Auzentech XMeridian is finally out!

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two captures:

1) Drm-free 192khz DVD-A (MLP 2.0), which becomes Packed PCM with a reserved sampling rate!!!
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2) Super Saturated 96khz DVD (LPCM 2.0), which seems to keep the 96khz over the SPDIF output. Thing is, I know the nforce2 can't handle 96khz.
The question is: is there any soundcard which would allow me to send these signals over SPDIF -without downsampling them- to an external receiver?
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MixBar said:
"Not all DVD-A Discs are Created Equal
We purchased and examined a fairly good sampling of DVD-A discs. We were quite dismayed to find that DVD-A discs can have built-in copy protection that forces a DVD-A player into a low-resolution down-sampling mode at the digital outputs. When the copy protection is activated, 16-bit, 48-kHz output is usually what results when playing 24-96, or 24-192 kHz material. This disc creation option was provided in response to the music industries demand to prohibit the unauthorized copying and sharing of a DVD-A disc - at its full resolution. Unfortunately, the producers of most DVD-A discs that we examined have chosen to exercise this option.

This is a genuine oxymoron. It seems to me that those who love high-resolution audio and have the means to purchase the requisite equipment (and may I say, support the purchase of DVD-A discs) will never take the time to make a copy of a disc, much less make a miserable MP3 file to share with their buddies. People that want the finest in high-resolution audio are not the ones the music industry needs to fear. We believe this demographic misunderstanding is something the marketing executives at the major record labels must get their minds around. As things stand, they are definitely hurting the best opportunity for "the ultimate" in consumer listening yet to come along."

The Creative MLP Codecs for Audigy 2/4 Pro and X-Fi are the only one with full resolution playback for copy protection content on the pc (only analog, this codec deactivated the digital output).

Perhaps does PowerDVD use the Creative codec(if available)? WinDVD make it so.
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I already linked to similar material. Power DVD 6D uses its own Software MLP. It supports DVD-A right out the box. I even tested it on my old Willy P4 and a MUSE 5.1 sound card and it worked.

http://www.power-dvd.biz/

It supports most modern formats.
 
another doubt: according to the HK AV3000 specs, it is 24bit 192khz capable. How do I know which sampling rate is receiving the HK? Theoretically, right now it should be 48khz, but I don't see that info anywhere on the HK display.
 
My sound card can send 192kHz signal through the spdif(the sound card will also upsample a lower rate source to 192kHz if you set the spdif output to 192kHz) and I think that any Oxygen HD based sound card can send a digital stereo PCM signal through the spdif. You should make sure that your receiver can also accept a 192kHz signal through the spdif.
 
alg7_munif said:
My sound card can send 192kHz signal through the spdif(the sound card will also upsample a lower rate source to 192kHz if you set the spdif output to 192kHz) and I think that any Oxygen HD based sound card can send a digital stereo PCM signal through the spdif. You should make sure that your receiver can also accept a 192kHz signal through the spdif.
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That bud with the X Meridian asked me to thank you for him:)
 
cirerita said:
another doubt: according to the HK AV3000 specs, it is 24bit 192khz capable. How do I know which sampling rate is receiving the HK? Theoretically, right now it should be 48khz, but I don't see that info anywhere on the HK display.
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The receiver or speakers would have to be compat with 192KHz and you'd also need a 192KHz unblocked source. DDL supports 24-94 and Power DVD support "Direct 24/96" as well. You simply set the card to "ByPass use External Source".

I know its 96KHz because my receiver says so right on the display. If I switch to 48bit, the 96KHz on my receiver's Display goes off and you can hear the receiver CLICK, then it shows Pro Logic, the next setting. One guy didn't believe the Pioneer could sound that good.
 
Donnie27 said:
That bud with the X Meridian asked me to thank you for him:)
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He doesn't have to thank me actually. I'm just sharing my view about this card and I asked before because it would help others also if more people tell their experience with this card(good or bad). When you get the b-Enspirer later, please tell us about it. Most people buy Creative's just because they heard good things about it from other people and never heard anything about other cards.
 
a final doubt: will the x-meridian (or similar cards) be able to handle the HD audio signals of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray?
 
Here is the trick, with the X-Meridian, you can get the X-Tension board later that will have a 8-Channel digital PCM 192/24 output through the DIN connector and I think that you can convert it to HDMI using an adaptor(or create one). Other similiar card doesn't support the extension board.
 
in other words, there are no 8ch digital PCM 192/24 capable soundcards right now??? Is that right?
 
There are no sound card that can output 8ch digital pcm 192/24 right now, the Oxygen HD based cards can support 8ch 192/24 sound but the output is in analogue, if you want digital output, you need the extension board for the X-Meridian, note that the receiver must also support 8ch digital PCM input. There is also still no 8ch 192/24 source yet.
 
Not yet, even the Dolby True HD and DTS HD only support 7.1 96/24 sound. Maybe when BD/HD-DVD is used as an audio disc then you will get a 8ch 192/24 sound.
 
too bad, really.

so, right now, the highest audio quality we can get is listening to DVD-A via the analogue output, is that right?

well, the Super Saturated DVD is 96khz, which is not that bad, either, and it's not protected, so you can send the signal via SPDIF.

btw, is the Terratec Aureon Universe any good? I could get it at a very reasonable price...
 
alg7_munif said:
He doesn't have to thank me actually. I'm just sharing my view about this card and I asked before because it would help others also if more people tell their experience with this card(good or bad). When you get the b-Enspirer later, please tell us about it. Most people buy Creative's just because they heard good things about it from other people and never heard anything about other cards.
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Then my buds and I are not most people:) Not fooled by Creative or anyone else. We listen to each other's systems before upgrading. If the X-Fi kicks ass for gaming, that's what we buy. If the CMedia type cards rock, we buy that. We do that with Processors, video cards and whatever else we can get our hands on. He still said X-Meridian wasn't good enough to replace the X-Fi in his Gaming rig.

Many times the reason why I didn't like CMedia based stuff was drivers. I just try to get the right **TOOL** for the Job. So there'll be an HTPC Job for the for the b-Enspirer and Gaming Job for the X-Fi to do.
 
By saying most people, I meant that the majority of PC users(everyone that uses a PC, not only the one that tweaks it). If you ask them about Creative, most probably they'll know that the company makes good sound card, if you ask them about Auzentech, I think that they wouldn't know that the company even exists.

BTW this is another review from ThinkComputer.
 
Donnie27 said:
I already linked to similar material. Power DVD 6D uses its own Software MLP. It supports DVD-A right out the box. I even tested it on my old Willy P4 and a MUSE 5.1 sound card and it worked.

It supports most modern formats.
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Support with downsampling.
Here a posting from Eugen Gavrilov an audio pro and lead programmer of the marvelous kx drivers.

"yes, PowerDVD resamples audio to 16/48 by default (unless special plugin from CL is used ...)" http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=62040
 
alg7_munif said:
By saying most people, I meant that the majority of PC users(everyone that uses a PC, not only the one that tweaks it). If you ask them about Creative, most probably they'll know that the company makes good sound card, if you ask them about Auzentech, I think that they wouldn't know that the company even exists.

BTW this is another review from ThinkComputer.
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Poor review IMHO!

First of all, most PC users use On-Board sound and not sound cards. 2nd, Most Discrete sound card users use Creative because they are the best. The Webmasters who pick it year after year as Gear of the Year, best of the best and etc.. have tested the others and still picked Creative. Any serious Gamer wants X-Fi because they tested and liked it, not because they are un-informed.

The other thing that bothers me still is many Americans don't like BSers LOL! IMHO, Auzentech didn't help its own cause by naming the frackin card "X-Meridian" when it doesn't support Meridian Lossless Packing! Some noobie might not know what MLP is, but most folks on this forum do:) What will their next card, the "X-OpenAL" that doesn't support that feature either? The company needs more than anti-Creative sentiment to sell products.
 
MixBar said:
Support with downsampling.
Here a posting from Eugen Gavrilov an audio pro and lead programmer of the marvelous kx drivers.

"yes, PowerDVD resamples audio to 16/48 by default (unless special plugin from CL is used ...)" http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=62040
Click to expand...

Be careful, most of that might have been true with Audigy 2 and maybe Audigy 2ZS. Please note that I'm talking about an ASIO driven inter system recording, thats post KX or etc....KMixer doesn't harm X-Fi like like it did on the Audigys.

Many folks need to come off of the Anti Creative Driver Phobia as well LOL! After I set up my current Conroe system, I tried the whole Bloat-Ware install, completely updated from Creative's site and it works damned well. X-Fi's drivers and software runs like a bat out of hell.... The little Audio Console is still the best though.

But Donnie27 what about the RightMark loop back tests? Not at all, the better sounding DACs aren't truly tested because of its some what weaker Wolfson ADCs screws up the loop:)
 
Meridian is the name of the company(Meridian Audio, Ltd.) which developed the MLP. The name Meridian doesn't only refer to the MLP, other products of the company also used the name Meridian long before the MLP was developed as the company was founded in 1977. The Meridian Audio is a company from UK, the country in which the Prime Meridian lies(at Greenwich) so I wonder where did the Meridian name actually come from. The word Meridian is also used in geography and astronomy.

Just because the XtremeAudio uses the name X-Fi as well it doesn't mean that the card supports all the X-Fi features.
 
Hmm, I don't want to interrupt the flow of the topic but I've got a question about which DDL card I should get (or rather which one's worth the price). My friend's offering me the Mystique for $60, but after seeing this thread, the Meridian seems pretty awesome (but for $200 :eek: ).
I've got an Onkyo receiver along with a 5.1 setup of Athena bookshelf speakers. Anyways, I upgraded from a soundstorm board to a newer C2D,etc. so that's why I'm asking. Oh also, I mainly used the setup to listen to music and play games...so yeah, what should I do? Thanks in advance!
 
alg7_munif said:
Meridian is the name of the company(Meridian Audio, Ltd.) which developed the MLP. The name Meridian doesn't only refer to the MLP, other products of the company also used the name Meridian long before the MLP was developed as the company was founded in 1977. The Meridian Audio is a company from UK, the country in which the Prime Meridian lies(at Greenwich) so I wonder where did the Meridian name actually come from. The word Meridian is also used in geography and astronomy.

Just because the XtremeAudio uses the name X-Fi as well it doesn't mean that the card supports all the X-Fi features.
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Meridian Lossless Packing and there's no spin to change that=P Here when folks say MLP many will think Lossless format, like it or not. Add Meridian name to a Sound Card and folks will not think of a company and a Time Line LOL! Creative pushes Card that has a MLP chip on it for less that $100 and a $189 card doesn't have it? I'd never name my card after or something that reminds folks of a feature it doesn't have.
 
MixBar said:
Support with downsampling.
Here a posting from Eugen Gavrilov an audio pro and lead programmer of the marvelous kx drivers.

"yes, PowerDVD resamples audio to 16/48 by default (unless special plugin from CL is used ...)" http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=62040
Click to expand...

PDVD 96

Here's a screen shot of Power DVD 6 Deluxe showing 96KHz processing. This is from Deep Purple Machinehead DVD Audio that also has a simple CD-A track as well. Allan Parsons shows the same thing in the processing folder. IMHO, 24-192 or 96 Stereo is where it's at:)
 
khansolo said:
Hmm, I don't want to interrupt the flow of the topic but I've got a question about which DDL card I should get (or rather which one's worth the price). My friend's offering me the Mystique for $60, but after seeing this thread, the Meridian seems pretty awesome (but for $200 :eek: ).
I've got an Onkyo receiver along with a 5.1 setup of Athena bookshelf speakers. Anyways, I upgraded from a soundstorm board to a newer C2D,etc. so that's why I'm asking. Oh also, I mainly used the setup to listen to music and play games...so yeah, what should I do? Thanks in advance!
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Any Oxygen HD based card will do the digital job, check out the first post.

Review from Guru3D is out!!! The X-Meridian is reviewed against X-Fi. BTW the card is not mislabled. If your running 7.1 setup it's labled perfectly. It says in the manual which output to use if you use 5.1 setup. Guess he didn't read the manual(67 pages of it).
 
wow. The X-Meridian has frightening bad RightMark Audio Analyzer results.
Achieves this card at all a better quality as the many cheaper Club3D DTS (with same Controller, DAC and feature set)?

I am honestly frightened. This is a 200$ card.
 
I believed the RMAA result(saw one before on another forum) so I ordered a X-Fi XtremeMusic and got it today but you don't need to believe me if you don't want to. Why did I buy the card? Well I got a very good offer for it and I thought that the X-Fi shouldn't be far behind the X-Meridian plus I could benefit from the hardware acceleration in games but the X-Fi disappoints me, the sound difference is HUGE especially when listening to musics with my HD-595, even if I'm deaf, I still can hear the difference between them with my headphones. Note that I don't like any 3D effects when listening to musics, I use neither the CMSS3D nor the Dolby Headphone, I tried the Crystalizer, the audio creation mode and the entertainment mode but the X-Fi can't even come close to the X-Meridian on my headphones. I didn't play games with the card yet though.
 
alg7_munif said:
I believed the RMAA result(saw one before on another forum) so I ordered a X-Fi XtremeMusic and got it today but you don't need to believe me if you don't want to. Why did I buy the card? Well I got a very good offer for it and I thought that the X-Fi shouldn't be far behind the X-Meridian plus I could benefit from the hardware acceleration in games but the X-Fi disappoints me, the sound difference is HUGE especially when listening to musics with my HD-595, even if I'm deaf, I still can hear the difference between them with my headphones. Note that I don't like any 3D effects when listening to musics, I use neither the CMSS3D nor the Dolby Headphone, I tried the Crystalizer, the audio creation mode and the entertainment mode but the X-Fi can't even come close to the X-Meridian on my headphones. I didn't play games with the card yet though.
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$189 with upgraded DACs vs a card that can be had for $72, wow, that rich;) I hope like hell you didn't waste money on the X-Fi for the sake of Music. I don't like 3D effects either but 24bit 192KHz is sweet! Yes, it sounds better than 24-96KHz unless the actual recording of Hotel California 24/192 is better than, Alan Parsons, Deep Purple, Doobie Brothers and even Steely Dan that are all 24/96 stereo. SO of these were recorded with an EMU 1212.

Power DVD 6 Deluxe maxes out at 24-96, the Creative DVD-A player at 24-192. Then do an A-B yourself please?
 
The X-Meridian has frightening bad RightMark Audio Analyzer results. Achieves this card at all a better quality as the many cheaper Club3D DTS (with same Controller, DAC and feature set)?
Click to expand...

I'm also puzzled by the realtively "poor" performance in RMA after those reviews that almost suggest the X-Meridian puts to shame a LynxTWO, but fter reading this table

http://www.auzentech.com/site/support/Audio_Quality.php

my guess is that it gets more positive subjective evaluations because it's louder, not because its signal is cleaner. See the max output level, is at 5Vrms and its headphone out has an amplifier IC so it will be able to provide more current to passive loads. I don't know if there is a standard on line level voltages, but I remember it was something like 1Vp (2Vpp). At least MATLAB assumes that the captured values from the soundcard are voltages between -1V and 1V.
 
HSE said:
my guess is that it gets more positive subjective evaluations because it's louder, not because its signal is cleaner. See the max output level, is at 5Vrms and its headphone out has an amplifier IC so it will be able to provide more current to passive loads. I don't know if there is a standard on line level voltages, but I remember it was something like 1Vp (2Vpp). At least MATLAB assumes that the captured values from the soundcard are voltages between -1V and 1V.
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It doesn't matter what you said, you still didn't hear the sound from the X-Meridian, it is not louder like you think and I'm not stupid enough not to turn the volume up. The difference is really noticable especially from string instruments like guitar, I don't need to change the the output many times to find the difference, just change it once and I know what is missing on the X-Fi. BTW the amplifier IC is used at the headphone out for the front panel output and I'm not using the front panel output, the front panel output is louder but the sound is not as "delicious" as connecting the headphones directly to the card.
 
It doesn't matter what you said, you still didn't hear the sound from the X-Meridian, it is not louder like you think and I'm not stupid enough not to turn the volume up. The difference is really noticable especially from string instruments like guitar, I don't need to change the the output many times to find the difference, just change it once and I know what is missing on the X-Fi
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Wow, with such solid facts I'm at a loss. Sorry but unless someone conducts a double-blind test calibrating the SPL (preferable under the guidelines of the ITU-R BS.1116 recommendation) all your ramblings only mean that you prefer the so called 'sound signature' of the X-Meridian, I'm not saying it's not better, just that the signal quality is very close and the numbers don't back up the claims of a huge difference. So either those measurements are wrong and skewed towards the low end, or you are so biased towards your card that you spent $70 just to make your word of mouth advertising more credible (and I'm not willing to spend $270 to prove either).

And FYI the difference in the signal level doesn't have to be huge, a difference as little as 1dB can make the illusion of better sound *on the same card with the same speakers/headphones* if the listener is not aware of it.
 
HSE said:
I'm also puzzled by the realtively "poor" performance in RMA after those reviews that almost suggest the X-Meridian puts to shame a LynxTWO, but fter reading this table

http://www.auzentech.com/site/support/Audio_Quality.php

my guess is that it gets more positive subjective evaluations because it's louder, not because its signal is cleaner. See the max output level, is at 5Vrms and its headphone out has an amplifier IC so it will be able to provide more current to passive loads. I don't know if there is a standard on line level voltages, but I remember it was something like 1Vp (2Vpp). At least MATLAB assumes that the captured values from the soundcard are voltages between -1V and 1V.
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Yes and look at the reviews linked to, they're all known as Creative Bashers LOL! How about the one guy setting all of the voices down to 32, hehehe! Even that line about DVD-A player crashing after he exits is a sign of a weak system set up. My old AMD based system crashed after WinAMP and WMP as well:(
 
Well, these results are pretty unfortunate. The Meridian may have subjectively better music quality, but there are still some serious issues. Overall, I'm not impressed, especially considering the price. For $270 bones, I expect a quantified killer music card and something that can really hold its own in gaming scenarios. I don't think the Meridian delivers either. And, naturally, no native OpenAL support really makes this card a horrible purchase.

Donnie27 said:
Here when folks say MLP many will think Lossless format, like it or not. Add Meridian name to a Sound Card and folks will not think of a company and a Time Line LOL!
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That's a pretty wild assumption, Donnie.

I must admit, I'm growing very tired of this back-and-forth nonsense. We have already addressed this.
 
phide said:
That's a pretty wild assumption, Donnie.

I must admit, I'm growing very tired of this back-and-forth nonsense. We have already addressed this.
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Do a poll? Nothing wild about it.:)
 
phide said:
You made the claim, you make the poll.
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No, I didn't say it was a wild assumption, you did;)

Anyone paying $189 for a sound card aren't dumb enough to not know it doesn't have MLP or what MLP is a wild assumption on your part.

He said most folks/Computer users. I said most folks/users use On-Board sound. Most Gamers use Creative. They aren't giving up the best Game support because Music sounds better in his opinion, on his headphones and Rightmark says differently. If I want High Quality music playback, I'd get a SACD or DVD-A set top LOL!
 
When I said that you made the claim, I was obviously referring to your original claim that many people here will immediately think of MLP when the word "meridian" is uttered. I certainly wasn't referring to my own statement that this assumption is silly. Why would I do that?

In any case, I'm one of these generally knowledgeable guys who was formally trained in audio engineering and is currently working in an audio post house (that makes me an audio professional), and I didn't know about MLP until you mentioned it way back when. So, what exactly does that say about how widespread the knowledge of MLP is?

A quick-and-dirty "Google poll" shows that "Meridian Lossless Packing" yields a mere ~29,000 results. A search for, oh, say, "cornish game hen" yields over 93,000. Take that for whatever it's worth.

It's a curious thing, really. Infants do not have the capability of grasping that the people around them may not always understand what they understand (their feelings, emotions and their opinions of their surroundings), but surely you've developed this capability. Just because you are aware of one thing doesn't necessarily mean that most others are aware of it as well.
 
TheBeelzebub said:
Actually, the razer sound stuff is loads of junk. The headphones are abysmal. And seeing that you can only use proprietary abysmal headphones with that sound card, it does not matter if the sound card is any good.
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Actually, you can use regular headphones with that card. It has connectors to plug regular headphones into the card.

Kmat

:)
 
HSE said:
Wow, with such solid facts I'm at a loss. Sorry but unless someone conducts a double-blind test calibrating the SPL (preferable under the guidelines of the ITU-R BS.1116 recommendation) all your ramblings only mean that you prefer the so called 'sound signature' of the X-Meridian, I'm not saying it's not better, just that the signal quality is very close and the numbers don't back up the claims of a huge difference. So either those measurements are wrong and skewed towards the low end, or you are so biased towards your card that you spent $70 just to make your word of mouth advertising more credible (and I'm not willing to spend $270 to prove either).

And FYI the difference in the signal level doesn't have to be huge, a difference as little as 1dB can make the illusion of better sound *on the same card with the same speakers/headphones* if the listener is not aware of it.
Click to expand...

Maybe what I like is just the 'sound signature' of the card but what I know is I like how musics sound on the X-Meridian much more than on the X-Fi. Btw I bought the X-Fi because I've read a lot of good reviews about the card, not only it shines in games but also good for other purposes. The X-Fi is not a bad card for musics but I really miss the sound from X-Meridian for musics. It doesn't matter how people said many good things about X-Fi and many bad things about X-Meridian, now I have both cards, I know the difference between them. Both of them are in two different worlds but I'm not missing anything from either world.
 
Donnie27 said:
Anyone paying $189 for a sound card aren't dumb enough to not know it doesn't have MLP or what MLP is a wild assumption on your part.
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I paid more than $189 but I'm still dumb enough not to know what MLP is lol, the first time I heard about it is when you mentioned it in this thread.
 
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