Mel Hi ReZ

Amen to that! If it indeed stays free, I will personally be saving myself hundreds of dollars a year I currently spend on HDTracks, DVD-A and BlueRay albums! All while improving audio quality and fidelity. What's not to like?

Thanks for the reply. This is helpful background. I totally agree that they somehow need to identify which albums are MQA and which ones are regular HiFi. The only way to know today is to actually play a song and look at the label on the bottom right - not very efficient. I would think this is a very simple functionality to incorporate into Tidal. They already did the hard part which is to make the MQA decoder available. I guess I can't complain too much, as I am truly enjoying the sound quality on the MQA albums that they have made available already.

Has anyone figured out how to search for ALL albums that are available as Masters? It is really random and annoying that not all of them are listed in the What's New -> Masters tab. Very user unfriendly. Any tips will be appreciated! Or should we send a complaint / request to Tidal to fix this?

Foreigner's first album. MQA has brought to life textures on keyboards, guitars and choirs that I had never heard before. This was back when Foreigner had more musicians and singers and had a great balance of acoustic guitars, electric guitars and several singers. Loving MQA!

I purchased the Meridian Prime headphone amplifier in 2014 without any idea at all about MQA at the time. I've enjoyed this DAC quite a bit playing high resolution files, but this week has been a HUGE revelation. I upgraded the firmware in my Prime this week to get the MQA support, logged into Tidal to pick several of the available albums in their Masters section. Tidal recognized that I had a MQA compliant DAC and asked if I wanted to use the Prime as dedicated for playback. I confirmed and this was updated in the Tidal settings. Played a few test tracks and the "mystery" unlabeled blue led in the Prime turned on... The result: I AM FLOORED! The sound quality is just unbelievable and I'm experiencing the best sound quality I've ever heard in my life in any system I've owned over the last 40 years! To net it out, the sound has a very natural texture and clarity and I'm enjoying albums in a brand new way. So far, I've listened to Rumors, all the Led Zepelin albums on Tidal, Two Against Nature (Steely Dan), Opeth's Pale Communion, Wilco's albums, Modern Jazz Quartet's albums, Aqualung, etc. I am floored of how much better all these albums sound compare to my high resolution and my SACD and DVD/A versions. I HAD NO IDEA that listening to music could get this good! Loving it!

The answer is the new iFi iDSD, for $189. I made an entry with details here: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/opinions-integrated-digital-analogue-converter-headamp-direct-stream-digital-18862/

+1 on the iFi iDSD. I've had it for a few days now, and I'm really impressed, especially for all the functionality and quality it packs for a very affordable $189 Even though I got it to be my portable DAC to play high resolution files from my iPad, I am currently in the burn-in phase, connecting it this way: Mac Mini -> iFi iUSBPower -> iFi iDSD -> RCA output to Yamaha amplifier. I'm using Audirvana to play high rez files up to 24/192 and DSD files through Audirvana. It sounds terrific even out of the box without any burn-in time. For the portable configuration, I performed some tests this afternoon and got pleasantly great results: 1. Works perfectly just connecting the iDSD to the iPad using CCK 2. No need for Powered Hub at all 3. The iDSD has a led light with colors that show the specific frequency, similar to the Dragonfly. It has different lights for 1X (44.1, 48), 2X (88.2, 96) and 4X (176.4, 192), as well as different colors for DSD content at different frequencies: DXD 353/384Mhz, DSD 2.8/3.1Mhz and DSD 5.6/6.2 MHz. I actually did not know that there was a led light with changing colors at all - it was a nice surprise when I got the unit and read the instructions - this is something that could be marketed better by iFi! 4. I played content in all different formats and frequencies above in my iPad and got the right results - bit perfect every time. Used the FLAC app for PCM content and the Onkyo HF Player for DSD content. I selected the option to play DSD directly without any PCM conversion. So far this little technology marvel will be my travel companion as it does not require the USB Powered Hub as it has its own internal battery. The iDSD is very accurate in all frequency ranges, seems to reproduce the music exactly as it was recorded without any coloring. It does not have the smooth coloring of the Meridian Explorer (which is only PCM), but very close in terms of sound quality. The above is just an assessment based on the sound. If the assessment is based on functionality, the iDSD wins compared to the Explorer hands down. Here are a few features that the iDSD has that are not available in the Explorer: - Internal battery power, up to 10hours (alleged) - Ability to play DSD files up to 1 bit, 6.2MHz - Volume knob for manual control - RCA outputs - SPDIF digital output (PCM only) - USB 3.0, with USB 2.0 compatibility - PCM up to 32 bit, 384 KHz - Digital filter option I have no idea how iFi was able to pack all these features on a $189 device. The packaging (Apple-like) and build quality are first class as well.

I've owned the Meridian Prime for a few days and I have to say I'm very happy with the purchase. My justification for the purchase was based on the fact that I love the Meridian sound (I had the Director before purchasing the Prime), and also because I was able to consolidate multiple components and their associated cables into a net single unit. I can't however justify at the moment going for the Meridian Power Supply at the current price level. I have been using the iFi iUSBPower unit that costs less than $200 and is providing a clean USB power and data signal to the Prime. I have tested the sound quality and noise floor level with and without the iFi, and I can say that this little iFi unit is making a big positive difference. From my listening tests in my current configuration, I am very happy with the results and I can't think what kind of positive impact I could get from buying the Meridian Power Supply unit.

+1. In my office/desktop I also have an Amp and speakers, which is fed currently by a Meridian Director and and Oppo universal player. The Meridian Director is also feeding via a splitter a Woo Audio headphone amplifier. I'm very interested to see if I can simplify my current configuration by inserting the Prime to replace the Director and the Woo Audio headphone amp without losing any sound quality. Chris - would it be possible for you to do a quick review of the Prime sound quality being used with as a pre-amp configuration? Per Meridian's Prime manual, it can be used not only to feed powered speakers, but also as a pre-amp through the line-level outputs. Therefore, I assume the volume control knob is only applicable for the headphone outputs, right? "On the output side, the Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier includes a pair of gold-plated line-level phonos on the rear panel that can be used to drive an external amplifier or pair of analogue active loudspeakers" ... "In addition to its use with headphones, the Prime Headphone Amplifier is also an outstanding analogue preamplifier, allowing multiple inputs to be managed effectively and brought up to line level at extraordinarily high quality for driving external power amplifiers or powered analogue speakers "

Great job Chris! Very informative and nice to get all this information in a single video update. And you come across as an overall cool, nice guy! One suggestion is to include a few more written cues at the bottom of the screen when you are describing certain gear models. You did it in most cases, but there were some descriptions that did not have them while you were talking. Also, for a future show, would not mind to have a walk through of your current gear and how it's connected - especially the ones that you frequently use for your reviews.

1. I had done it in the past by just changing the name and it works fine (I use Mac O/S on a Mac Mini) 2. For my library and in my iPad 3, it takes about 20 minutes to finish the indexing the first time it is loaded into the drive. For subsequent updates, the amount of time for indexing has been minimal. My library is about 800GB and 12,000 songs. The indexing time improved dramatically with a Seagate firmware update that was made available about 2 months ago. Before that firmware update it took way longer, and the indexing times were more unpredictable. 3. I did experience the "zombie" state you describe before upgrading to the latest firmware version. Since the upgrade, I have not had a single issue, the drive turns on and off in a reliable way.

A few partial answers to your questions: 1. I have been able to play AIFF files in the Seagate application without a problem. The only caveat is that the filetype needs to be AIFF, not AIF. I can't however automatically synch up these files with the Seagate Media Synch, I have to copy these files manually. My library is however composed now entirely of high rez files in Apple Lossless to avoid any hassles 2. I have downloaded and used for a while the 8Player application from 8soft. It if faster than the Seagate app, but the navigation and user interface is a bit primitive. I have been able to play FLAC files (along with my Apple Lossless files), but have not been able to play AIF or AIFF files, despite the fact that the software vendor claims support for AIF Does this help?

Another recommendation is to use the Seagate Media Synch - which is a free utility that comes with the product. This allows to automated the update of the music library into the Wireless Plus device without much fuzz. I had been doing it manually for a couple of weeks - anytime I changed my iTunes library or got new music, I manually copied the relevant albums/songs into the Wireless Plus device, which can become cumbersome and time consuming. The Seagate Media Synch utility does recognize and apply only the changes to the files you want to synch with the drive - it works very well and it's fairly fast once you have done the initial synch/upload. This initial synch step took me 4 hour for 700MB of content, but subsequent update operations are of course much faster.

Checking with the in flight crew beforehand is always a safe bet. I'm not related to Alec Baldwin by the way (-:

One more comment on my mobile setup versus my desktop setup: I've been doing comparisons with both low res and high res music on my current desktop setup, which is a Centrance Dac Mini + V-LINK 192, versus the Meridian Explorer. The Meridian is far superior in musicality and accuracy and I could not be happier with the purchase. I also have a Dragonfly and the Meridian is superior in every way in my opinion. I was shocked as I did not expect the $300 Explorer to outperform the $1,100+ desktop setup, but it did. Once I tested the Explorer with the Seagate Wireless Plus setup, the sound quality remained exactly the same, I did not notice any sound quality differences, despite the fact that in the mobile setup I'm streaming the information, and the application is not iTunes+Audirvana, just the Seagate Media app. Surprising and remarkable...