As mentioned in more detail on the (Meridian) HitchHikers website here I’m having trouble with the following combination, which others have apparently had success with :-
Roon (core) -> LAN (wired) -> Squeezebox Touch (EDO plugin installed) -> USB out -> Meridian Explorer2
The idea, believe it or not, is to get MQA into my Meridian 861v8 processor, in a slightly degraded form, while waiting for Meridian to release the necessary hardware / software update…
When I play normal FLAC files, with “Digital out” or “Digital + Analogue out” selected on the SBT, all is well. I have 3 SBT’s on my network, and they all play perfectly like this - independently or grouped - which incidentally just goes to show @Not_Roon what a phenomenal & flexible music player Roon really is !
All SBTs are running firmware 7.8.0-r16754 and they all have the EDO plugin installed.
When the Explorer2 is (initially) connected, nothing happens - which is fine. Go into the SBT menu & now it shows an option under Digital outputs for Explorer2 : the device has been recognised.
Select Explorer2 & the SBT reboots. Still connected to the Roon database, (now) playing has stopped - which is also fine / reasonable behaviour after a reboot.
Press play on Roon or on the SBT & I get :-
Transport : Playback has failed due to unexpected error communicating with Audio device.
I also see that - if there’s a queue or playlist - the list is rapidly / instantly run through to the last track. No sound, and then it stops.
- If the 3 SBTs are grouped together, they all fail as one.
- If the “problem” SBT is isolated / separated, the other 2 will play either independently or grouped together.
- Disconnecting the Explorer2 & resetting to Digi / Digi + Analogue out gets me back to a “healthy” condition.
- Trying this experiment on the other 2 SBTs independently causes the same result (isn’t that almost the definition of insanity ?!). Therefore it’s not that one particular SBT that’s causing the problem.
- Connecting the Explorer2 directly to a PC or Surface3Pro results in immediate success with normal FLAC and also with MQA files (which are decoded in all their green / blue LED glory) - so it’s not the Explorer2.
- Turning Roon’s Squeezebox support off, re-connecting & re-trying generates the same failed outcome.
- Disabling / removing the SBT endpoints & trying almost any other combination results in the same failed outcome.
Has anyone else had success in getting an output from the Explorer2 when a SBT was in the chain ? How did you do it - specifically ?
I have only connected the Explorer2 to headphones (Etymotic earphones actually) in order to check if there’s an output. Would connecting the line-out make any difference ?
Hopefully someone can help with a solution, or idea, or spot my schoolboy-error…