[alexdemaet]

The Soul and Loxjie P20 are a good pairing with the Grado Ps2000e.

 

[alexdemaet]

Currently I am subscribed for Spotify Premium. I am using a Wiim pro between my smartphone (with the Spotify app) and the Meier Audio Cordia Soul. The Soul is indicating the Spotify stream as "16bit/44.1 kHz". The quality is good enough for me.
https://faq.wiimhome.com/support/so...epth-sample-rate-your-music-service-supports-

 

[Slim1970]

Currently I am subscribed for Spotify Premium. I am using a Wiim pro between my smartphone (with the Spotify app) and the Meier Audio Cordia Soul. The Soul is indicating the Spotify stream as "16bit/44.1 kHz". The quality is good enough for me.
https://faq.wiimhome.com/support/so...epth-sample-rate-your-music-service-supports-

Are you trying to get a higher sample rate?

 

[MRC001]

I find that going from lossy to lossless at CD quality (44/16) makes more improvement than a higher sample rate.

 

[Slim1970]

I find that going from lossy to lossless at CD quality (44/16) makes more improvement than a higher sample rate.

I was a huge Tidal before giving Apple Music a try. Apple Music is lossless and it sounds a lot better to me. My M-Scaler does the upsampling into my Dave and the sound is unbelievable.

 

[alexdemaet]

Are you trying to get a higher sample rate?

No, I thought Spotify only delivers up to 320 kbps.

 

[Slim1970]

No, I thought Spotify only delivers up to 320 kbps.

Not sure, I've never tried Spotify. My kids use it to listen to music on their phones.

 

[MRC001]

I was a huge Tidal before giving Apple Music a try. Apple Music is lossless and it sounds a lot better to me. My M-Scaler does the upsampling into my Dave and the sound is unbelievable.

To clarify, I don't use Spotify but just offering general advice.

No, I thought Spotify only delivers up to 320 kbps.

That is bit rate, not sample rate. Most MP3 is 44.1 kHz sample rate regardless of the bit rate. It is possible to encode MP3 at 48 kHz sample rate, but it's rare.

PS: back to the topic of Corda Soul, it won't accept MP3 as digital input. Something must decode the MP3 into PCM for the Soul's digital input. That's what your WiimPro is doing. Their site says, "The WiiM Mini or Pro won't perform upsampling or resampling to the fixed sample rate/bit depth output like other music streamers since the resampling process will degrade the output audio quality." This means they decode the MP3 into PCM at the same sample rate it was provided, which will almost certainly be 44.1 kHz (though 48 KHz is possible it's very unlikely).

 

[alexdemaet]

Finally a new source: astell&kern sr35 and waiting for the Sp3000! The Soul sounds better then ever now. I will mainly listen to hires flac from the dap (streamer).

 

[geoffalter11]

Finally a new source: astell&kern sr35 and waiting for the Sp3000! The Soul sounds better then ever now. I will mainly listen to hires flac from the dap (streamer).

You prefer an outside DAC to the Soul’s internal DAC? So, you feel the amplification is the better of the two sides?

 

[MRC001]

Finally a new source: astell&kern sr35 and waiting for the Sp3000! The Soul sounds better then ever now. I will mainly listen to hires flac from the dap (streamer).

You prefer an outside DAC to the Soul’s internal DAC? So, you feel the amplification is the better of the two sides?

Whether or not he's using the digital or analog output of the A&K, I would imagine that most of any audible difference is switching the audio format from lossy to lossless (FLAC). However, the Soul does support using an external DAC and I too have found that can make a subtle difference.

 

[geoffalter11]

Whether or not he's using the digital or analog output of the A&K, I would imagine that most of any audible difference is switching the audio format from lossy to lossless (FLAC). However, the Soul does support using an external DAC and I too have found that can make a subtle difference.

I've only used it as an AIO. I have never separated out the DAC from the amplifier or Pre/DAC. I love it as an AIO. In speaking at length with Jan it was designed to be used this way, so I use it the way it was designed. I have become a huge fan of the crossfeed function. It opens up the stage and creates less fatigue, not that the Soul ever felt fatiguing to me.

 

[alexdemaet]

You prefer an outside DAC to the Soul’s internal DAC? So, you feel the amplification is the better of the two sides?

No, I just wanted to listen to the dac of the S35 dap and use the Soul as amp.
The Soul is a desktop device and I expected that it will sound better.

 

[FritzS]

I own Jan Meier's DAC Corda Daccord ff, hus DAC section is very similar to Soul, but without DSP. For this price Corda Daccord ff is a very good DAC.
I could play all music file formats, but my players convert them automatically.

As audio player I use:
foobar2000 v2.3
Foobar2000 v2.6 beta
Fidelia (from Apple's App Store)
Audirvana Studio
Media Center 31
Decibel (2.0b31)
DeaDBeeF

Ripping:
dBpoweramp Music Converter (Ripping, Converting)
XLD (Ripping)

Editing, Test:
Mp3tag (Meta Text Editing)
PerfectTUNES (AccurateRip)

M1 MacMini, Sonoma 14

Corda Daccord ff
C-MEDIA CM6631 USB-to-S/PDIF receiver (24bit/192kHz)
WOLFSON WM8804 S/PDIF receiver
2 pieces WOLFSON WM8741 D/A converter-chip in dual-mono mode
Sampling frequencies / resolution
32, 44, 48, 88, 96, 192 kHz / 16, 20, 24 bit
AD797 opamps biased into class-A
https://www.meier-audio.com/daccord.html

Corda soul
USB-input uses the CM6631 from C-Media
WM8804 SPDIF-receiver-chip
ADAU1451 DSP
2 pieces WM8741 DAC-chips in dual-mono-mode
AD797 opamp (biased into class-A)
The SOUL accepts PCM signals with samling frequencies of 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, and 192 kHz. Bit-resolutions upto 24-bit.
DSD-signals and 384 kHz signals can not be processed by the DSP and therefore are not accepted.
https://www.meier-audio.com/soul.html

 

[jokostyle]

This can also be read on the Soul page :

CORDA SOUL MkII

A key element in the sound quality of the SOUL is the FF-technique. In the digital domain the amplitudes of the low frequency audiosignals are lowered to make the job of the DA-converter chips and the analog amplification stages more easy. At the last amplification stage the balance is restored by a stronger amplification of the same low frequency signals.
After building the SOUL amplifiers the idea came to not only reduce the amplitudes of the low frequency components but also to digitally increase the amplitudes of the highest frequency components. These are generally of very low amplitude and thereby SNR-ratio is relatively low and distortion relatively high (The linearity of DA-converters generally is worse at low level signals). Again, the balance can be restored at the last amplification stage.
The idea could be easily implemented in an existing SOUL amplifier and tested very favourably. The sound became even more fluent and whereas the original amp/DAC is slightly "brittle" on top, the modified amp has a rounder sound with a little bit more micro-detail. Differences are small but noticable. Within my television-setup for instance, human voices are simply more easy to understand.

This modified version of the amp is now offered for sale as the SOUL MkII.

One should be noted though, that this new version also has two drawbacks:
When using the analog inputs the amplification factors are 11 dB lower than on the original version. Not a big point if you don't use analog sources or a source with a high output voltage but ........
Secondly, high level, high frequency non-audio test signals will make the DA-converter clip. This distortion will not appear with regular audio signals (as these have low level high frequency components only) but if you use the amp for other purposes .......

People that already own a standard version of the SOUL can have their amp upgraded/modified.