Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - Roon or 518?

Hi all, very infrequent poster here.

I'm running a DSP5500 pair from (whenever) that I acquired for a good deal some years ago and absolutely love it. It does have the 96/24 upgrade.

I also have a 518 of roughly the same vintage (I think?). I really like what it does for the music.

My only source is Tidal (plus my hard drive collection but I don't even see much point of that, given that there is nothing there that I can't find on Tidal).

Age 66, with what I would say is probably the 'normal' amount of hearing deterioration at this age. Lowest and highest frequencies, audible to my adult kids, and some of these even audible to my 63 y.o. wife, completely pass me by. To the point I've often suspected them of pulling my leg, lol.

I just picked up an Eversolo T8 and it seems very promising. I also have, within the return period but mostly for grins, a Wiim Ultra, but I'm sure, even with one day of listening to the T8, that it has the Wiim beat. Although the features of that damn Wiim...

And I just started a Roon trial. So that's my setup: Roon->Tidal->T8->518->5500.

First things first, the 518 does not accept 96/24. This is a huge (HUGE) disappointment for me, along the lines of me throwing the whole shebang into the ocean.

OK maybe not. And while I haven't tried it yet (see 'one day' above), I plan to A/B it with going directly to the 5500 but I already know that, apples to apples, I like the 518. A lot.

So the question: Will the things that Roon does (room correction etc), help offset the loss of the 518 if I run directly into the 5500s? .

Or is the better plan to keep the 518 in the chain, run a max of 48 + the Roon advantages, and will this deliver equivalent sound (to these ears, in this system) to hearing 96/24 but minus the 518? I've read where many (most?) can't distinguish 44/48 from higher resolutions unless it is a super high end system AND they have very well trained ears, neither of which apply here.

What experience/wisdom can you impart?

As the T8 has Tidal built in already and that’s your main source of music I would just link the T8 direct to the 5500’s. It’s not a cheap unit so it should be a good performer.
Keep the system as simple as possible.

You could use Roon and fiddle around with various settings but it is likely to offer little over the native Tidal in the T8. In fact it could open you up to more tweaking and problem solving than you might want.

The 518 will be doing something in your chain and you understandably have gotten to like that a lot. So, when making any change, give it a lot of time to let your ears/brain acclimatise to the presentation.

No harm playing with various combinations though
E.g. 518 in, 518 out, Roon to T8, T8 direct to DSP

But for me I would go super simple with T8 + 5500 only.

For true faffability...

One could connect the Eversolo both via the coax to the speaker's D1 and via the AES/EBU through the 518 to the speaker's D2.

That way, one could easily compare the two signal paths after configuring Roon/TIDAL/whatever accordingly to 44.1/48 and see which you prefer as you fine-tune the filters.

But Nick is probably correct - KIS