[trose49]

I bought a Meridian 203 DAC on Audiogon for a very good value I hope.

This is the Delta Sigma Chipset that came out in the late 90's not the single bit dual differential.

My question is has anyone here heard one?

I am looking for a good sounding dac and took a chance on this with a little googling and a great review from Stereophile (back in 1990).

Can this unit compete with a 1000 DAC from todays era?

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trose49 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I bought a Meridian 203 DAC on Audiogon for a very good value I hope. This is the Delta Sigma Chipset that came out in the late 90's not the single bit dual differential. My question is has anyone here heard one? I am looking for a good sounding dac and took a chance on this with a little googling and a great review from Stereophile (back in 1990). Can this unit compete with a 1000 DAC from todays era?

I've been looking at those as well and wondering about what exactly the difference between "Bitstream" and Delta-Sigma versions is meant to be as I understood that Bitstream was just a marketing name dreamed up by Philips to get around the fact that 1 Bit sounded unimpressive at that time, which was in the middle of the so called "Bit wars".

The Stereophile piece has some interesting insights as it quotes Bob Stuart as saying that they chose Bitstream for it's audio qualities rather than cheapness and Philips at this point still envisioned the technology as a way of doing CD on a lower budget for portables and suchlike, and were still developing multibit chipsets like the TDA1541A for the high end.

There was a lot cutting edge research going on at Meridian then ( as ever ) and of course it comes down to a lot more than just what kind of chipset is used, so I would expect it to stand up well enough to todays stuff. And of courseDelta Sigma is still very much current anyway.

What is also interesting is how it would compare to recent DIY style NOS DACs which are available at around the same price or some of the stuff coming out of China like the Jec / Beresford?

Meridian always paid a lot of attention to circuit layouts, analogue stages and powersupplies obviously which is why even their MCD is still sought after and the importance of some of these issues have taken a lot longer to be widely understood and implemented in mass market stuff.

 

[trose49]

Some encouraging words thanks!

It will be in next week as well as my new silver RSA RAPTOR so I will be attempting and apple tv music server ala SKYLAB!

I will definatley post results!

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by memepool /img/forum/go_quote.gif What is also interesting is how it would compare to recent DIY style NOS DACs which are available at around the same price or some of the stuff coming out of China like the Jec / Beresford?

Careful with what thou claim.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herandu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Careful with what thou claim.

Not implying the two are the same just making the point that with the amount of high quality DAC chips made in China these days being available to the burgeoning DIY and cottage industry, older high end designs at bargain basement 2nd hand prices need to be pretty special to still be worth having.

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by memepool /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not implying the two are the same just making the point that with the amount of high quality DAC chips made in China these days being available to the burgeoning DIY and cottage industry, older high end designs at bargain basement 2nd hand prices need to be pretty special to still be worth having.

I was pointing out to the country of origin. It is not China.

 

[memepool]

I understand the chipset is Burr-Brown or Chrystal but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the circuit boards are from China.

http://www.amazon.com/TC-7510-24bit-.../dp/B000J2NXJO

Things like this make it even more likely.

In fact I recall reading somewhere that they say "reserved for the UK" or something in Chinese on the circuit boards, which would suggest to me that Beresford have spec'ed up a bespoke version of a commonly available PCB and had it made up for them in China.

I don't see anything contentious about this. Cambridge Audio do it, NAD do it so why not Beresford?

There are tight EU laws governing the proportions of a CE product that must be assembled within a member state in order to bear the designation "made in England" or in the case of Apple Computer for instance, "Made in Ireland" for tax and a multitude of other reasons, although the parts may originate in other territories. In the latter case, designed by an English guy for a Californian Company, largely manufactured in Taiwan and assembled in Ireland.

That's just the way large companies operate and with the joys of information technology now small companies can too.

 

[Herandu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by memepool /img/forum/go_quote.gif In fact I recall reading somewhere that they say "reserved for the UK" or something in Chinese on the circuit boards, which would suggest to me that Beresford have spec'ed up a bespoke version of a commonly available PCB and had it made up for them in China. I don't see anything contentious about this. Cambridge Audio do it, NAD do it so why not Beresford?

I remember the picture of the PCB that was posted. It wasn't Chinese that the information was written in though

. Why not China? Because the link to the factory where the DAC is made points to Taiwan, and many people reported receiving their delivery from Taiwan. There is a clear distinction between those two countries.

 

[memepool]

right

You seem to be well up on the Beresford though so what's the story with that Amazon link above? is it a pirated version?

Dying to hear about this Merdian too. I just got hold of an Arcam Black Box.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

I owned two 203s. Frankly, they really aren't that great when compared to a decent NOS DAC. The second Shrek NOS DAC would pretty much walk all over a 203. The 203 sounds far more synthetic and is not as linear over the frequency range. Against a cheapo DVD player, it's fine, compared to a good DAC the 203 is well outclassed.

 

[trose49]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Sukebe /img/forum/go_quote.gif I owned two 203s. Frankly, they really aren't that great when compared to a decent NOS DAC. The second Shrek NOS DAC would pretty much walk all over a 203. The 203 sounds far more synthetic and is not as linear over the frequency range. Against a cheapo DVD player, it's fine, compared to a good DAC the 203 is well outclassed.

Not what I wanted to hear!

Hoping your incorrect but thanks for the response!

 

[trose49]

DAC ARRIVED TODAY!

Pics to come! Can she compete??????

Impressions to follow!

 

[Ninety]

Trose49 - I'd love to know how you're getting on with this - I've got one in the post!

Generally, looking all over the net (such as here: Meridian 203 DAC - pink fish media), the opinions seem pretty favourable. I reckon I've paid close to top-book for mine (88 quid), but that's still about 40 cheaper than a Beresford - there doesn't appear to be much available (over here at least) for much less.

I imagine you're in a similar situation - buy the DAC fairly cheaply and give it a whirl. Whatever happens, you've got a nice bit of classic hifi that seems to be in decent demand: even if you decide to ditch it you shouldn't lose much/any.

I'm really interested to know what digital and power cables you try with it too. I haven't decided how I'm going to connect mine up yet apart from using my first home-made interconnects...

 

[nikongod]

holly old thread batman!

If memory serves, he turned the DAC around quick.

 

[Ninety]

But the last post was only on October! [90 receives a note from off-screen] Apparently it's now 2008. Oops.

Thanks for the info anyway nikongod - hopefully I'll keep mine a little longer. As long as it sounds as good as my 13-year old CD63 then I'll be happy.

I'll look more closely next time...