Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems I just got some M6's ... now what?

That plus the AC12 and you have close to a grand into a twenty year old processor. A used G61RSL or a new AC200 can be had for similar cash outlay of $1500.00. Either of these are quick, easy, no fuss ways to have your system up and running. As this is your first experience with Meridian equipment I would suggest this route over all the adapters and what not. It gives you the most flexibility and the least amount of grief in setup.

I've moved recently from 500 series (568) preamp to an AC200 and it would be my choice truth be told.

A number have been offered here in the restaurant recently for well south of the reduced dealer pricing. It will look the business aesthetically alongside the M6 (swmbo factor can't be underestimated) and does offer additional benefits over the 500 series such as stereo width adjustment, EBA and USB in etc.

Go for it,
Lee

Don't bother 561. Go straight 568 as minimum.

Seeing as only AC200 and other modern processors can access the "height" setting and other features of the M6, and seeing as you got them for a song, I think it's weird not to go straight to the AC200.

Strange as it may seem, not everyone has $1500 laying around to spend on a "toy".

I may have to tap some savings though. The WAF on the M6's is very high compared to the homebrew open baffle setup (go figure).

So, I managed to get it all working
It's a right mess at the moment --

Raspberry Pi --> HDMI --> HDMI stripper --> Toslink optical --> Audio Alchemy digital interface --> SPDIF --> transformer > SpeakerLink -- but it works!

The Pi also sends serial commands through an RS232 adapter.

I hooked it up and managed to get sound out of the M6... I won't say music though. It sounded like it was being playing through a tin can on a string and the left and right channels weren't in phase with one another. I could not figure it out!

Then I stumbled on this post where AudioImages-Rick saves the day again ! Typing EBOFF fixed all the issues. I have a center image now and female voices don't sound as though they've been telegraphed from the 19th century, huzzah!

This begs the question, what other fun settings am I missing? I've figured out bass, balance, volume, mute, etc. but what's all this EBA business? Are there other more interesting DSP commands that I can play ... er ... seriously examine?

Thanks once again chaps, once I'm done with this odyssey, I'll write up a how-to to share

Cheers!
JR

Since you're using a Pi already, you may want to shorten your signal path a bit by adding a Hifiberry Digi+ board to it, so you end up with

Pi + Digi+ > SPDIF > transformer > SpeakerLink

It'll probably sound a lot better as well.

Oh, definitely. I just need to figure out which i2s device to get, because there are about 3,756,228 different varieties, but only one has an input (the Wolfson/Cirrus card), but it's unclear if that actually works with Pi2 + Volumio/Squeezelite.

Recently, I've just been using the SPDIF out on my CD player straight into the transformer to SpeakerLink.... but that's significantly less humorous than the current Pi-based setup.

At any rate, I'm interested if anyone has a complete list of the serial commands for the M6, or more information about the EBA commands specifically.

I suspect looking at RS232 commands for DSP5000's on duncs info site will give most RS232 commands. A few would have come in later years (if anything obvious missing try a command from later processor).

As for EBA, I think the ts just on and off via rs232. The config requires true speakerlink and an EBA compatible processor/endpoint such as ac200/MS200 to configure. Might be wrong though.

Yes, I have that doc, but it seems there are some commands (like this EBA thing) that are missing.

What are the configs? Does it need a microphone to get data about time delays, etc?

The other thing I found is that apparently EBA has to be turned on/off at each speaker individually. I'm not sure exactly what that means. Do I need to connect each speaker directly to the RS232 Signal one-at-a-time? Is the reason that EBA on sounds like $#!7 because only one speaker ever had it turned on? Having it off, these speakers sound very nice. With it on ... :shudders:

There's also some other signals that I have heard of but haven't seen documented like CE? SW? What are these things?

Presumably the M6s have features controllable by an MC200 AC200, ie width, stage etc. Would these be only controllable by a processor? Are these DSP functions in the controller or speaker? Width is an interesting one but there are others, height etc. They aren't well documented though.

Try:

DSP RS232 Control

Note carefully:

Some (configuration commands) only affect the connected speaker

The non-volatile commands will be writing to flash memory - so will have a finite number of writes before it won't write no more - i.e. make sure you are not writing continuously from an automation system and don't set anything you don't want remembering.

There's a command to list the non-volatile settings as well - might be useful checking each speaker in turn to make sure they match if you've been poking around.


Matt.