[Noobzilla]

  Long time! How goes?
 
D2000 became TH-X00 became - well I've given up on portable with a nice sound like the Denon. I just wanted comfortable, so I run a Chord Mojo into an Audeze EL-8C 

 
I've also been sucked into the Schiit Multiverse for home use 

 

 
Oooo nice gear you have! I'm still wanting something portable. Bagging my D600 with a headphone case takes almost half my bag space and a bit too big to wear and walk around with >.<
 
Has anyone here tried the Oppo HA2 and compared it to E2?

 

[sheldaze]

  Been too spoiled by my E2 that I get disappointed listening straight off my phone. Sadly, my phone has some problem when used with the E2. I get some quick static sound every minute or so with it.  *Cry* First world problem <.<
 
Decided to try it again and still getting the same static noise. It only happens to my phone because I tried it with my cousin's and we have the same phone model. Also works fine with my bro's phone, which is different. DAMMIT PHONE!!!

I don't use my phone, but I've read that a lot of phone issues are related to all the antenna running in the phone. If you can, you might try airplane mode to see if the sound improves. This will be an issue even if you have a Chord Mojo or an Oppo HA2.
 

   
Oooo nice gear you have! I'm still wanting something portable. Bagging my D600 with a headphone case takes almost half my bag space and a bit too big to wear and walk around with >.<
 
Has anyone here tried the Oppo HA2 and compared it to E2?

Speaking of the Oppo, I have not heard it. But I did follow the threads a while back because it piqued my interest. It uses a vastly different DAC implementation than does the Meridian. Oppo does a really good job with the implementation (so I have read) - comparable to the Geek products (I had the Geek Out V2). But the sound is still quite a bit different from the Explorer products. So I would suggest you don't buy unheard - at least without a return policy in mind, in case you decide not to keep it. You might really like it - the sound should open up relative to the Explorer! But you might also find the details a little tiring over a longer listening session.
 
And it's strange - Oppo has loaner programs for their headphones but not for the portable product.

 

[Noobzilla]

  I don't use my phone, but I've read that a lot of phone issues are related to all the antenna running in the phone. If you can, you might try airplane mode to see if the sound improves. This will be an issue even if you have a Chord Mojo or an Oppo HA2.
 
Speaking of the Oppo, I have not heard it. But I did follow the threads a while back because it piqued my interest. It uses a vastly different DAC implementation than does the Meridian. Oppo does a really good job with the implementation (so I have read) - comparable to the Geek products (I had the Geek Out V2). But the sound is still quite a bit different from the Explorer products. So I would suggest you don't buy unheard - at least without a return policy in mind, in case you decide not to keep it. You might really like it - the sound should open up relative to the Explorer! But you might also find the details a little tiring over a longer listening session.
 
And it's strange - Oppo has loaner programs for their headphones but not for the portable product.

 
I did try with airplane mode, same thing  
 
I did suggest them to include the HA-2 I was able to try it a little bit a long time ago when I first started listening to the real stuff, so I was still very new and I don't remember how it sounded like. But even for noob ears, sound quality improvement was easily noticeable. It was also powerful enough to run hard-to-drive headphones like he400, although I didnt 100% analyze the sound quality because wearing it gave me a headache lol.
 
The E2 at max phone volume is barely enough for me, plus that's with me being considered a low-volume listener (I max out at 44-50 on my laptop's volume and all my friends who have tried my gear went upwards 70-77 <.<). Can't blame the E2 since is not really meant for phone use. Bought it because someone sold them on ebay for $220 brand new and was a no brainer at that price <.< HA2 would be $330 with tax.

 

[Winterwolf]

Hi Winter:
 
Just to let you know that we expect to post the new firmware to the support pages of our website on Thursday 4^th February.
 
https://www.meridian-audio.com/support/
 
Regards,
 
Des Ford
Customer Support Manager
Meridian Audio Ltd
 
------------------------------------
 
Stop the hate, start the love

 
--WW

 

[GreenBow]

I was really surprised that there were not more comaprisons of the ME vs the ME2. I'd be interested.
 
I bougth the Chord Mojo because itseemed too good to be true. After almost two weeks it definitely got better. The tone filled out and smoothed out, whereas originally it was too crisp and thin. It's lovable DAC and better than the ME1. However it has problems and I am 90% sure I am going to return the Mojo. That means I will be going back to the ME.
 
To highlight one of the problems I have with the Mojo. Before I started using the Mojo I read about it missing the first second of music. This was all happening in the Chord Mojo Official Thread. The Mojo designer answered the problem and said it was caused when the Mojo saw a change in sampling rate. Liek when you listen to something 96KHz and then play 44.1KHz. Also he added, it is also possible to insert a second silence in JRiver before playing an album. Thus adding a second of silent sound ginving teh Mojo time to switch sampling rate before playing music.
 
OK then I thought. Mojo at the ready. I soon discovered just using 44.1KHZ files it was missing the first second of music. (The Mojo basically mutes the first second of music while the hardware synchronisation takes place.) I wrote in the Mojo Official Thread what I discovered. Eventually the Mojo designer PM me. I was very surprised he did not answer my post in the thread. He said the Mojo sees a break in music as 0KHz sampling rate. Then when you play music it sees a change switching to 44KHz. (What's really bizarre thought is this missing second of music is intermittent. Not all the time.)
 
What bothers me is he must have known about this. He said it didn't happen when sampling rate wasn't changed in music. The Chord Hugo operates the same way, and that DAC has been going for ages. He must have known.
 
The Meridian Explorer never did a single thing wrong from the day I plugged it in. To check how it copes with change in sampling frequency I bought some 96KHz 24-bit music a few days ago. The ME delays playing music until is has hardware synchronised, then starts your music.  How perfect is that.
 
As good as the Chord Mojo is, it drives me crackers. It has more issues too, like four times in two weeks it just stopped playing music.
 
Anyway I am waffling on, so to the point. What do I do? Should I think about the ME2. The Mojo is addictive and a step better in almost every way over the ME1. (The ME holds ground on tone.) The Mojo is more planted, a bit more transparent, and has a better level of detail. It's quite a relaxing listen too. Quite a change from it's detailed but harsh sound when new from the box.
 
I googled and there really isn't any pages on ME1 vs ME2. I wish the pro-reviewers would get onto it. They would compare the two if they reviewed the ME2.
 
If there were a mojo/ME hybrid I think I would buy it. It might be the Audiolab M-DAC. Not really portable though.

 

[yangian]

  I was really surprised that there were not more comaprisons of the ME vs the ME2. I'd be interested.
 
I bougth the Chord Mojo because itseemed too good to be true. After almost two weeks it definitely got better. The tone filled out and smoothed out, whereas originally it was too crisp and thin. It's lovable DAC and better than the ME1. However it has problems and I am 90% sure I am going to return the Mojo. That means I will be going back to the ME.
 
To highlight one of the problems I have with the Mojo. Before I started using the Mojo I read about it missing the first second of music. This was all happening in the Chord Mojo Official Thread. The Mojo designer answered the problem and said it was caused when the Mojo saw a change in sampling rate. Liek when you listen to something 96KHz and then play 44.1KHz. Also he added, it is also possible to insert a second silence in JRiver before playing an album. Thus adding a second of silent sound ginving teh Mojo time to switch sampling rate before playing music.
 
OK then I thought. Mojo at the ready. I soon discovered just using 44.1KHZ files it was missing the first second of music. (The Mojo basically mutes the first second of music while the hardware synchronisation takes place.) I wrote in the Mojo Official Thread what I discovered. Eventually the Mojo designer PM me. I was very surprised he did not answer my post in the thread. He said the Mojo sees a break in music as 0KHz sampling rate. Then when you play music it sees a change switching to 44KHz. (What's really bizarre thought is this missing second of music is intermittent. Not all the time.)
 
What bothers me is he must have known about this. He said it didn't happen when sampling rate wasn't changed in music. The Chord Hugo operates the same way, and that DAC has been going for ages. He must have known.
 
The Meridian Explorer never did a single thing wrong from the day I plugged it in. To check how it copes with change in sampling frequency I bought some 96KHz 24-bit music a few days ago. The ME delays playing music until is has hardware synchronised, then starts your music.  How perfect is that.
 
As good as the Chord Mojo is, it drives me crackers. It has more issues too, like four times in two weeks it just stopped playing music.
 
Anyway I am waffling on, so to the point. What do I do? Should I think about the ME2. The Mojo is addictive and a step better in almost every way over the ME1. (The ME holds ground on tone.) The Mojo is more planted, a bit more transparent, and has a better level of detail. It's quite a relaxing listen too. Quite a change from it's detailed but harsh sound when new from the box.
 
I googled and there really isn't any pages on ME1 vs ME2. I wish the pro-reviewers would get onto it. They would compare the two if they reviewed the ME2.
 
If there were a mojo/ME hybrid I think I would buy it. It might be the Audiolab M-DAC. Not really portable though.

I have memory I saw here someone commented on ME1 vs ME2. My impression was that main improvement of ME2 is HO impedience, 4.7->0.47? So it works better with low impedience phones. Otherwise, it seems SQ improved little.

 

[sheldaze]

  I have memory I saw here someone commented on ME1 vs ME2. My impression was that main improvement of ME2 is HO impedience, 4.7->0.47? So it works better with low impedience phones. Otherwise, it seems SQ improved little.

I would disagree only because there were Meridian proprietary processing techniques added in the Explorer2. You get their apodizing filter and built-in upsampling techniques. And in less then a week, you might get to try MQA.
 
And yes, the impedance was lowered from somewhere around 5 ohms down to a very low number. At the time I switched from Explorer to Explorer2, I had a lot of low impedance headphones. So this made it much more usable.

 

[peterinvan]

I have memory I saw here someone commented on ME1 vs ME2. My impression was that main improvement of ME2 is HO impedience, 4.7->0.47? So it works better with low impedience phones. Otherwise, it seems SQ improved little.

I used the ME for two years as the main DAC in my tube amp stereo. I replaced it with the the ME2. 90% of my listening was acoustic Jazz and Classical via Tidal. There is a noticable improvement in sound stage and seperation on my Mission tower speakers. As a photographer, my analogy would be that the sound images of the instruments seemed to be "sharpened", such that their location was pinpointed more accuratly. Listening to Yo-yo Ma's Inspired By Bach his antique cello sounded especially clear. There was a slight improvement in the bass as well, such as on Charlie Haden's Heartplay

I only listened to the headphone amp for a short time. It sounded fine, but I can't really give an informed opinion.

 

[GreenBow]

(NB This post was being written as 'peterinvan' posted. Therefor stuff he mentioned was not seen when I was compiling this post.)
 
The apodizing filter and built-in upsampling techniques are mentioned along the way a few times. I read all 28 pages.
 
The built-in upsampling is a mystery because when I google, 'how does upsampling work', I can't find anything. I may have missed right links on it, but until I know it works I can't help being sceptical.
 
The apodizing filter looks like a good idea.
 
The output impedance doesn't matter to me because I keep to Grado headphones which are easy to drive. Plus my ME1 was bought fixed as it were, with the right firmware.
 
I think descriptive comparisons tell us. Whereas I can say clearly the Mojo has more detail. It's extra details provide the information like direction, which make soundstage more detailed. Etc.

 

[GreenBow]

I used the ME for two years as the main DAC in my tube amp stereo. I replaced it with the the ME2. 90% of my listening was acoustic Jazz and Classical via Tidal. There is a noticable improvement in sound stage and seperation on my Mission tower speakers. As a photographer, my analogy would be that the sound images of the instruments seemed to be "sharpened", such that their location was pinpointed more accuratly. Listening to Yo-yo Ma's Inspired By Bach his antique cello sounded especially clear. There was a slight improvement in the bass as well, such as on Charlie Haden's Heartplay

I only listened to the headphone amp for a short time. It sounded fine, but I can't really give an informed opinion.

 
Yeah I use both line out and headphone amp.
 
I think this might possibly be the information people like me want to read.
 
ME1 compared to Mojo
A bit thicker and weightier sounding.
Slightly richer sounding.
Fractionally more fun sounding. E.g a buzzy sound is warmer and more buzzy.
Smoother softer sound.
 
 
 
Mojo compared to ME1.
Extra definition puts some stuff right. Instruments have a slightly clearer defined space. Instruments have more definition, e.g a tom-tom beat; you can hear more of the impact of the hand. You can hear more of the defintion of what it going on with the skin of the tom-tom when struck. You hear a clearer decay of the instrument. (Whereas the ME1 some decays can sound dull with having less detail.)
Sligthly less weighty sounding, but might be down to more focus.
Slightly more balanced soundfield.
More crisp reponse to steel strung acoustic guitar, though the ME1 does a really good job.
Cymbals are more focused and clearly defined.
These descriptions are what I mean by the Mojo 'sounding more planted'. More noticable with my (good) desktop active speakers. It feels more sat in front of me. The ME1 by comparison sounds like it's hovering a little, and as if I am listening to speakers from off centre. Additionally being slightly less focused. This is by no means a criticism of the ME1 though, because for the £150 I paid it's very good.
Bass notes sound drier, tighter, and more defined. The ME is a touch boomier.
Copes with congested music better making it sound pleasant, whereas the ME can make congested music less fun to hear. In other words the Mojo makes music better.
Smooth because it's clearer.
Bit less sibilant.
Bit more transparent.
 
Bear in mind my audio kit is not top-notch so others will hear more.
 
It does sound like the ME2 is doing some of what the Mojo is doing but keeping the Meridian sound. A bit of extra clarity focusing and revelealing better textures.

 

[sheldaze]

  The built-in upsampling is a mystery because when I google, 'how does upsampling work', I can't find anything. I may have missed right links on it, but until I know it works I can't help being sceptical.

Not an attempt to explain upsampling, just to explain the delta between Explorer and Explorer2.
 
If your audio is passed to Explorer2 at sample rates - 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96 kHz, only in the Explorer2 is an additional process used to resample the music to a higher sample rate prior to passing the audio stream to the next part of the DAC processing. This did not occur in the original Explorer.
 
It is also my understanding that the resample process does not occur if you pass an audio stream into the Explorer2 at 176.4 or 192 kHz.

 

[GreenBow]

I know what upsampling is meant to do. However I can't understand how they make more sample points from less. If 44.1KHz music has 44,100 samples per second, where does upsampling get more sample points to make 192,000 per second.

 

[sheldaze]

  I know what upsampling is meant to do. However I can't understand how they make more sample points from less. If 44.1KHz music has 44,100 samples per second, where does upsampling get more sample points to make 192,000 per second.

Nope - beyond my math.
 
My answer was to a question a while back, which was how is the Explorer2 different from the Explorer. One point is apodizing. And another point is is upsampling, however it accomplishes the second.
 
Sometimes I found the upsampling to be smoothing the sound too much. There was a song I frequently used where the singer was trying to express a personal loss, a torture, angst, whatever you want to call it. With the smoothing of the upsampling, the sound seemed a little flat. It did not shout and screech at me with the same sharpness. But generally, I like all the processing upgrades made in the Explorer2 versus the original.

 

[yangian]

  I would disagree only because there were Meridian proprietary processing techniques added in the Explorer2. You get their apodizing filter and built-in upsampling techniques. And in less then a week, you might get to try MQA.
 
And yes, the impedance was lowered from somewhere around 5 ohms down to a very low number. At the time I switched from Explorer to Explorer2, I had a lot of low impedance headphones. So this made it much more usable.

Oh, yeah, of course, ME2 have the new function for MAQ.

 

[yangian]

   
Yeah I use both line out and headphone amp.
 
I think this might possibly be the information people like me want to read.
 
ME1 compared to Mojo
A bit thicker and weightier sounding.
Slightly richer sounding.
Fractionally more fun sounding. E.g a buzzy sound is warmer and more buzzy.
Smoother softer sound.
 
 
 
Mojo compared to ME1.
Extra definition puts some stuff right. Instruments have a slightly clearer defined space. Instruments have more definition, e.g a tom-tom beat; you can hear more of the impact of the hand. You can hear more of the defintion of what it going on with the skin of the tom-tom when struck. You hear a clearer decay of the instrument. (Whereas the ME1 some decays can sound dull with having less detail.)
Sligthly less weighty sounding, but might be down to more focus.
Slightly more balanced soundfield.
More crisp reponse to steel strung acoustic guitar, though the ME1 does a really good job.
Cymbals are more focused and clearly defined.
These descriptions are what I mean by the Mojo 'sounding more planted'. More noticable with my (good) desktop active speakers. It feels more sat in front of me. The ME1 by comparison sounds like it's hovering a little, and as if I am listening to speakers from off centre. Additionally being slightly less focused. This is by no means a criticism of the ME1 though, because for the £150 I paid it's very good.
Bass notes sound drier, tighter, and more defined. The ME is a touch boomier.
Copes with congested music better making it sound pleasant, whereas the ME can make congested music less fun to hear. In other words the Mojo makes music better.
Smooth because it's clearer.
Bit less sibilant.
 
Bear in mind my audio kit is not top-notch so others will hear more.
 
It does sound like the ME2 is doing some of what the Mojo is doing but keeping the Meridian sound. A bit of extra clarity focusing and revelealing better textures.

Great comparison! BTW, what's headphones you used for the tests and do you use the HO of M1? I found HO of M! works wonderful for 9500, but really unimpressive for IE80. For IE800, I do notice LO to an amplifier like E12 is obviously better than from HO directly.