Just wondered if many people had tried out the Meridian 518 in the past with their CD set-up or anything similar and what people's sonic experiences of it were.

It is a digital processor which dithers from 16bit to 18,20,22 or 24bit (and vice versa) via different noise, err "shapes" and has digital volume control, switchable emphasis/de-emphasis and probably a few other tricks. It started life as a dithering processor for mastering to CD and so providing dither to 16 bit in the 618 and then they expanded functionality and made it a consumer unit, the 518. Also supposed to re-clock, reduce jitter in some way, allegedly ?

Anyway what were your thoughts/experiences either in post CD playback or for recording?


I have a 618 and can't hear any difference dithering up to 20 bit and then bypassing straight to my Manley Junior DAC but the digital volume control is nice as my integrated is too sensitive for my DAC which is a bit higher output I think that normal.

Interestingly it also flashes up "Clip L" "Clip B" (B=Both) "Clip R" when the CD hits 0dB! Then you can adjust the digital volume down until this stops happening.. An Elbow CD did this fairly often, showing up the loudness wars I guess even on music which really shouldn't be so pushed..

I have to say that my Manley Junior DAC does sound very good even on cheap speakers (running Gale Monitor Golds at the moment which you can't even give away these days...) I love the UltraAnalogue chip.. or perhaps it's the 618?