MrUnderhill

Can he have listened to many one wonders! Bizarre

Not back to back, but in the same system. I AM going to do the direct comparison, but only once I can get the friend who has the dCS to come over with it; which looked possible a few weeks ago, but is now tightening up again.

Yes, but not directly ....yet. I have listened to both in my system, and I had arranged for a friend who uses to dCS to bring it over JUST as the lockdown started. I will do the back to back comparison as soon as the restrictions lift.

Best first: 1. dCS Network Bridge & Meridian 210; 2. Sonore UltraRendu (LPSU) & SOtM Ultra Trifecta; 3. Sonore MicroRendu; 4. Raspberry Pi.

Dear OP, A few years ago I tried a Bel Canto DAC 3.5VBS, as it has an inbuilt volume control. The DAC is excellent, but ONLY came to life when I added the Bel Canto Pre 3 VBS. The Oppo 105D is an excellent all round box, with a built in digital pre, starting from 32bit, so a way to go before you actually truncate the music. I think it is excellent VFM, better when I have either my EAR868pl or Townshend Allegri in circuit. The technology is moving all the time and I would happily put money on the table that system context is critical; you'll only know if you try. M

The dCS comparison didn't occur for obvious reasons. That said, I am enjoying the Meridian 210 so much I have bought it.

I am using Linn Kazoo, and yes it does gapless playback. I just used the Meridian app to set up the box, as I have to grab my daughters phone! M

For the past year or so I have been very happily using the Linn Klimax Renew DS/1, some brief thoughts here: But, I still want to bring my old Audionote DAC back into action. I had liked the dCS Network Bridge tremendously and have been waiting for a 2nd hand one to come up, but they have been like hen's teeth! I then saw Meridian had bought out a streamer and waited for some reviews, and came there none; so I decided to borrow one and listen for myself. The 210 is hand made by Meridian in Cambridge and is a snip compared to the dCS at £800. The Meridian is a utilitarian box with an RJ45 and USB input and it is a roon endpoint. In addition to the Meridian specific outputs it has a spdif out, which is limited to 9624, but then so is my Audionote DAC spdif input. There is a USB interface but I believe this is to connect a HDD, in which case the device also becomes a upnp server. Initial setup is done by Bluetooth. It can then be streamed to via WiFi, LAN or Bluetooth; to achieve this you can pair the box with a Bluetooth device, such as your phone. If you connect a LAN cable then the WiFi is disabled. Two gotchas: My old Xperia could load up the Meridian app but didn’t find the 210, my daughter’s newer android phone did; and To use Kazoo I needed to set it up in Bubbleupnp. I think the 210 is excellent. My observations here are comparing to my Linn Klimax DS/1 Renew, for which I have a healthy respect. Trying to compare and contrast is interesting as, inevitably, this almost comes to a Linn DAC vs Audionote DAC. But, the 210 has to let the AN do its thing, and it certainly does! I have been streaming files from my NAS & Qobuz, this maintains the advantage of the NAS over Qobuz when comparing the same master. In broad terms I would say the Linn excels at the frequency extremes, the AN is superb at the mid-range. For example: Chris Botti, When I fall in love I love this track through the AN. Via the Linn it is somewhat cooler. But the AN excels at wooden instruments, string or wind. There is also a delightful viceral soundfield, whereas the Linn feels a tad more remote. Of course, where the AN scores in a major way is with vocals, for instance, Stacy Kent - Double Rainbow. The Linn excels on other tracks, such as Ted Jansen, Don’t Do Anything. This track has superb cymbal work that I love …through the Linn. The AN not so much. The 210 does a great job of taking 192/24 tracks on Qobuz & the NAS and pushing through 9624. With other streamers that don't do this the AN can throw a thrombie clattering away as it tries to fix on a sample rate. No issues so far, although Meridian did say this aspect is complex and so may not always work. Overall the sound of the AN/210 is bigger. Of course this may well be in part due to Sound Optimisation. SO keeps a firm grip on the lower octaves, and as a result doesn’t crowd out detail high up the frequency range. I am really enjoying this, and looking forward to testing it against the dCS! Hopefully this Thursday if my friend and I stay clear of 'The Symptoms'. M

No probs. I am a great Linn Klimax enthusiast. See you on The Wam! M

Add Audio Note to the list, superb.

Interesting article, and nice to know I have the 'best' version 😉

Hi Abolive, I have just bought a Linn Klimax DS/1 renew. Linn have supported the setting up of a Linn community on The WigWam, which i would recommend. My last pre-Linn front end included: Audiolinux (AL) + NUC backend (LMS), powered by LPSUs via LT3045s >> Audiolinux + NUC backend (Squeezelite), powered by LPSUs via LT3045s >> SingXer F1 >> Audionote 2.1 DAC NUC = Next Unit Computing. Small Intel boxes - not all of them work well in this context. The issue was that I had a system that was spread over three shelves (just the front end), had two 6A LPSUs running 24/7 and a spaghetti of cables. The DS reduced all this to one shelf. Sound Quality The Klimax is more detailed. The AN is slightly richer, not hugely but rather subtly and with respect to vocals especially. But, BOTH setups give me sonic thrills; if in rather different places. Enjoy BOTH equally. Sound Optimisation (SO) As I am sure you know Sound Optimisation is a nice added extra. The effect is noticeable, and the sound staging is very precise. With studio recordings the music sticks rather closer to the speakers than with the NUC/AN, but with natural acoustic material it is both precise and well spaced. I have played with SO v1 & v2 (cloud based), having read through the SO Thread on the WigWam. I bought the Renew from an ex-dealer who kindly bought it over and did the v1 settings, which I saved and then used as a base from which to tweak. I logged onto the Linn site and set up a few v2 profiles, which I initially preferred at my beginner/superficial level ......BUT, Paulssurround has a thread on The WigWam on SO v1 which I used to set up a new profile, and this is the profile I find myself returning to constantly. Servers With Audiolinux/NUC I found that I got a real step up with different server software, and where files are hosted. Currently I have three sources: Qobuz; Synology NAS running Minimserver; and Audiostore Prestige 2 (think NUC) running Audiolinux, files on 4 x 512GB USB sticks. Before going into the variation I have tried I have found the Linn to be REMARKABLY unresponsive to server and file changes, all rather small beer differences. Minimserver: NAS vs NUC/AL = I have a slight preference for the NUC/AL ....but I wouldn't miss one over the other particularly. NAS Minimserver vs NUC/AL Logitech Media Server = No real difference. With the Naim NS01 there was a definite uptick using wav over flac. I read that potentially Linn sounds better with flac ......not to my ears. With Minimserver I did try upscaling files to 24/192; Whilst I enjoyed this initially I found that it introduced a sharpness into vocals that I really didn't like, so I am back to unscaled. On the WigWam Linn Club there is a thread about CAT8 (Supra) working very well, not tried this myself. Hope this is of interest. M

Listening to 'Testifyin’ ! Live at the Village Vanguard' ....................WOW!!!! Thanks. M

Hi, I'm unsure of how a thread containing many people can be 'honest', and if you find some people's honesty upsetting then all you can do is call it out on a case by case basis. However, your discomfort CANNOT be allowed to cloud other peoples right to state their case freely as that may be the TRUTH. This is a highly subjective area and ANY person who enters into a public forum when it is an area from which they make money will, rightly in my opinion, be viewed differently from an average Joe. I would like to see business owners asked to identify themselves and be marked as such, as happens on some other fora. Any such business owner MUST be very careful in what they choose to contribute. Mr Uptone is an is a good example of a person who tries to walk this line, and occasionally oversteps it but is quick to acknowledge or at least accept the admins judgement. M

Beinf someone who LOVES great solutions at cheaper prices I have been bowled over by the quality and cost of the NUC/AL solution, which i have found I prefer to the SOtM (200 ultra / txUSB / sps500), the ultraRendu and the dCS Netwoek Bridge; although useability may not be quiet as straightforward. To get the best from these solutions an OCD level of attention is needed to such things as grounding AND power. Whilst good solutions are available from specialist manufacturers, at a price, I have preferred to follow in the footsteps of others by using a combination of R-Core LPSUs (Zero Zone) in my case + LT3045s. This was further improved when Rob, currently posting on usaaudiomart experimented with Power Over Ethernet (PoE). The effect of running DC though a CAT7 cable, the right ones, is very good. Rob then extended the idea by altering a PoE switch to allow the running of +ve and -ve through separate cables, and using ALL the cable pairs. He has fully documented this work for others to repeat ....but also will sell the altered switches to people such as I who are not confident with the soldering skills. I would describe the difference of adding PoE as primarily threefold: Bass The bass becomes easier to follow and adds some weight. Sound staging This increases. The different layers become expanded, so that the music is easier to listen into, and the different lines of instrumentation easier to follow; and High Frequencies Edge reduces. I have just received five pairs of Rob's PoE switches plus some of the Monoprice network cables, as the lengths I was able to get in the UK were impractical. I had one pair of the PoE switches (with Vanderseil cables) between my 6A 8v ZeroZone R-Core LPSU and my SingXer F1, stepped down via two LT3045s. This was being fed from my Celeron NUC + Audiolinux (no HDD), and sounds superb. Step 1: Add 2nd pair of PoE switches for the F1. These would become pair 1 and would run with Monoprice cables. Ideally Rob would advise using Audioquest cables on pair 2, but I wanted to hear the delta. Having installed the new pair 1 I have been listening over the last three days. In my case the move to the NUC + Audiolinux had allowed me to simplify my USB chain twixt NUC and F1 to simply my IFI Mercury 3.0 USB cable, with the power blocked. This did have a slight downside for my problematic tracks, whilst they were still enjoyable that excess edge did increase a tad, however the advantages of the NUC/AL more than made up for this, even on these tracks. So what was the effect of PoE switches 2 = PoE3.0 The first thing that struck me was the transparency of the upper frequencies, the detail that was being presented. The bass seemed somewhat constrained. I left the system to play for 24 hours. The bass returned, and the high frequency detail remained. I played through a sequence of the 'problem' tracks. MUCH better. Now returned to the situation with all the USB widgets, plus the added advantages of the NUC/AL with the widgets removed. Next steps: Allow the cables and switches to play in for a couple more days. Then add pair of audioquest cables on switch pair 2. That will then leave me two complete DC3.0 rigs to install. Potential uses are: 1. The NUC/AL used as my endpoint; 2. The PC/AL used to my LMS server; and/or 3. The USB3.0 hub that hosts my USB keys. What a pleasant problem! M