Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - AC200 vs 218 - analogue inputs

Dear Hitchhikers, does anyone have any experience of both devices, the AC200 and 218, specifically comparing the analogue inputs? I’m muling the idea of purchasing either to tie my system together.


I currently have my record deck connected to the ADC of a CD-Recorder to get a coax signal to my 5200.2’s, and use an MS200 via SpeakerLink for Roon replay. I occasionally play (and enjoy) CD’s as well. All sources sound great, but the way they are connected feels a little clunky to me. A dedicated controller would possibly be much neater.

What I’m interested to know is if the analogue input of the 218 is the same or better than the AC200’s?
I appreciate that the 218 is also a Roon endpoint, but I prefer the styling of the AC200 and if I went with one of those I would still use the MS200 for Roon.

Some suggestions from those of you who’ve done something similar would be welcome, thanks.

This was intriguing... as I've been running a 210 straight into DSPs as my only source for almost a year, with my AC200 boxed up as it was no longer needed with just a single source. Previously 5200.2 (Hi Matthew!) and now 5200SEs.

So I added it back in to give 210>AC200>DSPs over the Christmas break... yup it's better. Not a long term opinion of course, but it was definitely better. I don't know why this might be the case. Pleasantly surprised!

...and then remembering that the AC200 can be 'upgraded' with a Prime PSU I did a quick search for opinions - didn't find any - but did find the units currently available brand new on clearance for £349. I don't know how this could improve things either but happy to try at this price...

Arrived today... better again, and I reckon a bigger improvement than just the AC200. Again very short term result, only been able to listen for an hour, but there you go. I'll experiment with them in and out of the system a bit more when they've settled in and my ears are accustomed to them. Removing often gives a useful perspective...

Yup the AC200 is passing through the full MQA from the 210 to the DSPs. And with the AC200 I can now have the DSPs displaying 'Roon' as the source label rather than SLS.

S

Hi,

I agree with the above (well except for the bit about the walkman) in that it depends if you want MQA.

The 218 only has 5 inputs (Coax, Optical, SL, Network and analogue) while the AC200 has 8 inputs (Coax x2, Optical x2, SL, i80 Dock, USB and analogue x2 with the Optical inputs also available as 2 additional analogue inputs if that's important).

There was a suggestion some time ago (when the 218 came out) that the AC200 would pass through MQA from a 218 but I couldn't manage to do that with mine (although I didn't try too hard).

I have a MS200 attached to my AC200 (and powered from the AC200) and it all works very well.

Brian

You get MQA also from the 218 and 210 if you are looking for that. Also the new Sonos control with the 218. Non of this answers your question as I have a Walkman cassette player that I have used with the 218. Lol 😂 I can’t help there.

I recently added an AC200 to my system as I needed two analogue inputs (I now have two turntables).

I had been running my 218 straight into DSP7200.2 over SL, so now I go 218-SL-AC200-SL-DSP7200.2. I have only had it like this for a week and personally think there is a very small improvement in the SQ of all my sources, but it's not major and I may just have the rose-tinted view as it is new to me and I'm very pleased with it. However, it's definitely not worse so that's something.

Also, I think my MQA pass through is working as my speakers still display MQA as they always did (running 3.16), assuming that is how they should be

I have a 218 used as a preamp for my 8k's, It looks to me like the 2 products are of similar class unlike the '800 line' and would be comparable in quality. Ideally the 210 + ac200 would be the way if starting from scratch.