Listening to the Meridian 206 CD Player with SMSL SU1 DAC

In this video I listen to the classic Meridian 206 CD player and then use it as a transport with the SMSL Su1 DAC
This is an updated video to correct DAC chip to Bitstream version of Philips chip.

[@user-lz4pw8nq1u]

I had a similair experience with an old (1999) Denon 5000 dvd/cd player, what a nice natural sounding dac is in inside this unit (4 × pcm 1704 Burr Brown dac chips). I like it better than the modern dacs I own. Also a litle less forward and maybe slightly less detail but so smooth sounding, no harshness like a lot of the modern stuff. These old r2r dacs only 24 bits but sound much more analogue and you can listen to them for hours.

[@marcdavis8842]

I have that exact same experience with my beloved Denon A11 ..it also has 24bit 192 burr brown dac but it's Soooooo velvety smooth & warm with alot of richness absolutely love it to bits and it performs way better than than my Marantz SA-15S1! So I don't use the Marantz anymore. The Denon also gives absolute clean clarity.

[@user-lz4pw8nq1u]

@@marcdavis8842 The A11 sounds like nice beast as well! Almost bought an Denon A1 for the living room, some guy just beat me to buy it... Nice thing with the 5000 and A1, they both have a digital input , so you can hook up a streamer and use the dac separatly

[@connorduke4619]

Excellent story! It also brings back memories of when I was a teenager, this Meridian CD player was my dream! Glad to hear it still stands the test of time. These days I have a better sounding system than I ever thought possible and my dream CD player is the Teac VRDS-701.

[@AudioRamblings]

I know someone who uses the transport version of the Teac VRDS-701 and they are very impressed with it. I am sure the CDP version is superb.

[@ronaldchaudron]

Bought this CD player back in 1992 after my first generation Technics failed. Even after all this time I still think it is a superb player

[@AudioRamblings]

It is a superb CDP and probably the best stand alone player I have heard.

[@peterlarkin762]

Meridian was one of those rare companies that put huge effort into their gear. Expensive yes, but worth it.

[@Inverted8]

I've still got my 208 CD/Pre Amp, M30 MK2 active standmounts. Still sounds amazing. I still have the 209 remote controller. It's a work of art.

[@stephenchen1420]

The 206 into the 203 was the best I heard in the early 1990s. I loved it so much I ended up buying a G08.2 in 2012, just before Meridian ceased its production. It has digital out allowing me to continue to use it as a transport - pity it has no digital in, otherwise I would have started streaming,

[@Broadmaynewood]

Great review thank you. Just highlighted all the hype that we endure with the latest this and that being better than the older model.Its the corporate world that we live in .

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

I can't tell the difference between a mid-rate mp3 and a CD. But this is still a fascinating video.

[@tweakerman]

It's a great transport & dac combo, I had one from 1991-2004, before I upgrade to a Sony xa9000es sacd player, nice video 👍

[@user-jp3fw7hs9w]

Muy completo el informe ,gracias,

[@chrisclague5578]

Listened to one these years ago. It was very good tbh. I now use a Musical Fidelity 308cr and trivista 21 dac both circa early 2000s. The DAC has been modified and sounds really nice.

[@s.daniel9224]

Hello. Not trying to hijack the topic. But, how do you like your MF gear? I just got the A1 a few months ago…wow! Do all their products have that special sauce like the A1?

[@300katsutoshi]

The basic performance of MERIDIAN is excellent, so I think the sound quality will be even better if you replace it with a high precision clock. Sound Den in Japan sells and replaces high precision clocks.

[@edwardreed7347]

Love the styling pinstripes, well thought put comments too 😊

[@piotrkaczmarczyk1792]

Try this cd-player with much more advanced modern DAC from Topping, SMSL or Denafrips. It deserves it and you wil be amazed. :)

[@darylprowell5857]

Appreciate the review. I also agree that the performance of the 206 is amazing and certainly holds its own in today’s market, but I disagree regarding recommending purchasing any older digital components for the simple fact, there is virtually no support for these older units. I sold Meridian for years and sadly the company isn’t the same. Buyer beware. Thanks for the review.

[@robertgough5804]

I have one get in touch meridian fans immaculate

[@opuspchen]

I am still listening to my Meridian 508 20 bit CD Player everyday, it is more comfortable to listen to compared to most of today’s high end CD players, its internal digital to analog converter is still very much on par with today’s external DACs.

[@Rainnchaser]

Nice review. I have the 200/203 separates that I have owned since the Nineties. I use the 200 transport in my system as it is of superb build quality although I found the 203 DAC to be far less engaging than the DAC in my Parasound P6 preamp. I have thought about adding a higher end outboard DAC but I question if the money spent would improve the sound enough to make it worthwhile. Cheers

[@johnshaw359]

Very broadly speaking, anything with a DAC beginning TDA15xx will be at least musical and 3D. Delta sigma is not to my liking.

[@peterlarkin762]

They're hard to beat! I have a nice R2R and delta sigma dacs, but my old Rotel cd player has a musical character that the others can't touch.

[@chrissilcox7747]

Good review... It looks just like mine.

[@AudioRamblings]

It is very similar😂😉

[@chrlz904]

Can someone please show me the evidence for that more detailed sound stage, or inky blackness? If not, explain how it isn't all in the mind of the superlative thrower.

[@garymalone547]

Sorbothane, damn. Showing my age but great to see the classic top of the line gear in action. Sad to see the Rotel failing to cut the mustard. Got an ageing Myryad Z20 DAC myself, but anything beyond 24/192 is overkill I reckon and I like the way it sounds.

[@gino3286]

Hi thank you very much for your very valuable test I have just a question Maybe you told that already but i am afraid i missed it I understand that the soundstage from the Meridian alone is very good But what about it when the SMSL dac is used ? i am obsessed about the 3D effect of soundstage It is very important to me Thanks a lot again and kind regards, gino P.S. i have already the SMSL dac but always looking for something really better

[@AudioRamblings]

The Meridian CDP and the SMSL DAC both throw a 3D soundstage but there are differences. The soundstage from the Meridian CDP is wide and deep, it is more behind the speakers and does not extend as forward as the SMSL SU1. I prefer the Meridian soundstage and I would say it has more weight and solidity than the SMSL DAC. The SMSL DAC is nearly as big as the Meridian CDP sound stage but extends forward into the room more and the instruments and vocals are more etched ( not in a bad way). The SMSL is also more transparent to the recording but does not have as much weight especially in the bass.

[@gino3286]

@@AudioRamblings hi thank you for the very kind and valuable reply The weakest part in these small dacs is the power supply imho I understand that it's built to a cost but savings sometimes leave a sign on performance

[@AudioRamblings]

@@gino3286 If you have look at my other video on the SMSL Su-1 DAC you will see I get round this issue by using a Linear power supply which really benefits the performance of this DAC.

[@gino3286]

@@AudioRamblings Hi thank you very much again I will go immediately Kindest regards Gino

[@alanrogs3990]

Is this DAC suitable for use with my TV audio/video system?

[@leecooper8589]

I have the SU1 but not in that set up. It has Optical and Coaxial inputs and RCA outputs to go to your amp. As long as your TV has an optical out it's going to work. I have mine connected to a WiiM mini and certainly have noticed the difference over the internal DAC when streaming from Tidal, Spotify or connected to a rather budget CD player (My Marantz CD player is so old It doesn't have optical or Coaxial out). The SU1 was my first external DAC bought as an experiment, really and I have to say I've been very, very impressed and it's made me wonder if it would be worth spending much more on a different DAC. It seems to me a very capable little unit. Of course there are many who would call it junk but I noticed a big improvement by spending the equivalent of about $ 50 US (I'm in the UK). I'm certainly not going to grumble at that. I'd strongly recommend it and at it's price it's no huge gamble, anyway. Mine will go into another room even if I do upgrade. I recommend it, especially as a first external DAC. There really is very little to lose.

[@alanrogs3990]

@@leecooper8589 My TV only has a coaxial out.

[@jondu-sud274]

Very interesting article, quite a surprise. Maybe digital drives have gone the way of vinyl records in the 80s / 90s, where I felt records were made so cheaply/poorly as a way to try and compete with more expensive CDs back in the day

[@audiononsense1611]

Based on what both units are and their lack of I2s interfaces this eval would be difficult to judge.

[@brandonburr4900]

This is not surprising. Perhaps a more interesting review would be on a older messiah dac vs newer dacs. I have to say this much smsl is not in the same league even being newer. You can have all the latest fancy chips, converters etc in a dac but it ALWAYS comes down to how it's implemented. It's in the meridian or an older high end dac like enlightened audio designs , or theta digital and how good their analog output stage and power supply. Many if these older designs were expensive and a classic for a reason. I have dacs from enlightened audio designs that have 22 different power supply filtering sections and separate for each section. You won't get that from even today's cheap dacs.

[@wouterkolkman]

I used to own one:-)

[@crazyprayingmantis5596]

But damn its ugly

[@pennfootball71]

why are you using a $79.99 dac with OP amps and not the nicer discrete op amps either.

[@AudioRamblings]

The SMSL SU1 is a great sounding DAC and punches way above its weight but of course there are better . I really wanted to see how the Meridian CDP worked as a transport with the Su1 and whether it would lift its SQ even more, which it did.

[@pennfootball71]

@@AudioRamblings I understand. Well if you ever want to try something a little bit better I can give you some suggestions that have discrete output stages.

[@ChrisStoneinator]

@@AudioRamblings It's not a great sounding DAC. It's a great measuring DAC. Big difference.

[@stevenkoski228]

You need a modern player🙈.

[@HifiWerner]

🖕🖐👍

[@supercompooper]

Resolving digital material really well just means it got the zeros and ones correct. It's either correct or it isn't correct for digital.

[@peterlarkin762]

It's not that simple unfortunately. The 0's and 1's are converted to signalling states in the usb/spdif/etc. controller, and with asynchronous transfer, there is no need for error correction which is bit perfect - Yes. But... The controller receives frames of data that are spat out at intervals. This buffering is what causes differences in audio. Some hardware does it better than others. For example, some software (Daphile) allows you to change the kernel-USB controller buffering rate and timing. If you get a chance to play around with that you'll here quite obvious perceptible differences.

[@supercompooper]

@@peterlarkin762 The data is as I understand it simply encoded with Reed- Solomon forward error correction. Once you have decoded the data it is always the same, bit perfect exactly the same every single time from every single audio CD. That data is then put into a buffer and fed at a rate into a DAC. If you have jitter here or jitter in your DAC you'll get jitter. So the systems that read from a CD typically read the data multiple times and keep a well-fed buffer. Ideally it should be a dual ported buffer so it can be written and read to at the same time to avoid jitter from lock contention. There are many places, I agree for jitter to creep in. And many issues with DAC and power and the output stage. But the actual data on the CD itself is perfect digital data and no amount of timing will stop that data from being read correctly and plopped into a buffer. What comes from a CD transport is the data or not. Those mechanisms seem to be bog standard chips now. Reading from a buffer and generating useful output after that, I agree is where things tend to go wrong. But an overbuilt over heavy CD drawer is not going to affect the data that is read from it from the perspective of reading a stream of decoded data.

[@supercompooper]

@@peterlarkin762 I agree with you that Kernel buffering certainly matters. As does where one drives their clocks from. But separating the actual data which is, either right or wrong but not in between, from how it is portioned out, a bit at a time, along with sometimes clock signals that must be recovered, phase lock loops, etc... Will affect jitter. But we also have to look at the effectiveness of clock recovery circuits, as well as digital signal integrity to make sure we actually consistently pick up on the zeros and ones at the right time. There's always some finite rise and fall time due to capacitance on any line. So things like low voltage differential signaling in pairs helps. But I kind of don't see what the overbuilt CD drawer or sometimes the weights that people use to push down on a CD do. It doesn't really have an effect that I have been able to determine on the quality of the sound. There's a lot that might but not that audiophile high-fi overbuilt casework type stuff.

[@wolfsonn4061]

How in the world can someone talk about hearing when he has lost 20% of it to noise his own ears are making! 90% of all humans have a hearing deficiency - so what is this all about listening to noise and ignoring it or ignoring the facts.