Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Linn's version of MRC now available in their streamers

More fuel to the fire for all those calling for MRC in the Meridian stereo pre-amps. Linn have now introduced their Space Optimisation software to all their streamers, not just the Exakt range of speakers (which get the added benefit of driver compensation and optimisation).

It does seem to go further than MRC as well...

I think this is more akin to Devialet SAM offering. Their offering seems more speaker specific.

The system used in the Exakt digital speakers is like SAM and Meridian DSPs but their room software does seem to be like MRC plus some extra control, albeit it, only at the disposal of reps to set up for you.

I would far rather use more powerful external tools like Dirac or MiniDSP etc to do "room correction" than an inbuilt system.

NO such thing exists, room correction is a misnomer, no program corrects the room, all they can do is to TRY correct the sonics at listening position, and trying to correct anything above 300-400 Hz is fraught with difficulties and not at all recommended or indeed possible.

At any rate, you would get 10x the improvement of any DSP based "correction", if you actually TREAT the room...

Having heard Linn's "optimisation" in the Exakt speakers at Linn HQ I was very impressed. Far more impact than MRC in my experience. Rather shocked at how good it was. But it is a 50k speaker. The optimisation feature is something I'd love Meridian to have in a processor. You set the speakers in the 'ideal' sonic position, run some calibration then move them to where you can live with them - in other words SWMBO's favoured placement .. Then after some more data entry and number crunching in the PC program the speakers re-create the sound of the ideal placement but at the compromised SWMBO position.
You need to hear it to believe it.

For a controlled room I.e. with room treatments I imagine this is a waste of time and money, but for everyone with real world constraints and no permission to litter the room with bass traps, scatter plates and soffits, the Linn system is an interesting proposition.

Also noticeable is the fact Linn have their own version of EBA and with 24/192 to the speaker you have to say they appear to have the benefits promised by MQA now...(without the bandwidth benefit of course). But I'm not investing 50k + any time soon. Tidal, Bass traps and marital disharmony all the way :-))

The problem with any form of correction is that there is not an "ideal" to correct to, the FR at listening position of any speaker is far from flat, in fact it is a user definable "target" curve which slopes from a lift at the low bass to a dip at the extreme treble.

This is not a universal truth graph and can and should be modified to taste.

Any program that corrects to flat at listening position will sound real bad, bass light and treble proud.

In fact it's not a waste of time or money, even if you have a treated room as the correction will do stuff in the low bass that treatment cant (like whacking out a +10dB hump at 40Hz) and will also, depending on what type of correction you use, correct each speaker on an individual basis, will compensate for speaker FR anomalies and do impulse response optimization as well.

The ideal situation is to use a combo of treatment and DSP and if you cant use physical treatments, then use DSP...

One really needs to get away from all these proprietary schemes and use something like Dirac or Acourate...