Meier Corda Aria Review (DAC & Headphone Amp)

[617]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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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.

 

[a2copywriter]

This makes me curious to see how modern desktop amps from Jan Meier perform...

 

[elchupahueso]

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...

 

[douede]

As you see, it is a German design:

Ah, diese Subtilität hat mich zum Lachen gebracht

 

[Ninjastar]

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

 

[noel_fs]

well that was surprising

 

[Azathoth]

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]

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]

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]

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]

If that is German design I am an Astronaut. Looks like 100% Chinese stuff, Shanling or similar manufacturer from previous decade.

 

[respice finem]

Honestly, having lived in Germany for decades, IDK if a consequent line of "German design" actually exists in Hi-Fi.
The last I could think of was this: https://mysoundbook.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Braun-Atelier-hiFi-Anlage.jpg

Nowadays, it's more like "to each their own" IMHO.

 

[AudioJester]

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]

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]

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

 

[julian_hughes]

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 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.

 

[julian_hughes]

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

Still got my H340 with 128GB SSD mod!