Meridian Director USB DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter)

I bought this DAC approx. 2 months ago. I am 110% completely satisfied with the sound of this DAC. I mainly bought this DAC to make room on my computer desk for possible future upgrades such as a small high end speaker set. I was prev using an old Audio Research DAC1-20 (which took up a significant portion of the desktop). This Meridian has a very small footprint and is the perfect desktop DAC. I have this hooked to my desktop PC. I wasn't excepting a sound upgrade over my old $3500 DAC (but the AR was from the 90s), but it was a sonic upgrade. As with most higher end audio equipment- give it at least a couple weeks or more to fully break in. It sounded pretty nice out of the box, but as it broke in, it opened up more and more and sounded even smoother. It images better-wider soundstage, has more detail, etc. I also did purchase the IFI USB power supply which is approx. $200 and combined with that power supply it sounds absolutely fantastic. I have this connected to a Musical Fidelity M1 HPA heaphone amp and I do have both Sennheiser HD 600 and Hifiman HE-500 headphones. I use all wireworld cables in my setup- wireworld starlight USB from PC to the IFI usb power supply, and another starlight from the IFI to the Meridian, and I have an old pair of Wireworld Polaris cables that I had stored away and I dug out and hooked between the DAC and headphone amp. I listen to many different types of music - Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Modest Mouse, Zeppelin, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jazz (sometimes), Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc. and this DAC does all equally well. If I listen to Frank Sinatra the orchestration sounds outstanding and you can pick out individual instruments. I hear things that I never heard before- even on some songs that I have listened to countless numbers of times- such as Led Zeppelin - No Quarter. I heard things in John Paul Jones' keyboard work that I was unable to pick out before, and you can pick out individual guitar tracks even more. You can pick out individual voices, etc. on many recordings where I could not pick out individual voices before.

This is a fine sounding DAC and it represents how serious the British are when it comes to HiFi audio. The Meridian Director (Direct) DAC is smooth and elegant sounding. The bass is very well controlled and never overwhelming. The mid range is wide and reveals much of the inner details of the recording. My favorite part is the treble reproduction that this DAC is able to offer. Treble is super smooth and extended. But in all honestly, this DAC will not do miracle for a system. You need to have an adequate existing system in order to enjoy the difference that this DAC will make. This DAC will do lesser HiFi system no benefit and it will just be a waste. You don't need 5 figures sound system to hear the difference, but just make sure your source, amp, and speakers are up to par with this little guy. The packaging of the Meridian Director is very nice; something rare and other manufacturers should stop using those cheap brown cardboard packaging. The reason why I knocked one star off is because this DAC has a very low value proposition. Yes it is very good sounding, but not worth $699 asking price. But at its current "discontinued" pricing, it is a very good deal. I would pick this DAC up if you're into computer based audio (Tidal or higher resolution files playback).

I don't see any improvement to the overall sound quality of my system. I use it with a JVC AX-Z1010 integrated amp and Canton Ergo-620 speakers. Previously I used the Sony UDA-1 DAC. I have also used the K-2 DAC on the JVC. The meridian DAC doesn't seem to offer anything special.

Wow. Two days into listening and this DOES make a positive difference. I have A/B compared with my old M-Audio TransitUSB that had given me good service for years. I don't know if I believe in "burn in periods" for such electronics (speakers yes, not so much hard circuits and electrical/audio connectors), so who knows, it may sound even better, but if it doesn't, the way it's sounded the past two days is fantastic. There's more depth to the soundstage, instruments are easier to pick out, and I'm finding myself being barraged with subtle differences on many familiar recordings. (The end of Sgt. Pepper "A Day In The Life" has that sustained piano note - but I can more easily hear the foot creaking on the sustain pedal. I haven't enjoyed my version of Bernstein's conducting of Rachmaninoff's Concerto #2 since the first time I heard it years ago). So much subtle combined that it makes the change pretty significant. Again, I hear the differences when doing A/B tests and the Meridian is the best sound I've ever gotten from my digital music files. All in iTunes, have been ripped as WAV files from original CDs with error correction. Haven't tried with the compressed files yet, but most of my collection lives on hard drives uncompressed (not even "lossless"). My setup uses the USB input (with my own USB cable, Meridian didn't supply one!) output with a good quality right and left audio cable (also mine, which is fine). For the first time ever my MacBook Pro shines as much as any other link in my audio system, which is good news when compared to my Oppo Blu-ray player. It would have been worth it a year ago at about $650, but now at the new lower price - get one and hear for yourself. Very happy with this purchase!Jan 16 - Still loving it. Life changing musical sound for all of my computer music files! Best value:$ I've invested in years in my sound system!Jan 2, 2018!!! Still fully in love with this product. Just get one and see for yourself.