Listening to the Meridian 206 CD Player with SMSL SU1 DAC

[@Iainmaclennan70]

I am currently using the Cambridge Audio CXC CD transport into the SU-1 dac. Very happy with the sound. That Meridian looks amazing!!

[@PerfDayToday]

This makes me want to have my 207-14 bit repaired so it can work again. It’s died numerous times. Nice video.

[@chrishamilton5960]

I use a Meridian 500 CD transport and it’s fantastic. I bought it used cause I liked the form factor and looks but it’s improvement in sound over the Blu-ray player I was using as a transport surprised me.

[@peterlarkin762]

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

[@marcob.7801]

What a well considered, probative and informative video! Thank you sir.

[@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.

[@Some_D0nkus]

Great video. I love these units. Restored a few CD207 units which are very similar.

[@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.

[@marcob.7801]

I can't believe it is still working!

[@ronaldchaudron]

@@AudioRamblings Back in 1992 when I decided to buy this player I had a listening comparison between the Meridian and a Harmon Kardon dont know which model it was which was almost half the price, the Meridian won hands down, far superior. By the way the equipment i use which is considered vintage are Plinius 2c preamp and Plinius model 9 monoblock power amps, bought in 1986 and a Michell Gyrodec with Dynavector 507 tone arm and Dynavector 17D cartridge. Big money to replace now days and that was in 1982.Incidently those early Gyrodec had the 24VAC motors. I upgraded the PSU a few months back, bought one of Aliexpress for about 100 British pounds or Euros in your money, unfortunately did not work straight out of the box, because the actual output voltage was not 24 but 12 plus and minus. Had it modified by a local technician who also added the 50v 22uf run capacitor. Far better than the original Walwart and also when switched off there is no small current feed to the motor which dries out the bearing lubricant with the original Michell PSU

[@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.

[@PerfDayToday]

Still have my 201, 204, 205’s, 209, 207-14, M 20’s. All work except the 207.

[@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.

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

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

[@frankgeeraerts6243]

You would with equipement that makes the musical differences clearly audible.......unless you have hearing problems.

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

@@frankgeeraerts6243 Not really. I have a lot of music on my computer's drive. Some of it is top bit-rate rate rips from CDs; most is downloaded from KZbin at whatever rate their free service is. Generally, the two are indistinguishable on my AKG K245 headphones, let alone on my Sony speakers or other audio systems which have to be at low volume to avoid disturbing my neighbours. Occasionally, I find terrible low-rate uploads with the swooshy effect that is horrible but mostly it's easily good enough. For me, I hear much greater sound artefacts at the final state: earbuds, headphones or speakers.

[@sauleomarova7730]

It seems you can not tell the difference between TERROR and DEFENSE either.

[@VetusMobile14]

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.

[@VetusMobile14]

@@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

[@janovekalhagen3949]

The best CD player (in the 1990`s) in my mind was the Electrocompaniet ECM MK1, (1998) still today it plays excellent!, and can stil be purchased as an MK5 version:-)

[@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,

[@MrSlipstreem]

Some of the early CD player DACs really were decades ahead of their time sonically. I still fondly remember buying my first CD player, a Philips CD150 in 1985. It was based around the CDM2 mechanism and had dual 14-bit DACs with 4x oversampling. The specs on paper weren't all that impressive by today's standards, but it totally blew away my brother's 16-bit Philips CD player that cost over twice as much at the time in double blind tests playing back identical time-synced CDs with the outputs level-matched to within 0.1dB. The CD150 sounded far cleaner than its specs would have had me believe, and there were no giveaways that I was listening to a digital source. To this day, it remains the most analogue sounding CD player I've ever heard in person and, although it's not used a great deal nowadays, it still takes pride of place on my shelf of audio antiquities in the bedroom along with a fully refurbished 1977 JVC KD-720 slope-loading cassette deck, and a host of other old goodies that I just can't bring myself to part with.

[@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 👍

[@thelowprofile9767]

Brings me memories back in the days. I also remember Meridien made digital speakers.

[@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?

[@chrisclague5578]

@@s.daniel9224 Musical fidelity have made some great sounding equipment over the years. I think the gear from the naughties up until 2012 were some their best. A308 gear still sounds great.

[@SastusBulbas1]

I quite liked the 206 when I had it, though by the end of it's time in my system it was used to record to casstte and plugged into the direct input of a V6030 cassette deck. I am still quite fond of a lot of older CD players, with 16bit 44.1 CD standard. Back then they often made decent CD players, these days its alll about numbers and cheap chips for silly prices, yet we get some great Chinese DAC's with crazy specs for a fraction of the cost of high end.

[@scottlowell493]

If you were around then, as I was...Meridian got tons of hype as digital leaders into the 2000's.

[@24bellers20]

This takes me back.😊I remember listening to 1 and loving it but buying a Karik/ Numerik simply because the rest of my system was Linn. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@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 .

[@edwardreed7347]

Love the styling pinstripes, well thought put comments too 😊

[@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.

[@frankgeeraerts6243]

I modified and upgraded the clock in my thirty years old CDP.........NO SS , directly into a triode and opt.........far better music from CD and more analog sounding than many so called very nexpensive high end ....and no longer listening fatigue...... The 206 was the first CDP I could listen to without wanting to run out of the room........

[@thehandseesall]

Does this sound better than a Rega Apollo?

[@rolfvonmega3658]

I dislike modern dacs as i find them irritating. The classic R2R ladder dacs like the tda1541A and tda 1543 sound way better to me. The new dacs dazzle you with high SNR and miniscule distortion numbers etc compared to the analogue sounding ladder dacs. I think Phillips made the best dacs and nothing has ever come close to their authentic rendition.

[@RogerBergqvist]

I remember this one. Meridian is a really expensive brand, but the design was cool. Linn almost.. This must sound good even today.

[@052RC]

I had this CD player and the 508.24. One thing you want to keep in mind with these older players, is the early 90's was a time when they finding out what the effects of jitter were, and they weren't sure what to do about it. This is when the Genesis Time Lens came out and Sonic Frontiers & Audio Alchemy had they're jitter reduction devices, as well. They were all very popular. However, back then, the best way to deal with jitter, was to use a single box CD player over separates. So, if you are going to use one of these as a CD player, I would say that's fine, but if you just want it for a transport, I wouldn't do it. I would buy something newer. I know the transport itself is made better than most of what's currently out there, but they didn't have the connections sorted out until later on. Wadia came up with their clock link system, dCS has their system, etc.... I would be looking for something more modern to use with a separate dac.

[@AudioRamblings]

Thanks for the advice, I will try and look out for a Wadia although I think they maybe a bit expensive?

[@chrissilcox7747]

Good review... It looks just like mine.

[@AudioRamblings]

It is very similar😂😉

[@GracielaBuenavida]

Muy completo el informe ,gracias,

[@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

[@davestevens4193]

$800 in 1990 about $1400 today. Smsl SU-1 is an $80 DAC. Not sure what the point is. You could get about equal sound with a used $10 dvd player as transport and probably a remote too.

[@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.

[@albanana683]

I recently managed to find a Philips CD372 with the same chipset, at a second hand store for €4.50. A couple of display segments are on the blink, but otherwise it sounds great.

[@johnshaw359]

@@albanana683 What a steal, to say the least. I'd be thinking of getting a direct s/p DIF or I2S connection fitted withe money saved. Well done. Look up the price of the chip.

[@albanana683]

@@johnshaw359 My fist upgrade will be to replace the op-amps. I also saw a forum recommendation to disable the headphone output, not sure if that's going to make much difference. Don't really have an interest in adding SPDF or other digital output.

[@johnshaw359]

@@albanana683 I meant so you could use it as an R2R DAC as well. Good luck.

[@trevorbartram5473]

Good review but a note of caution. When buying a used player ask the seller how much use it's had. I've had high end Denon & NAD CD players that lasted ten years, at approx 1000 discs/year usage, that eventually started skipping due to a weak laser, fair enough. Replacement mechanisms may no longer be available & finding a competant repair shop is difficult & expensive. I've had a couple of less expensive players that only lasted a couple of years due to their cheap Chinese mechanisms. I presently use a Panasonic A110 DVDA player that is >25 years old, sounds really nice & I bought a used A110 as backup in case of failure, cheap insurance. Good luck & cheers!

[@TrollMeister_]

So what is the conclusion ? That a DAC released in 2022, the very well regarded AK4493S is only marginally better than a DAC from ~35 years ago ?

[@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

[@audiononsense1611]

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

[@bertroost1675]

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.

[@bertroost1675]

@@leecooper8589 My TV only has a coaxial out.

[@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.

[@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.

[@AllHandlesHaveBeenTaken]

With the right power supply, it is a great sounding DAC​@@ChrisStoneinator

[@TheGlotz69]

I've heard this back then! Signature Audio was a great Meridian dealer. If one person touts Meridian and craps on MQA, shame! And spend some more please, on the SU-10 or the X.. sheesh. $100 for a DAC is great, but there is better for that CDP.

[@piotrkaczmarczyk1792]

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

[@AllHandlesHaveBeenTaken]

On the contrary, the SU-1 does not have a built in power supply which is an opportunity to use an LPS as you can see being used in the video. SMSL uses the same jitter reducing CK-03 clock circuit in their higher priced gear as in the SU-1. Good LM opamps in the output stage along with a good AK DAC chip. Paired with a good power supply, the SU-1 is a giant killer.

[@piotrkaczmarczyk1792]

@AllHandlesHaveBeenTaken I have recently tried old robust Philips CD machine and cdm9pro drive with dac that has double AK 4499 chips, terrific difference!

[@mikehoward4583]

The meridian 208 24bit cd player was even better than 206.

[@AudioRamblings]

would love to hear one.👍

[@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

[@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.

[@AllHandlesHaveBeenTaken]

The SU-1 has the CK-03 clock circuit that reduces jitter close to asynchronous USB

[@robertgough5804]

I have one get in touch meridian fans immaculate

[@l.k3516]

у меня был в свое время meridian 206 version delta sigma CS, мне он больше чем proceed mrc-100 понравился. хотелось бы сравнить meridian 206 delta sigma и meridian 206 tda 1547

[@wouterkolkman]

I used to own one:-)

[@jamesmansion2572]

Why does anybody bother with a CD transport these days? Modern DACs have USB and will operate in 'pull' mode, using the clock in the DAC. This will be much less jitter prone than using coax or toslink and doing clock recovery, and if you are concerned about the ground and power lines transmitting noise then an isolator is not hard to find. Ripping software is pretty good, FLAC is lossless, playback is way more convenient than swapping disks, and the ripped data will outlive the silver and plastic.

[@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.

[@crazyprayingmantis5596]

But damn its ugly

[@basbass429]

Really good transport servo board, suspension? Applying turntable physics to a digital optical reader which reads and (should) use a cache buffer to weed out any variances in reading speed. Suspension, transport, servo etc. 🤣🤣 Hilarious. On a good CD player, rpm is digitally monitored and corrected, which is actually not expensive to do at all. Hence, "old religion" audiophiles do not like that, no feeling of something special to it. When about nearly single cd-player of any can read out and put out the data perfectly at the right speed. The inside DAC can make a big difference for the analogue outputs; But the applying of turntable physics to a CD player, remains one of the most hilarious things audiophiles can do. One of the great things of optical disk, is the elimination of the need of for "suspension", Perfect rotational speeds, etc.

[@jackn4853]

It's a drawer, not draw.

[@AudioRamblings]

Thanks

[@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.

[@HifiWerner]

🖕🖐👍

[@stevenkoski228]

You need a modern player🙈.

[@mikepxg6406]

Boring.

[@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.