Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSP520 as a controller?

Thanks Nick, Carl,

Next time I'm over at my friends house I'll change the DSP520 to master. Other than pressing clear when units are in standby is there anything else I need to do to set the speaker rather than the G61 as controller?

Cheers,
Jools

The DSP setup is via the MSR and covered in the manual. Make sure you read that please.

Power up with the 0 key pressed is usually the starting point.

I may be wrong (and I apologise in advance if I am) but the DSP520 user manual is very thin and only mentions MSR once which is about enabling IR (which is what I followed to enable IR) I understand this may be different for some of the other DSP speakers but there are no other mentions of using an MSR to set up the DSP520...

...as I say more than happy to be corrected

Hi,

I've reconfigured my friends DSP520 and just reporting back with findings...

The DSP520 (and therefore I assume probably the DSP640 as well) can act as controller but with limitations. These limitations are that:

- It can only pass on/off, source and volume commands.
- Also, apparently it will only work if there are no DSP's with displays in the system (and possibly this includes a Meridian sub too).

You need to have IR enabled on the DSP520 and the DSP520 set and connected as the Master. (It doesn't work as a Slave). There are no other settings to change on the DSP520 so you need to explicitly set the other devices in your set up as non-controller.

For my friends set up, this works fine as his other DSPs are M6 and the limited functionality gives him control of his primary commands so he's happy. I guess, longer term he may move to a more comprehensive control set up.

Thanks again all for your guidance and hopefully this may be useful for others in the future as the DSP520/640 in-wall speakers grow in popularity (which I'm sure they will as they are great sounding speakers)

Cheers,
Jools

Jools,
Thanks for feeding that back. All makes sense and will be a useful reference.

Care to comment on how it sounded ? The 520 seems quite an impressive unit and the M6's still relatively unknown outside of shop demo's etc.

Cheers

My friend has DSP520s installed in 2 rooms and I�ll give my best impressions from a fairly limited listening time so far, so here goes...

One room with a pair of DSP520s, AC200 and MS200 (+MD600) delivers a fantastic sound. They don�t sound like they are an in-wall speaker at all and have a wonderful mid-range clarity with a sound that is very engaging. �Spies� from ColdPlay draws you into the music and gives one of those spine tingling listening moments. It was suggested to me at the Sound & Vision show in Bristol Sevenoaks last year that these are probably somewhere between a 3300 and 5200 in performance. I have a trio of 3300�s and I would agree that they are at least comparable. My friend's room is a far from ideal listening room as it is a conservatory so has lots of reflective surfaces however they still manage to deliver a great sound.

The other room (related to the thread above) is a 5 channel set up with G61R, M6 L&R, In ceiling speakers for rear and the DSP520 as the centre (again with MS200+MD600). In Trifield mode the 520 excels in much the same way as above and while the M6s provide a surprisingly good sound given their �lifestyle� styling, the sound they deliver is not for me. The sound stage almost wraps around you but in doing this the image is less focussed than you get from a more conventional DSP and I also don�t believe the bass is as punchy. With a comparable price tag, I prefer my trio of 3300�s however my friend compared (albeit in the shop) a pair of M6s and a pair of 3200�s (which have a similar tonal quality to the 3300 but with (understandably) less weight and depth in the bass areas) and he liked the sound that the M6 presented.

As you can tell I don�t have a career as a reviewer but hopefully the above is a helpful indicator!

Thanks Jools for the update and review.

I hope your friend is now pleased with the results.

Regards,
Carl