Article: Meridian Audio Director USB DAC Review

[The Computer Audiophile]

You can view the page at http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content.php?r=536-Meridian-Audio-Director-USB-DAC-Review

[souptin]

Nice review, as always.

 

I have the Explorer so would be very interested in (yours or anyone's) comparisons between the two.

[mfaoro]

+1 I am interested in the comparison too. I have the Explorer. Going to be traveling soon and want to carry the best possible small DAC I can.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I wish it was easy for people to compare for themselves. The Director definitely has more of the classic Meridian sound.

[Buffalo Boy]

No C.A.S.H. list for Director as with Explorer? What to draw from this? That Explorer's price/performance against its competition gets C.A.S.H. but Director against its price/performance competition doesn't make the cut? Would putting two similar Meridian products on C.A.S.H. list so close to the release of each other appear unseemly? Inquiring minds want to know and no extra points for brevity in explanation.

[mfaoro]

Me too. Probably will check it out at some point when my local store gets it. I am curious what it brings in terms of soundstaging. Overall I have really liked the Explorer hooked into my ALO International and LCD3s but I am always looking to improve

[dinamanu]

HI

The Crystal/cirrus cs4353 is a consumer dac , you can found on Samsung BD-C6900 blu ray and probabily in ps3 slim..

the dac chip look like don't have the connection for external digital filter ie no meridian proprietary sorftware for apodizing filter!!

but he do apodizing in hardware by Crystal ,will sound good for sure . Let me know if I'm rigth ,I hope

[beetlemania]

No C.A.S.H. list for Director as with Explorer? What to draw from this?

 

Hey, the CASH list is a tough place. Even the CAPS 3.0s aren't good enough!

[chrisf]

Quick question - does it support DSD ? Looking at the product page at Meridian, it only mentions 24bit/192KHz - nothing about the file formats.

[Audio_ELF]

Quick question - does it support DSD ? Looking at the product page at Meridian, it only mentions 24bit/192KHz - nothing about the file formats.

No, and I wouldn't ever expect Meridian to support DSD.

 

Eloise

[firedog]

I think Meridian is one of those companies that doesn't see any benefit in DSD. Their DRC units downsample 4x hi-res to 96k for processing (like other DRC hardware), so apparently they don't think 176 and 192 are truly necessary either.

[DRB]

What file formats work best with the apodising filter? I have one of these on order that I plan on using with my iMac and I have a lot of different file formats that i have with my current library, but would like to know which file formats work the best and which ones to avoid.

 

Thanks!

[DRB]

+1 I am interested in the comparison too. I have the Explorer. Going to be traveling soon and want to carry the best possible small DAC I can.

 

What I know about the Explorer is that it's more suited for headphone use. Yes, you can use an Explorer with the 1.8inch stereo analog out to go to a pair of powered speakers, BUT the Explorer does not have the apodising filter. The Director is meant to connect to a computer AND another media source via either S/PDIF or Optical and switch between the two, up sampling with apodising filter and the go analog out to a power pair of speakers, etc.

 

Meridian also has the Media Source 200, but that's to integrate with a Meridian DSP system, so that's another beast to use for those in a Meridian environment.

 

Either way, the Explorer is a nice product for those that use headphones, the Director is for integrating a computer and/or other media sources like Sonos, and other media streaming servers that don't have an internal high quality DAC with a traditional stereo systems or powered speakers.

[akila219]

anyone compared this to Schiit Bitfrost

[Jose Miguel Perez]

I would love to know if the DAC can use this device USB audio power supply, galvanical isolated, audiophile USB Power supply, isolated USB low noise transformer, USB DAC power supply, audiophile power supply for improving the sound when using the USB port.

[DRB]

I would love to know if the DAC can use this device USB audio power supply, galvanical isolated, audiophile USB Power supply, isolated USB low noise transformer, USB DAC power supply, audiophile power supply for improving the sound when using the USB port.

 

The Director ships with a power adapter that uses USB and it just plugs into the wall, but they do supply 4 different plugs depending on what country you live in. It also ships with a RCA to 1/8 plug for you to use an existing coax RCA to RCA cable, it also comes with a Toslink adapter to plug into the 1/8inch jack. But it doesn't come with a USB A to USB B cable.

 

I don't think it needs anything more than that. This is a low power CMOS chip set so I don't think really needs much more than that. It's a pretty simple design vs traditional electronics others put in their DACs.

[Jose Miguel Perez]

Here or in another similar website, when reviewing the HRT music streamer HD, it is mentioned that the quality of the sound increases dramatically when the mentioned deviced is used. Finally, the author of the review states that the DAC + the USB power device is not worth because of the price that it makes more advisable to buy another DAC from the next level, like the current Teac for example. It would be lovely if someone could try the Meridian with the dedicated USB power supply and not using the power of the laptop.

 

 

The Director ships with a power adapter that uses USB and it just plugs into the wall, but they do supply 4 different plugs depending on what country you live in. It also ships with a RCA to 1/8 plug for you to use an existing coax RCA to RCA cable, it also comes with a Toslink adapter to plug into the 1/8inch jack. But it doesn't come with a USB A to USB B cable.

 

I don't think it needs anything more than that. This is a low power CMOS chip set so I don't think really needs much more than that. It's a pretty simple design vs traditional electronics others put in their DACs.