Can Meridian G68 preamp bypass DSP & stay analog?

In my personal experience with telecom applications, clean-up PLLs improve perform best for noisy clocks but improve performance very little to not at all for clean clocks. I suppose the same may be true for audio applications.

Hence, money may be better spent on a source vs clean-up PLL. Or it could be the other way. I'm just not in the mood to go spending money on trial and error.

Now that you know were I am coming from, please let me know your comments and experiences. Thank you.

Having said this, I agree that a new source is probably in order. I am just not sure which one and which approach.

I would like to hear someone has auditioned a MAC mini with a Emperical Audio Sychro-Mesh against sources costing >10X more. I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the same league. After all, dedicated functionality with dedicated power supply and chassis could provide performance filed under 'work smarter not harder' or should I say 'spend smarter not more'.

An ideal clean-up PLL after the digital source would provide the same signal to the preamp, regardless of the digital source. Of course, there is no such thing as an ideal clean-up PLL. But it seems reasonable that there is one that may suffice. I just haven't found it (yet).

The better the clean-up PLL, the less important the source. A pristine source is a more pure approach. But the clean up-PLL may be a more practical approach.

How about the Synchro-Mesh? http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/synchro-mesh.

Reasonable but inferential. If thePS3 sounds better than the ATV, perhaps an even better digital source will sound even better. I find that the better the digital source, even if its rated bandwidth exceeds that of the Meridian input (24/96), the better it sounds. And while the use of an external DAC (bypassing the Meridian's A/D/A conversion) sounds somewhat different from digital input to the Meridian, it is not superior.

Here is what I am getting at. I am looking to add a new source as I think it is the weak link in my system. My system is all Meridian except for the source (HD621 -> G68 -> G57 & G55). The HD621 cleans up jitter (what jitter BW?) with the assertion that all digital signals become equal. Problem solved forever? Apparently not.

Sony PS3 and Apple TV are both connected to HD621 and PS3 sounds much better especially its bass. I am guessing the offenders are low frequency jitter and power supply noise making it through to the amp. In other words, HD621 does not clean up as well as desired.

If the processor does not clean up the source adequately then the source itself must be cleaned up. Hence, I conclude a newer cleaner source is in order. The question becomes, does it have to be analog or could it be digital? For integration I would prefer the source to be digital like a network music player.

So to answer your question Kal, "Why indeed?", the answer may be because a good DAC output is likely to be cleaner than a good digital output. But I am not positive about this. Perhaps skipping over ATV, MAC mini, and the likes and going to a network music player with a top notch power supply would do the trick. If I had a spectrum analyzer I could quantify the answer rather than just suppose.

Kal is correct all analog that go's into a G68 is converted to digital, them back to analog if you have a G68AXV like I do.
I purchased the G68 to do exactly what it did at the time, handle my digital sources for my theater or listening to multichannel audio. I use an Audio Research Ref3 for all analog sources including a dCS Debussy.

Why indeed? AFAIK, the Meridian equipment will digitize all analog inputs because Meridian is committed to digital loudspeakers (although analog outputs are often an option). I do know that my 861 does this and, for assessing HD/MCH sources, I have recently purchased an Audio Research MP1.

However, for listening, I have no problem feeding everything digital into the Meridian anyway, bypassing any external DACs.

Kal