Best DAC for Meridian Sooloos

Interesting. The upsamping in the Simaudio 650D is non-defeatable - I believe it's integrated into the Sabre chip set.

Defeating the Meridian upsampling/apodising filter on the Meridian MS600 leads to more high frequency presence, both through the Simaudio and the dac built into the Meridian MS600. It also reduces bass presence, particularly through the Meridian dac.

For some reason, with the Meridian upsampling filter engaged, there is a dip in the mid-bass when using the Simaudio dac. I wonder if this is due to some sort of interaction between the Meridian and Simaudio filtering process?

The Simaudio dac does present the sound differently than the Meridian dac regardless of setting, though. It tends to add a greater sense of depth to the recording, perhaps by de-emphasising the mid-range a tad and through greater decay. It also has more pin-point imaging and focus. The Meridian dac is more "direct", "solid" or "forward" sounding. Frequency wise, it can sound more realistic and fluid at the expense of imaging, a sense of 3D space and air.

With the Meridian filter in place, the music can sound a little "dead" sometimes as well. Not sure if this is related to the highs or it if dampens the natural decay of instraments. Funny, with the apodising filter I would expect a greater sense of decay as the filter is supposed to transfer pre-ringing into post-ringing.

I've also read that there can be phase issues with apodising filters. I wonder if phase issues can be frequency specific and that is why the Meridian filter sounds so natural in the bass and mid-range but is a little dead in the high frequencies?

Just as a follow up, I did upgrade to a Meridian MS600/MD600 combo. I now use the dac in the MS600 and use the XLR analogue output to my Simaudio P-8 pre amp. At first the MS600's analogue output remained a little on the dull/thick side but the I tried putting it on an HRS anti vibration platform and the sound really improved! Much better detail and soundstage depth. The simple act of putting a Coffee table book on top of it further improved the sound. Obviously the MS600 is very susceptible to vibrations and benefits from some tweaking in this regard.

The other observation from all this is that streamers significantly impact the sound, much like others say transports do. I tried a Simaudio MiND streamer and it sounded pretty much identical to the internal transport in my Simaudio 650 D. A much more "exciting" sound than the Meridian gear on first listen, with more high and low frequency emphasis. After a whole, though, I found the Meridian sounded more neutral and natural so I went with it. Plus Simaudio has a lot of catch up to play on the software side vs. Meridian, which has the benefit of years of investment from Sooloos.

Just a follow up - adding a set of 3 or 4 Stillpoint SS under the MS600 opened up the high frequency response and I'm now enjoying this unit as a dac. Putting a quality power cord on it (Cardas Clear) also increased the tonal colour and dynamics of the unit.

Reclock the Sooloos to reduce jitter first and then use any decent DAC, such as Metrum Octave, Metrum HEX, Wyred 4 Sound DAC2, Concero etc..

Steve N.
Empirical Audio