x-meridian, time to toss your cd player?

[DJNUBZ]

With the state of technology today it seems more and more like the cd/dvd players of old are becoming outdated. Don't get me wrong I still use and enjoy my cd-67 but I see that things are changing. Take the x-meridian for example. It is an audio card built to recording level standards for output and even makes it easy for modders to upgrade the op amps. If you want to know about some of the mods done on this card there is a thread started here
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=792354
It seems to me that this audio card, with a silent or passively cooled computer is going to be where things are heading in the audio as well as the video world. Do any of you guys own this card and have some opinions to share? I would just love to hear some thoughts on this idea.

[cowanrg]

im using a completely passively cooled computer (flash drives in place of hard drives, not a single fan, no moving parts, etc...) and havent looked back. i have a 2.4TB server in another room of the house. its heaven. it sounds fantastic.

the x-meridian looks nice, i currently use an m-audio delta 410.

this is the future.

[Radian]

On the X-Meridian vs. Bluegears b-inspirer see my post in this thread:

Soundcard or Dac?

Greets,
Klaus

[pjpoes]

In the broader sense, I agree that we will be going to computer based media systems. It just makes sense to computerize everything. It's very attractive to me to get rid of all my cd's in favor of one small computer. In the past the need for compression negated the idea, however now with the advent of good lossless compression, and hard drives large enough to support uncompressed files, it no longer makes sense to continue using cd's.

There are other advantages too, because of the buffering system used in computers, reading digital media from the hard drives, or even from the cd's is more accurate with lower jitter on a computer than it is from a normal cd player. The typical problem that still exists is the quality of the audio specific hardware in computers, the self noise in computers, and the quality of the power supplies. However with ever improving sound cards, quieter computers, and better power supplies, we are starting to see this as a real viable option.

Technologicly I even see media switching to a completely download based system. I think that we will have a perio where, isntead of going into a store to buy the music as actual media, we will go in and look through say some cards, buy the card, which gives us download access to the music. Eventually we won't even go that route, though I think its needed in the interum as we are nastolgic people, and a lot of older farts wont like the idea of thumbing through music on a computer only. With ever faster internet connections and ever larger servers, the ability to support very large high quality files is becoming a real possibilty. Though we aren't there yet, we are on the verge of the ability to download actual high defenition video and music. Other advantages I see with this technology is that the ability to grow with new advancements is as simple as a software update, rather than requireing a brand new piece of hardware every year. Also, multiroom media will become easy and affordable. We won't need to run wires all over our house, we can stream high quality video and audio through wifi, or whatever the future goes to. Imagine a centralized media server with every video and song you own stored on it, and the ability to watch whatever you want, in every room of your house, with no loss of quality. Even today we have the technology to do it, its just more combersome and somewhat expensive. Its all very exciting to see where this goes.

[TDLofCC]

I agree with you that the Technology is nice, and very cool to see developed.

But ... I have alot of fun just picking out a record I want to listen to. Put it on the Turntable. And sit back and listen.

Same goes for CDs ofcourse.

[Radian]

Originally posted by pjpoes
The typical problem that still exists is the quality of the audio specific hardware in computers, the self noise in computers, and the quality of the power supplies. However with ever improving sound cards, quieter computers, and better power supplies, we are starting to see this as a real viable option.

If one can hold a soldering iron, the problem with the lesser quality hardware is already solved. If you read my post, you can see that this stupid 60 Euro modded Sound card degraded a modded Oppo, a DDDac and my other digital gear to a life on the shelf. This is prior to clock mods, power supply mods, and fanless operation. There is no going back to listening to a whol album, because I am to lazy to always get up and change the discs, for the three songs on the CD that I really like.

Greets,
Klaus