@VirusKiller You are not alone in thinking that way, I have not abandoned Meridian but have recently purchased other manufacturers analog equipment and as Roon compatibility increases I will enjoy the greater choice of dacs to be able to stream to, Brinkmann dac anyone?
How long before Meridian join the RAAT party, I hear the new 800 dac is designed to operate outside the Sooloos world…RAAT ready??
Russ
What about their DSP speakers being RAAT ready? That would make a truely simple system. I guess the DAC would need to be in the speakers too.
The DAC is in their speaker
So if have their speakers you don’t need one of their DACs?
That’s correct, however to get the best out of them you really need a Meridian controller … It’s just that some controllers have both digital and analogue outputs hence the DACs. (They used to be optional but the recent trend is to fit both).
I guess you could you run a pair of their DSP 8000 speakers off a Raspberry Pi if you want but I don’t know how you would turn them on or off using Roon…
Not from Roon per se, but having a Pi connected to my DSP’s, I control power, volume and source selection quite happily with this nifty Logitech combo, either from the remote or from my iOS devices.
I have a Pi feeding my 808 via USB and then onto my DSP’s for all the formats that the ID41 cannot handle.
That won’t make much sense if you don’t know Meridian units but it does highlight the kind of options emerging now.
Can’t wait for an updated ID41. Seems crazy to go through a Pi, but happy to read there are other people who do it too!
Yeah, the 96/24 limitation on the ID41 is a PITA and, at the price, pretty inexcusable. I’m using a (Roon-streamable of course) Squeezebox Touch with EDO USB plug-in; works superbly, at the expense of losing Roon-controllable on/off and volume.
I know someone who might want to buy your Ensemble. PM if you’re interested.
[quote=“Ratbert, post:41, topic:10743”]I hear the new 800 dac is designed to operate outside the Sooloos world…RAAT ready??
[/quote]
If this turns out to be true I for one will heave a huge sigh of relief.
If - as I have been told - the new DAC is limited to the old Sooloos protocol with its 24/96, then it will sadly confirm my imminent decision to purchase a high end network DAC (for my second system) from elsewhere.
The current 818 can handle 192 over USB. So the easiest way to upgrade streaming data rate and get RoonReady is to put a MicroRendu in front of them. And a lot cheaper than a Meridian upgrade. But you lose auto-start and volume control from Roon.
But what if the Sooloos Protocol is the only one capable of dealing with 192 / 384 MQA Origami material in either the Short or Medium Term??
The existing Meridian devices run the wrong software stack to use the Roon Ready SDK. Unless they are doing a major rearchitecture internally, I don’t see RAAT in Meridian’s future. I’d love to be wrong here, but we’ve heard nothing about this up to date.
If the MQA stream arrives to the Meridian device bit perfectly, it should “unfold” properly, regardless of how it got there.
Hi Danny
I guess the question I was really posing to Ludwig in my post above is, which of the following is likely to give a User quicker access to MQA Material [assuming the User is interested in that material]
a) Tidal ----> Sooloos / Roon Core ----> Meridian 8x8
b) Tidal ----> Sooloos / Roon Core ----> dCS or similar
Not a problem. I am currently doing exactly what I suggested: have MQA content, feed it from Roon to the Meridian USB port, it decodes it and plays it on the Meridian speakers.
I can feed it directly from the Roon server to the Meridian USB port.
Or I could network stream it to a MicroRendu and let the MicroRendu drive the Meridian USB port.
My reply was to Ludwig…and relates to his Meridian v’s other ‘contenders’ considerations
I think this is getting Vooodoo if you put something (700 $) int front of the 818 what you cannot really hear, it may be also getting worse. Does Meridian already offer such an upgrade?
But it can’t handle DXD, DSD128, or DSD256 via any input.