Which would give me the best audio front end, until the Dev streaming actually works!
Any views?
A little more info…Meridian MS600 or 200 or should I just leave my Mini connected directly to the Dev?
Running Roon of course.
Cheers.
I’d be interested in the answer to this too.
I have Schiit Wyrd between MacMini & Devialet at the moment.
I just have a standard but good quality usb cable in use for now, but it sounds absolutely stunning. I just wonder if it would be even better using a Meridian endpoint.
Hi Mark, I would have thought whatever has the cleanest output with best SI would give the best sounding result. I dont know anything about the MS600 but its a high-end dedicated piece of audio hardware, and the Devialet responds well to better sources. It’s been pretty obvious when I’ve hooked up a higher quality source (in my limited testing) so I’d be very surprised if the Mac mini was better (assuming its not optimised) bearing in mind the fact that its a generic computer….
Since you have both it will probably be obvious when you try them ;-).
‘until the Dev streaming actually works’ - that’s a very positive statement. 
Hello Steve,
I dont have the Meridian, just thinking of buying one. My mini is only used for music nothing else, it runs headless in the system rack.
It runs in Exclusive and Intiger mode with no problems whatsoever. The Dev will stream fine via WiFi or Cat 6 but not in the above modes.
The Meridian will stream from the Mini back in the computer rack via cat 6, but I dont think it could sound much better that an Assincronus (cant spell it!) usb connection.
A S/H 600 would be around £1000, just not sure if it will be worth it really.
As for the Dev streaming…perhaps it will be better in time, but at the end of the day I bought it as an Amplifier, and that is where it is at its best, simply stunning. But thats another story! 
Apologies, I thought you already had one! 
Well, having tried an Aurender against my Mac Mini, I can assure you a better quality USB signal can definitely sound better, regardless of whether they are both asynchronous or not. The topic seems to divide opinion, and this is just one man’s, but the differences were there to my ears, and not subtle ones.
Of course, dedicated audio hardware is often expensive and less flexible, so thats something to weigh up.
Would I buy a used Merian at £1,000 though, probably not. There are a lot of options out there at the moment, and more seem to be coming onto the market all the time. Its an exciting time for streamers, and RoodReady is going to make things very interesting. Id personally stick with the mini and see how things evolve over the coming months.
If you have time, energy in the meantime, I’d definitely get a home loaner of a dedicated streamer and see what happens in your system compared to the Mac.
The DEV doesn’t pass through audio at all, the Analog Ins get passed through the DEV’s ADC and then back out it’s DAC.
MS200 would be cheaper, but it really depends what the rest of your kit is as to sound quality.
Dev 400 & PMC 20.26’s
The MS600 is suppose to be much better than the MS200 so I’m told.
Not sure what you mean?
For many the MS200 and MS600 are reasonably close (not identical, mind you). The real uplift for the MS600 is through the analogue outputs.
You can use a Linear Power Supply for the MS200 to get improvements.
The only way to make your mind up is audition, I’m afraid.
Hmmm, well I wont be using the analogue output so perhaps I should just go with the MS200. I wish Amazon sold them so I could send it back if I didnt like it!
Why don’t you wait to see about the Ares mini or one of the tons of others streamers due in the next couple months. Honestly, if you can’t wait, I would look into a used SB Touch, install the patch so it can do 24/192 and just feed the DEV via Coax or USB until the other streams with Roon embedded come out in Q1/Q2 of 16. A whole tons cheaper than a MS200. The Roon Devs have said that squeezebox support is coming very soon. I know I have gone and grabbed a couple on eBay just for that purpose.
Yes I think you are right. Does Roon work with the Ares mini? I no nothing about the SqueezBox, what model should I look for if I go that route?
Thanks for your help.
The Squeezebox model is the Touch, aka SB Touch.
1 Like