Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Multichannel SACD vs. Trifield

I just installed my new Oppo UDP-203 and have been playing around with it. I decided to toss in an SACD disc and see what it sounded like (I usually just rip the CD layer and toss in my basement.)

I was stunned. The sound stage was amazing. Pin point accurate and with an amazing sense of depth. I tried several other SACDs and found the same.

My Oppo is connected to an HD621 via HDMI then to my 861.8 via MMHR.

When listening to stereo in Trifield (from a PC connected to the 861.8 via USB) I don't get that sense of exactness and depth. I just upgraded my speakers (analog) so I have all the distances and levels reset (besides both SACDs and stereo rips use the same speakers.)

Over the years I have played with Trifield settings like width and center depth but have never seen that much difference (certainly nothing that would make me say WOW!)

So what am I missing here? I have a dedicated, sound treated room.

Is it the fact that the Oppo is going through the HD621 first? Maybe I should hook my PC up through the HD621 with HDMI? Is my PC, USB combo causing too much jitter or whatever and destroying my sound stage?

I was hoping to try the Oppo as my DLNA renderer but it is not gapless so I have to keep the PC. I have an old Dell PC repurposed for my player using JRiver Media Center.

Should I upgrade my PC and get a high end USB card and cable? Or is this Apples and Oranges... the skills of the recording engineer mastering the recording for multichannel vs. trying to do it digitally on the fly via Trifield and I shouldn't be chasing the SACD sounstage?

Anyway it's back to the basement to root through my collection for more SACDs!

Thanks,
John

I would take another crack at your Trifield settings. I can't speak to the quality of your PC source for stereo through the USB connection, but let's just assume for the sake of argument that it's on par with a ID40 or ID41. The Trifield treatment should be really good. You should get a good front soundstage with light fill from the back.

However, it's not necessarily fair to compare Trifield to a multichannel mix off of a SACD or DVD-A. Some mixes are good and some are not. There are some DVD-A mixes that use the ".1" channel for something other than the subwoofer. It's definitely a case by case basis. Consider it a different experience.

You are comparing apples and oranges.

Trifield is synthesized. A Multichannel SACD, DVD, DVDA is Mixed by an engineer. Occasionally you might run into synthesized Multichannel too.

It's like saying, hey Dolby Prologic doesn't sound as good as Dolby Digital or DTS. No kidding. Actually, even Prologic is partially encoded and not 100% synthetic.

Full discrete 'should' always be better than synthesized.

Trifield gives you a good illusion of a discrete multichannel experience on material you will never hear in discrete multichannel recordings. Like 95%+ of all released music at the moment.