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Meridian digital gears

I have recently acquired a Meridian G68 processor for my multi channel music system. So far I have been pretty impressed with the digital section. The sound is very detailed and balanced. It's neither on the bright side, or warm side. It brings out tremendous amount of detail from redbook CD, and I'm going through my CD collection again.

Previously I was using California Audio Labs CL-15 for redbook, and Denon universal for SACD and DVD-Audio. My impression back then was the redbook through CAL was rich and musical, and high resolution format through Denon was detailed and more articulated.

Now G68 changed all that. The impression of redbook through G68 is almost as good as the high resolution through Denon that I was used to. It's just amazing to hear what a good DAC could do.

On the flip side, now there isn't really an easy way to get a proper SACD play back any more, thanks to A/D conversion on all the analog inputs. I have G98 on the way to cover the DVD Audio side, but it looks like I'm somewhat stuck with SACD side of the world. For one, G68XXV has all balanced output, and my Sony multi channel preamp is all single anded. Does anyone make a decent multi channel preamp with balanced inputs?

The "honeymoon period" with Meridian so far was mostly good. The digital section, upgradability, firmware updates, supports, and the quality of the sound is all first class. I don't know why Meridian gears are not talked about as much in the forums, as I found mine simply superb.
jylee
jylee OP
306 posts
 
Kal, thanks for sharing your expertise. I'll have to find out who could mod the Denon for multi channel SPDIF, as that looks like the solution with least complexity.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,693 posts
 
The only place I know is https://www.dvdupgrades.ch/product/Modification/SPDIF/Output/Six_channel_S_P_DIF_output_board/24308.html
jylee OP
306 posts
 
Great! I'll check them out. Thanks Kal.
jylee OP
306 posts
 
I have just added G98DH to the system. For the time being I have both Denon universal and G98DH connected to G68 for comparison. G98DH is using three SPDIF digital connection. Denon has both coax SPDIF and MCH analog connected to G68. My bias going in was that the quality of the digital transport is pretty much the same nowadays, and I probably won't be able to hear much (if any) difference between Denon and G98DH when using digital connection. I wanted to confirm the hypothesis, then maybe dispose one of the Meridian and use the fund elsewhere (balanced MCH analog preamp or MCH SPDIF mentioned above).

To my surprise, G98DH as redbook transport provided another level of improvement over Denon. Redbook with Denon used as a transport sounded very very good. However it sounded tad sweeter with G98DH as a transport. That wasn't really what I expected, so I brought up Meridian configuration program again, and double triple checked that the settings are identical for both inputs. I need to spend more time with this setup to make sure what I hear is really what it sounds, but I thought it was an interesting first impression.

Also it's ironic to note that while I am impressed with the multi channel performance of G68, I think I'm smitten with its sound as two channel DAC with redbook.
mribob
229 posts
 
I am picking up my Meridian G-68 and G-98 next week; to be used in a blended two channel audio/home theater system with MBL 111'es main; Dali Halicon C-200 center; Velodyne DD-15 subwoofer; and like you was happy with my SACD collection; I was using an Integra 10.5; I don't like giving up SACD by going all Meridian; and now with the buzz of quality music servers; I'm not sure what I will get by spending this money for redbook CD's only with the G-98. I'm thinking of keeping my Integra universal 10.5; and getting a quality Suros music server; great review in this months Absolute Sound. any thoughts or comparison by quality CD player, vs music server for the future. To be fair; the review recommended adding a quality DAC to the server to improve sound. I'd like to see other experiences with sound quality of servers using the FLAC lossless compression; not just mp3 files...glad you like your meridian gear; I'll let you know about mine soon.
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