which lowers the jitter vs a non-Meridian source. The current Sooloos is a non-Meridian source, just as the Sonos units I tried. I anticipate that the Meridian/Sooloos will have something similiar to the 800 or better, the Meridian "secret sauce". In addition, the Meridian/Sooloos will have Meridian comms and will therefore be controllable within a Meridian system and configurable within M Config. To me, that would be the extra performance that Meridian is bringing to the table vs another music server or a current Sooloos.

Sorry, but I think that's a non sequitur. I'm not saying that in your experience CD players aren't superior to servers, but IMO the assumption that top CD players must be better than servers for sound quality is outdated.

The quality of the datatstream is the important fact,
that means clock accuracy and noise on signal and signal ground - not more not less.
So it could be a CD transport or a server - the hardware of the electronic decite.

Robert

Tend to agree with Robert. Some time ago heard the Wilson Alexandria's II on a Wadia/Ayre combination. The Wadia hardware was split into seprate boxes for transport/clock/mono computer DAC's feeding Ayre MXR monoblocks. The sound was something I never experienced. As a little experiment, we used the Wadia i170 with a iPod -lossless format- feeding the mono computer DAC's and guess what, it came close, scarely close. An experienced listener could heard very small difference, nuances only. If someone would put an empty box over the iPod, pretending it was an top level player, people could be fooled quite easily. But yet again this was all done with extremely high grade units.

Alex

After rigorously challenging myself over what I was hearing, I had to admit that I was not hearing a difference either. I think that if a spinner sounds "better" than a properly set up media server it is not necessarily because it is revealing more information, but because it is simply made to sound more pleasant to the ear through filtering, DSP, etc (the digital equivalent of tubes).

i have switched to modded Sonos exclusively. one of the best digital transports i have seen.