[Jan Meier]

Dear friends,

a few weeks ago prototypes of the COUNTRY were presented at the AudioVista headphone show in Germany.

Gladly they were accepted very well by (nearly) all people. However, there still were a few wishes uttered.

Quite a few people preferred a larger, more luxury enclosure. Therefore I made sketches of four different designs and asked people on my COUNTRY mailing-list for their opinions.
As one could expect, these opinions strongly differed.

The sketches can be found at:

http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/countryenclosureshigh.jpg

Please let me know what you think. Right now designs 1 and 4 seem to be favourite. The next few weeks the production costs for these designs will be calculated.

Some hardhitters also found the output stages to be a little bit anemic. Fortunately though I have found a way to double output current without any substantial additional costs.
I still have to do some tests but I'm very positive that the final product will be quite potent.

Again the show also confirmed how very differently people listen. Volume levels, sound signatures, crossfeed appreciation, the use of reverb and tone controls, .....
They're all very different/individual. That's why it will not be possible to make a solution that fits all.

But I will give the best I have ......



Jan

 

[annasoh323]

I took a look at the newsletter and didn't know if the response should have been straight to the email. Oops. Anyway, good to hear that people have been feeding back their thoughts.

I don't really mind a more compact design. I'm not one for aesthetics much or having anything "matching." I'll generally always opt for the best value option in terms of performance per value. That said, is the electrical performance negatively impacted with it in the smaller enclosure? Is electrical noise between the digital and analog sections a concern in the smaller enclosure? Does heat dissipation become a problem in the smaller enclosure, especially if you're able to double the output current?

Speaking of output current, it's good to hear that you're able to increase the output stage. However, that makes my use case decision harder. I have a non-FF Corda Classic I bought second-hand (the research I put into that purchase is how I got into Meier equipment in the first place). I'm not familiar enough with the synergy between Corda equipment, especially when it comes to FF, to know what the pros and cons are of using a Country (with digital domain FF, correct?) -> Classic (non-FF) chain. For me, getting the Country would already be a bit of a big step and adding a discrete DAC isn't something I'm really keen on doing. The same goes for doing the FF-mod on the Classic - I'm really on the fence about it. However, if doing that before going for something like the Country makes more sense, then perhaps it is a step I could go for.

 

[arielext]

Jan, one word is enough: Drie

 

[MRC001]

...
The sketches can be found at:
http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/countryenclosureshigh.jpg
Please let me know what you think. ...

I gave this reply via email, but it bounced. Since you're asking here, I'll reply:

Between 1 and 2, 1 looks better. 2 looks too tall and could be problematic fitting in some places. Between 3 and 4, they both look great, better than 1 or 2. However, if they cost a lot more I might buy 1 instead since the function is the same.

Have you considered making 2 versions? The one having layout 3 or 4 being more expensive with a more powerful and transparent amp? Or the one having layout 1 or 2 being cheaper, just DSP with no headphone amp at all?

Will the Country EQ be parametric with slightly overlapping bands, or shelf EQ with cumulative effect like the Soul? The former seems ideal, since it would be more intuitive, having 7 bands.

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear Annasoh,

" is the electrical performance negatively impacted with it in the smaller enclosure?"

Theoretically a bigger enclosure has its advantages. Especially as far as the analog part is concerned. But it's difficult to estimate how large the difference will be.

As for your CLASSIC, this is a very fine amp, and if you do have a very nice source also, then getting the FF-upgrade is a very logical step to do..

There is no need to part wih the CLASSIC, even if you have the COUNTRY. The headphone section of the COUNTRY does not have the sheer power of the CLASSIC (-FF). Especially if you have a difficult to drive headphone it's well possible to connect CLASSIC and COUNTRY together.


Dear Mike,

" Have you considered making 2 versions? "

No, that would increase costs considerably. The larger a production batch, the lower the costs.

" Will the Country EQ be parametric with slightly overlapping bands, or shelf EQ with cumulative effect like the Soul? The former seems ideal, since it would be more intuitive, having 7 bands."

It will be a seven band equalizer.



Jan

 

[annasoh323]

Yesterday was a good day since there was a newsletter for the Country! I'm looking forward to hearing about the testing results of the redesigned PCB. I'm too far away to ever see the prototypes, so patience for the production model is my only option. Here's to the continued progress of the Country.

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear friends,

although I have been silent for a while now, this doesn't mean nothing has happened.

A new prototype with a slightly larger enclosure has been made. The control elements are more "logically" arranged and the slide-potentiometers are larger, which gives a better control over equalizing. I feel the whole thing looks better than the first prototype.

The analog part has been "upgraded" and the headphone output now sounds pretty good. More power, more detail, yet smooth.

A picture of the new prototype:

Some people find the symbols used pretty "confusing". They prefer plain text so they can use the device without reading the user-manual. Personally I feel that reading will still be necessary but a picture with both solutions was made:

Which solution do you prefer?

I will be at the CanJam in New York. So if interested to try the prototype, please pay me a visit at my boot.

Cheers

Jan

 

[eugenius]

I prefer the symbols. But I think you can improve the reverb/bass enhancer symbols.

You should invert the color scheme and make it matte white with black writing. There's a trend towards white things right now, and it also looks better when you have a lot of writing on the case like you do.

PS: I read "bitshit indicator" at first glance.

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear Eugenius,

" I think you can improve the reverb/bass enhancer symbols. "

Feel free to make a suggestion!

As for the color-scheme, nowadays most people prefer a black enclosure. And since only a few devices will be made .....

Cheers

Jan

 

[eugenius]

OK, here are my suggestions:

Edit: If you need speaker crossfeed / stereo / headphone crossfeed symbols, just use the drawing for the speaker crossfeed, a couple of unconnected ears for stereo and for headphones put the outline of a head between the ears so it's in-head crossfeed.

 

[jokostyle]

Hi,

As for functionality, the COUNTRY has a lot to offer: equalizer,
headphone crossfeed, speaker crossfeed, mono, notch-filter,
bass-enhancer, reverb, sample rate indicators, ... Many of these
functions are not very common and are not easily understood by people
without a technical background. For sure, this is not a device to be
used by everybody.

So one of the suggestions received was to make a processor that
concentrates on the most elementary/important functions only. However,
what functions would that be? What do you consider truly necessary and
what can you do without? Your opinion is valued.

The ideal for me would be the current Country without amplification and DAC, but with the signal treated natively like in the Soul.
Perhaps with AES/EBU and I2S inputs/outputs ( versatility ).
Did you consider AES/EBU and I2S intput/output while developping the Soul ? What were your conclusions about it ?

But your question is about an essential box, so i would say :

-The crossfeed because it's pretty useful, it's one of your specialities and a reason for your renown
-The reverb with eventually, in addition to the Country default settings, a range of different ones going from the little bar to the big stadium if they are useful (test dependant )
-The bass enhancer (is there a reason for associating it with the reverb on the Country ? Isn't it interesting alone ? Lack of ressources ? )

optional ( yes, we have to make an essential box...)

-the notch filter
-the equalizer

Processed like in the Soul to make it usable with it, as an add-on module ( -potential- Soul users could also be interested by the reverb and bass enhancer functions ), and most chains, with the less transparancy loss possible, and then, please the most demanding users.

As for the looks, some people find the symbols used pretty "confusing".
They prefer plain text. But would the latter really make the use more
easy? After reading the user-manual the symbols should be relatively
easy to understand and using plain text on the front will not really
make reading the user-manual unnecessary. I added a picture of the
design with symbols and with text. Which solution do you prefer?

For aesthetic reasons i prefer the symbols. It won't take longtime until a new user, even not accustommed to your gear, will get used to it. Even if someone buys it second-hand without the manual, he will find the right informations after a little research on internet.

 

[annasoh323]

Hope CanJam went well for you and the Country, Jan. I've been doing some reading on the Meier Audio site and here and developed some questions while doing so. (lots of quotes and random technical/non-technical thoughts while I wait for the CanJam update to come out)

Dear Mike,

> Beefing up the analog headphone output with higher current capacity to drive a wider variety of different headphones would add to the cost.

Definitely! But for this there is the SOUL!! As you know yourself, this amp/DAC/DSP has plenty of power to drive even the most demanding headphones.

> Some of the less efficient big orthos need more than 100 mA.

Yes, but there are only few of them and they are normally in a price range where people also can afford the SOUL.

The output power of the COUNTRY is enough to drive at least 98% of all headphones most adequatly. I use it with the ARYA, which is quite inefficient, and do not feel any power lacking.

> Yet as the price goes up it becomes a vicious cycle as it reduces volume which further increases per-unit prices.

Exactly, especially if no extra functionality is added.

People have argued that it's better to leave the analog sections out, as they feel it's an unnessary increase in costs. However, the analog section adds functionality and thereby makes the COUNTRY interesting for more people. So if this means that more units can be sold, then a larger batch can be produced and development costs can be spread over more units. At the end it could well mean that this makes the unit cheaper, as strange as it may sound.

But beefing up the analog stages just to fit the last 2% of headphones ........

Dear Jokostyle,

> As an amp, even if it hasn't analog entries, where do you rank it amongst the more recent ones that you produced (Rock-Jazz-Classic all FF) ?

To be honest, I haven't made the comparison yet.

I'm sure though, that he CLASSIC-FF will be on top. It has enormous power and a superb volume control.

The JAZZ-FF, like the CLASSIC-FF, of course benefits from active balanced ground. And it also does have more power. So I expect it to be superior to the COUNTRY. But not by a wide margin though.

> As a DAC, can you compare it to the Daccord FF ?

Again, I haven't made any comparison yet.

The DACCORD-FF uses the WM8741 in dual mono mode. The COUNTRY uses a simpler WM8716 in stereomode.

However, the COUNTRY has the big advantage that the first stage of the FF-technique is done in the digital domain by the DSP. Thereby the analog stages of the DAC-chip have a much easier job to do. And that can be heard.

> As a DSP :

> -how does it compete with the one which is in the Soul ( considering the common functions ) ? Did you do transparency tests using the Country as the Soul DSP ?

There is one major difference in the processing between SOUL and COUNTRY.

The SOUL does not use upsampling. All processing is done at the native sampling frequency of the incoming signal. When the SOUL was developed I tested both and found the upsampling to slightly degrade transparancy. However, differences were small and only became audible because of the extremely high resolution of the SOUL. With "standard" headphone amplifiers the differences most probably can not be heard.

The COUNTRY uses upsampling because it offers more functionality than the SOUL (bass-extension, reverb, seven-band equalizer instead of 5 bands) and the upsampling makes the algorithms more easy to implement and make them fit within the computational hardware limits. Implementing all algorithms at native frequencies simply wouldn't fit.

> Would it have been the same without the DAC/Amp additions ?

Yes, the analog circuitry does not limit the DSP-functionality.

> -Special request : you will have access to a lot of high end gear at Audiovista, so can you, if you have the possibility, make a test of the Country used as a DSP feeding a chain with the Chord MScaler ( TT2 + MScaler - Dave + MScaler) to hear if it works without negative effects ?

As I have a one-man stand myself it will not possible for me to walk around and test other equipment. Sorry!

Cheers

Jan

In this post, Jan, you mention that you hadn't compared the DAC section to the DACCORD-FF.

Dear friends,

a few weeks ago prototypes of the COUNTRY were presented at the AudioVista headphone show in Germany.

Gladly they were accepted very well by (nearly) all people. However, there still were a few wishes uttered.

Quite a few people preferred a larger, more luxury enclosure. Therefore I made sketches of four different designs and asked people on my COUNTRY mailing-list for their opinions.
As one could expect, these opinions strongly differed.

The sketches can be found at:

http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/countryenclosureshigh.jpg

Please let me know what you think. Right now designs 1 and 4 seem to be favourite. The next few weeks the production costs for these designs will be calculated.

Some hardhitters also found the output stages to be a little bit anemic. Fortunately though I have found a way to double output current without any substantial additional costs.
I still have to do some tests but I'm very positive that the final product will be quite potent.

Again the show also confirmed how very differently people listen. Volume levels, sound signatures, crossfeed appreciation, the use of reverb and tone controls, .....
They're all very different/individual. That's why it will not be possible to make a solution that fits all.

But I will give the best I have ......



Jan

In this post, you mention a power upgrade in the Country's headphone output. In the below-quoted post, you also told me the Classic still makes sense with the Country.

Dear Annasoh,

" is the electrical performance negatively impacted with it in the smaller enclosure?"

Theoretically a bigger enclosure has its advantages. Especially as far as the analog part is concerned. But it's difficult to estimate how large the difference will be.

As for your CLASSIC, this is a very fine amp, and if you do have a very nice source also, then getting the FF-upgrade is a very logical step to do..

There is no need to part wih the CLASSIC, even if you have the COUNTRY. The headphone section of the COUNTRY does not have the sheer power of the CLASSIC (-FF). Especially if you have a difficult to drive headphone it's well possible to connect CLASSIC and COUNTRY together.


Dear Mike,

" Have you considered making 2 versions? "

No, that would increase costs considerably. The larger a production batch, the lower the costs.

" Will the Country EQ be parametric with slightly overlapping bands, or shelf EQ with cumulative effect like the Soul? The former seems ideal, since it would be more intuitive, having 7 bands."

It will be a seven band equalizer.



Jan

Have any of those statements changed? Are you able to provide any info on how the DAC of the Country stacks up against your DACCORD or other DACs? Presently, I'm using a fairly pedestrian USB interface as my DAC. I'm therefore wondering what caliber of DAC would outperform what's already in the Country.

My next questions were about ff-tech. You mentioned the Country would be able to perform the "first step" of the ff process. The way you describe it on your website, it seems like a process that takes place in the analog amplification process. I'm therefore not as sure how the DAC gets involved. Is it during the analog output stage of the DAC? How does it help the amplifier with its ff process?

Speaking of the amp portion, will the analog output of the Country have some of your key technologies, namely ff and active balanced ground output?

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear friends,

two weeks ago I finally managed to visit a CanJam meeting in the USA. The show in New York was great fun and it was very nice to meet many people in person whom I only knew from E-Mail correspondance.

The SOUL was very well received, especially from the professional attendees. The "normal" public clearly needed more explanation of the many functions of this amp/DAC/DSP. It certainly is not a device for the crowd.
After the show Jude took the amp home so hopefully we will hear his expert opinion soon.

The COUNTRY prototype also was shown and quite a few people put their name on the newsletter distribution list. They should have received their first newsletters by now. If not, please let me know by E-mail. Some of the adresses on the list were very hard to read!?

Last weekend I updated my website. Information on the COUNTRY now is more detailed and there is an attempt to explain the logic behind the symbols. Also info on the pre-order procedure has been added.

The COUNTRY will be produced with symbols on the frontplate. However, labels will be provided that can be attached to the front of the amp that will give you the plain text solutions. These labels will be self-adhesive but glue-less and can be removed and reused. Multiple labels will be added, Maybe even in different colours.

And now some feedback on some of your questions/suggestions/remarks:

" OK, here are my suggestions: "

Sorry Eugenius, but symbols should be relatively "simple". Your crossfeed symbol would simply occupy too much space. And I do not feel the others to be a real improvement over my own suggestions. But thanks for the effort!

" The ideal for me would be ..... with the signal treated natively like in the Soul. "

Yes, it would be for me too. Unfortunately, because the COUNTRY has more options than the SOUL, native treatment of the signals does not fit within the computational capacity of the DSP-chip.

" Perhaps with AES/EBU and I2S inputs/outputs "

Sorry, would increase work/costs/prices considerably and this is a consumer orientated product where there is less need for this kind of interfaces.

" The bass enhancer (is there a reason for associating it with the reverb on the Country ? "

One control element less on the front plate.

"you mention that you hadn't compared the DAC section to the DACCORD-FF. "

No, and up till today I haven't. The prototype is now "on tour". So hopefully you will get more impressions by other people within the next couple of weeks.

" you mention a power upgrade in the Country's headphone output. In the below-quoted post, you also told me the Classic still makes sense with the Country. "

The headphone output of the original prototype was a little bit aenemic with difficult to drive headphones. Now the current capacities are four times as big, and that really can be heard. The headphone output is pretty good.

The CLASSIC is still in another league though. Active balanced ground, higher current capacities, .... Still makes sense to add a decent amp to the COUNTRY if you have one at hand.

" the ff process. The way you describe it on your website, it seems like a process that takes place in the analog amplification process. I'm therefore not as sure how the DAC gets involved. "

The FF-technique changes the feedback in the analog amplification stage. However, in order to get a straight frequency response one has to place a correction network in front of this stage.

With the SOUL and with the COUNTRY this network is not needed. The correction is done in the digital domain by the DSP. The big advantage is, that the analog part of the DA-converter chip also benefits from the technique. And this really can be heard.

" will the analog output of the Country have some of your key technologies, namely ff and active balanced ground output? "

FF-technique: yes.

Active balanced ground: No.
This one would considerably "complicate" the analog section.

Cheers

Jan

 

[jokostyle]

@Jan Meier

Hi,

As usual, i have some questions :

-How much time is suppposed to take the Country production ? If i remember well, the one announced for the Soul was 12 weeks.

I reiterate my question/suggestion about the essential box. It's important for me because i planned to buy the Soul circa 2020 Q4 or 2021 Q1.

For sure, the Country could be itself a second rig and perhaps the only way to use the bass enhancement and reverb functions. But it costs 1/3 of the Soul within the preorder offer, a price which is enough to make me hesitate about this redundant buying for the major part.

So :

-Do you still consider the DSP Box with less functions ?
-Could it be a Soul add on by having the exclusive Country functions in addition to the Crossfeed for example, and treating the signal natively like in the Soul ?
-Would you advise the buying of the Country to a Soul owner interested by the reverb and bass functions ?
-Will the Country be available like the Soul after the pre-ordered batch production ? With an increased price ? If yes, have you an approximative percentage ?


About your website :

It's probably not the time for it ( i assume the Country launch consumes a lot of energy ) but, later, some additions could be useful for someone who discover your products and hadn't read all the informations you gave on the forums :

A technical specifications resume in the Soul and the Country sections like have your other products, without forgetting the dimensions, the weight, the output power of the headphone socket, the preamplification outputs.

Thanks.

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear friends,

just a short note that the COUNTRY project has been revived.

More information can be found on my website!



Jan