Meridian Director strange problem

[cbee]

Having a problem with the Meridian Director DAC on my new laptop – Sony Vaio Touch running windows 8.1 and Jriver 19. When I load the Meridian USB driver although it loads I get this message:-

 

EUSB2_audio_driver_v2-5\USB_cpl.exe –hide” did not return within 30000ms.

 

Files with sample rate 44khz play without problem, but with 48Khz and above sample rate there is only silence, although they are playing in Jriver. The DAC appears to be receiving the data as the x2 light illuminates when playing 96Khz files.

 

There was no problem when I used the DAC on my old Dell laptop – windows 7 & Jriver 19.

 

The Sony has USB3 ports but according to Meridian this should not be a problem.

 

Currently I am down sampling all high res files to 44kHz!

 

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks

[Daren F]

Maybe a long shot but, try uninstalling the Meridian driver, reboot the computer and then re-install the driver. This time, when you re-install, right click on the install file and select "Run As Administrator".

 

Hopefully this will resolve your problem.

[AudioDoctor]

Are all the ports USB3 or are some of them USB2?

[cbee]

Tried the uninstall & install as administrator but still have the problem.

All ports are USB3. USB3 should not be a problem according to Meridian.

[cbee]

As I am about to travel and this is my travelling rig I spent more time with it yesterday and the whole thing is very flakey. I need to power cycle too often ( when no sound even from 44Khz files ) and sometimes the sound balance is strange, with vocals hardly audible. I then tried using my old VLINK Mk 1 and feeding the Director with co-ax. That is rock solid. No issues. So that is the best work around for the time being. Although with the amount of extra equipment I now need to lug around I might need to hire a roadie!

As the Vlink is a USB2 device my conclusion is that the Meridian USB2 driver is not 100% compatable with USB3. Or something Sony is doing in their laptops is interfering with their driver.

[ranocchio]

Tried the uninstall & install as administrator but still have the problem.

All ports are USB3. USB3 should not be a problem according to Meridian.

 

Hi all

 

i am new to this forum and want to say "hello"to everybody.

 

I have the same problem with the Director throu Hp envy 15(purchased 1 month ago) running J River 19

 

and windows 8;i also have 2 old acer pc (vista and windows 7) and everything works fine with the Director

 

and jriver 19.

 

But the strange thing is that the Meridian Explorer works flawlessy with hp envy and windows 8 ,same

 

settings on Jriver ;Director and Explorer share the very same driver and i've tried to unistall and

 

reinstall without success.

 

I 've tried different settings and every Usb port :nada ,the Director with windows 8 works only 16 /44.

 

It's realy a mistery to me;maybe a driver problem with windows 8?

[cbee]

So it seems we can discount the computer manufacturer and also the driver. The problem lays with the Director itself? I have to say I was a bit dissapointed with the technical support from MA. When they learnt that it worked ok on my old laptop (with USB2) they said that proved the Director was ok and that was basically the end of their support. My first MA device and quite possibly my last.

[ranocchio]

So it seems we can discount the computer manufacturer and also the driver. The problem lays with the Director itself? I have to say I was a bit dissapointed with the technical support from MA. When they learnt that it worked ok on my old laptop (with USB2) they said that proved the Director was ok and that was basically the end of their support. My first MA device and quite possibly my last.

 

Hi cbee

 

i'm a little disppointed too,but i think the director is great suonding,i hope the Ma fix the driver prblem ;im convinced

 

we share the same problem with other customers .

 

I'm going to e-mail Ma too.

 

Anyway I found what it seems a more up to date driver on http://www.driverscape.com;maybe worth to give it a try

 

Saluti

[Daren F]

The problem may be a compatibility issue with Windows 8.1 and Meridian needs to update the driver and/or the firmware for the Director. If the Director worked fine with Windows 7 try this.

 

- Uninstall the Meridian driver.

- Reboot

- Right click on the setup file

- Select "Troubleshoot Compatibility"

- Select "Troubleshoot Program"

- Select "The program worked in earlier versions of Windows but won't install or run now

- Select "Windows 7"

- Select "Test the program"

- Install the program as per the Meridian directions

 

Now it should be running in compatibility mode and hopefully this will resolve the problem until Meridian gets around to updating their drivers for Windows 8.1.

 

I hope this helps.

[ranocchio]

The problem may be a compatibility issue with Windows 8.1 and Meridian needs to update the driver and/or the firmware for the Director. If the Director worked fine with Windows 7 try this.

 

- Uninstall the Meridian driver.

- Reboot

- Right click on the setup file

- Select "Troubleshoot Compatibility"

- Select "Troubleshoot Program"

- Select "The program worked in earlier versions of Windows but won't install or run now

- Select "Windows 7"

- Select "Test the program"

- Install the program as per the Meridian directions

 

Now it should be running in compatibility mode and hopefully this will resolve the problem until Meridian gets around to updating their drivers for Windows 8.1.

 

I hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

Thank you Daren for your kind advise

 

i will try this week and let you know.

 

I mailed folks at Meridian ...i hope in a fast and valid response

 

Have a good week

[cbee]

Thanks Daren. I tried it several times but the problem still persists.

 

ranocchio, I agree it sounds great. I will continue to run it using the co-ax input until such time as Meridian fix the driver, although they seem to be in denial that they have a problem at the moment!

[ranocchio]

Thanks Daren. I tried it several times but the problem still persists.

 

ranocchio, I agree it sounds great. I will continue to run it using the co-ax input until such time as Meridian fix the driver, although they seem to be in denial that they have a problem at the moment!

 

 

 

Yes cbee

 

they continue to deny the problem ;i had a generical answer too:they try to

 

discharge the failure on pc manufacturer,when is clear that there is a conflict

 

between meridian driver and windows 8;the same driver works with the

 

explorerer.

 

I hope someone else will e-mail them in order to fix the problem.

 

I don't want to let the thing go,and i'll continue to e-mail them

 

Ciao

[ranocchio]

Good evening

 

I talked with Fabio @pixelengineering.it ,italian MA distributor ,and explained what's happenning.

 

I send him an articulate mail,in my mother tongue,and he turned back and talked with MA people .

 

Fabio ,a real gentleman a competent guy,told me the are working about .

 

I think the problem will soon resolved.

[cbee]

Nice one ranocchio, so they know know there is a problem but deny it to the customers face. They should work for the government.

[ranocchio]

Nice one ranocchio, so they know know there is a problem but deny it to the customers face. They should work for the government.

 

 

 

Eh,eh ....maybe some men in black at the door ;-)

[ranocchio]

Eh,eh ....maybe some men in black at the door ;-)

 

 

 

 

Still waiting for a reply from MA people ....................

[cbee]

I can wait. It's sounding great through Vlink - Coax. I'll compare it to USB when they finally sort it out.

[ranocchio]

Good evening all

 

ok ,i know,is becoming annoying...

 

Tonight i went on Meridian site ,wow there's a new driver update ;"Here we are "i thougt.Unistalled the old driver and installed

 

the updated driver ;resetted on" control panel >hardware and sounds "all the settings for the explorer and director (plug and unplug

 

it's not that fast):the explorer works flawlessy either on iriver and xbox ;director :only 16/44.

 

I'm getting nervous and frustrated about that ;it was told me the problem lies on usb 3.0,but i can't really understand why

 

2 dacs by the same producer ,sharing the same driver,behave in such a different way.

 

Didnt have tried different environments before discharging their products on the market ?

 

Man on the edge of nervous breakdown (joking ..but not at all!)

[cbee]

I'll try the new driver tomorrow to confirm your findings. Assuming I have the same results as you I'm going to send them a complaint. Very poor service. If I didn't already have a USB-Co-ax device I would have returned the device.

 

Does sound great though!

[cbee]

Tried the new driver - 1.67-3 and still have the same problem. Emailed Meridian yesterday, with a complaint this time. No answer as of end of business hours in the UK today. Maybe hear something Monday but not holding my breath.

[mkaraga]

I riverbed Meridian DAC Explorer, provided that the software is installed on the meridian DAC includes the field's computer

[ranocchio]

I riverbed Meridian DAC Explorer, provided that the software is installed on the meridian DAC includes the field's computer

 

Please mkaraga

 

xpand your thought ,i didn't catch what you're tring to mean

 

saluti

[mkaraga]

I want to ask you, did you install the driver when the meridian priklucen on computers, because what if you're not konektirali DAC meridian, driver not to be installed, I have the same meridian and use Windows Explorer 8.1 works perfectly

[ranocchio]

I want to ask you, did you install the driver when the meridian priklucen on computers, because what if you're not konektirali DAC meridian, driver not to be installed, I have the same meridian and use Windows Explorer 8.1 works perfectly

 

That's right

 

i understood what you mean ...yes i did

 

I have both the director and the explorerer:they share the same driver >the explorerer works flawlessy at ever sample rating,

 

while director works only 16/44;this only with Hp envy 15 usb 3.0 win 8.0;on others pc i own with usb 2.0 win 7 and vista no problem .

 

Director misfunctioning occurred when i bought my new computer (Hp Envy 15);same thing occurred to cbee with Vajo sony

(mica pizza e fichi!).

 

Malfunctioning either with jriver xbox and net streaming .

 

It seems that Meridian engineers have some problems with Director driver ,firmware or hardware and up to date Pc.

 

Thank you for specify your point

 

Ciao

[cbee]

Finally got a reply from Meridian:-

 

"I must apologise because since we last spoke, we have been able to carry out further testing and have found that when using the Director DAC with USB3 enabled computers, it will not allow playback of any sample-rates above 44kHz although the Explorer will perform ok.

It is actually a compatibility issue between the USB3 interface and one of the internal components used within the DAC circuitry (not your computer!) . We are currently in communications with the supplier of this part to try and find a resolution as soon as we can."