• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Meier Corda Aria Review (DAC & Headphone Amp)

617

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 18, 2019
Messages
2,403
Likes
5,296
Location
Somerville, MA
103db SINAD and almost .8W output. Pretty great performance for 2005! The designer should be proud of himself...either that or everyone else should be ashamed. Nice unit either way.
 

Somafunk

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
1,301
Likes
3,011
Location
Scotland
I joined headfi in 2004, so much stuff like Ray Samuels people used to talk about all the time that doesn't get mentioned much these days.

Same here, started off with Iriver HD340 modded with 80gb hd (still got it with box & everything), etymotic er4p and ray samuels tomahawk amp
 

thunderchicken

Active Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
146
Likes
120
Location
Seattle
Brings me back to when I first started my audiophile journey, Meier Audio, Ray Samuels Audio, Alo Audio, these names were popular back then for me. Good to see those nice analog numbers.
Speaking of which, when are we going to see RSA products tested?
 

Tangband

Major Contributor
Joined
Sep 3, 2019
Messages
2,994
Likes
2,789
Location
Sweden
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Meier Corda Aria DAC and headphone amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member. It is an older product, introduced around 2005 I think. Not sure how much it cost then.

The Aria gives the impression of a "high-end" product:
View attachment 170753

As you see, it is a German design:
View attachment 170754

Owner bought this used and sent it to the company to reverse some "head-fi mods" someone had done to it which the designer thought was ill advised.

Meier Corda Aria Measurements
Let's start with analog input:
View attachment 170755

I was very impressed with the inaudible distortion products at -115 dB. Only in the last two years we have seen headphone amplifiers routinely match this level of performance. Interesting that it existed some 16 years ago! Noise level though while good, is not competitive with today's products:
View attachment 170756

Switching to digital input shows very disappointing performance:

View attachment 170757

So from here on, I decided to only test the analog input. Frequency response is very good:

View attachment 170758

Power into 300 ohm and 32 ohm are respectable:

View attachment 170759

View attachment 170760

But as noted before, noise floor is not what you can get from modern budget headphone amplifiers today.

Company talks fair about about their cross-feed circuit. I tested crosstalk with and without that mode engaged:

View attachment 170761

Seems to be doing what the company says (extended crossfeed to higher frequencies).

Finally, channel matching in the sample I received is very good:

View attachment 170762

Conclusions
It is impressive to see a designer care about reducing distortion so much back then. I have tested many products like this that even ship today but with non-competitive performance. The DAC option is a "checklist" item unfortunately and shows its age as well. I suggested using an external DAC to see if it results in improved performance.

Doesn't make sense to give any kind of recommendation on this product so I won't. You know my feeling above.

----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Interesting review. :)
The less good result from the usb input maybe depends on the chip that was avaliable to convert USB to DAC at year 2005 ? I bet its not Asynchronous ?
Nowadays, one can find xu208 xmos inside Topping d10s and other similar brands with superior result for less money.
No wonder computer audio gained bad reputation 15 years ago with often less good implementation of usb.
 
Last edited:

a2copywriter

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2021
Messages
13
Likes
12
This makes me curious to see how modern desktop amps from Jan Meier perform...
 

elchupahueso

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2020
Messages
15
Likes
27
Brings me back to when I first started my audiophile journey, Meier Audio, Ray Samuels Audio, Alo Audio, these names were popular back then for me. Good to see those nice analog numbers.
No kidding. I remember those old Head Fi days pretty well. I had my old iPod modified by Red Wine Audio running through an ALO break out into a RSA SR-71. It was a FAT stack but sounded great at the time. Shoot, i even had the rock box running on the iPod so i could play flac files. I still have the hand built headphone amp built by dooboolo (???) It was based on this popular DIY board at the time and had the diamond buffer upgrades. Man, talk about a trip down memory lane...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 617

Ninjastar

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2021
Messages
47
Likes
70
Blast from the past. I also started out my journey on Head-Fi and remember these Meier audio products well. Never owned one of his designs, but I had many headphone amps back in the early 2000's from HeadAmp/Kevin Gilmore, AMB Labs, Bottlehead, Pete Millett, Ray Samuels, SinglePower (lol), Eddie Current, etc. Would be amazing if more members sent in those early 2000's Head-Fi mainstays :D
 

Azathoth

Active Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2020
Messages
112
Likes
255
No kidding. I remember those old Head Fi days pretty well. I had my old iPod modified by Red Wine Audio running through an ALO break out into a RSA SR-71. It was a FAT stack but sounded great at the time. Shoot, i even had the rock box running on the iPod so i could play flac files. I still have the hand built headphone amp built by dooboolo (???) It was based on this popular DIY board at the time and had the diamond buffer upgrades. Man, talk about a trip down memory lane...
Wow, that's what I'm talking about! The stack! I used to think that I'd get the sound I want stacking the most devices together. Something about seeing the interconnects connecting 3 heavy blocks of metal provides that heft and industrial look which I could have subjectively attributed to quality or something.
 

elchupahueso

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2020
Messages
15
Likes
27
Wow, that's what I'm talking about! The stack! I used to think that I'd get the sound I want stacking the most devices together. Something about seeing the interconnects connecting 3 heavy blocks of metal provides that heft and industrial look which I could have subjectively attributed to quality or something.
Yeah, it looked like a bomb and security always looked at me sideways while traveling with it. I was always explaining what it was for and why. Then i put some music on for them and they understood.
 

Azathoth

Active Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2020
Messages
112
Likes
255
Yeah, it looked like a bomb and security always looked at me sideways while traveling with it. I was always explaining what it was for and why. Then i put some music on for them and they understood.
I have the old Fiio X3 first generation and the JDS Labs C5 that I bought just to be a stack of mine. The X3's battery is long dead but the JDS Lab is still rocking since the company still offered to change the batteries. Just had to pay shipping. Props to JDS Labs.
 

Vnowinski

Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2018
Messages
15
Likes
11
I started on HeadWize and built lots of those original DIY amps-- always thought of Head-fi as the commercial cash-in on the Headwize products :). Cool to see the Meier perform well! Have any of the Gilmore designs been tested?
 

DHT 845

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Messages
498
Likes
436
If that is German design I am an Astronaut. Looks like 100% Chinese stuff, Shanling or similar manufacturer from previous decade.
 

AudioJester

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
912
Likes
1,211
Ah, this brings back memories. I still have my Meier Corda HeadFive from 2006. Was the original budget high quality amp that could do a decent job with Senn HD600 - which back then in the "dark ages" was considered very hard phones to drive properly

Thankyou Amir!.
 

ruinevil

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Messages
34
Likes
28
Meier was at CanJam NYC 2020, right before the lockdowns. He said SPL straight up copied his matrices from a Headwize post for their crossfeed feature, including copying them in the manual, and never credited or paid him, so he doesn’t like his fellow German company. Grace Audio did pay him for crossfeed.

Also while he designs his own stuff, it’s manufactured by Lake People / Violectric.
 

mermayer

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2021
Messages
53
Likes
79
Location
Saxony
khv.png


The "old" CORDA CANTATE.2 and the new RME ADI-2 DAC. I love the crossfeed function for my Oldies.
 

julian_hughes

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
657
Likes
901
Maybe just me, but the looks are horrible. The round "Legs" just look utterly silly to me.
That was normal design language at the time and was even imitated in portable players. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archos_Jukebox_series

I have a rather expensive Hi-Fi rack with dark stained wood shelves supported on similarly coloured steel columns bought in about 2000/2001. On this rack the Meier amp would look totally at home, maybe even startlingly modern :cool: These days its multilevel, heavily damped, weighty, authoritative and utterly stable goodness supports my one remaining landline phone, my router, a quite nice table lamp and whatever stuff gets shoved onto its lower, out of sight levels when I occasionally push the vacuum cleaner around.
 
Top Bottom