Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Tri-Stereo, will I end up with Meridian Trifield now?

Hello,

I'm Olli from Germany and I'm into pure Stereo Music 100% but no AV stuff. So why I'm ending up here in this forum? (because of this Meridian Thread about Trifield:

Trifield Alternatives

I'm very much convinced Tri-Stereo is a good concept also for music lovers! - Why?
Because it works for me VERY WELL! Maybe because of my room weaknesses basically? Maybe I like the (artificial) stage imaging, the more stable center when it comes to installing the real 3rd speaker at the middle of the "stage", maybe because of a wider sweet spot. After several room treatments, speaker and other hardware upgrades I am still remaining with this TRI thing! And I will stay with it for sure.

My first experiences I made and playing around with that Tri thing was with a NAJDA DSP where I first time heard of creating a real center out of stereo signal instead of relying on phantom center stereo image. Later I heard of the James Bongiorno Trinaural SP - purely analogue gear to subtract the center information out of the stereo.

I've used that analogue device for 3 or 4 years now. I like the stereo stage image enhancements very much and was happy with the result. But it offers only few (rather NO) options to play around with. Only levelling the center channel. Because the analogue maths and matrix is very simple. ;-)
L = L - 0.5 R
C = 0.5(L + R)
R = R - 0.5 L

Now couple of weeks ago I have read of Trifield for the first time (shame on me!!!) - and Meridian dealt with it SINCE DECADES! Whow - these equipment is available and it seems to be a bargain! To be honest Meridian isn't very present in high-end Stereo scene. But now it's time to open up mind for other TRI concepts - and I've read the paper of the origin of Trifield.
So, I've purchased a 568.2 for a little money. And my next experiments will exchange the Bongiorno analogue Trinaural with a Trifield setup with Meridian.

But I would like to share my whole Hi-Fi System concept to give a better understanding, what it looks like - how to integrate this Meridian Trifield DSP. And I'm really looking forward what you think of it!

Beforehand I need to state that I'm a little obsessed to the idea of having a neutral frequency response at the sweet spot listening position. I stick to the idea that the music producers is having the real idea of how his music should be coloured - nobody else - no Speaker and no other hardware supplier does have the right to change ANYTHGING - neither I don't have that right!

So, if this is the case - why not using some equipment producers uses in their studio!!! ;-) Mainly Speakers should have the ability to be as linear as possible.

Now ending up with main Speakers Genelec: Center 8351 and Left/Right 8340. (SAM Management room measurement System doing the BASIC room correction, phase correction & freq. response) Also very helpful is the Genelec GRADE Report that will be created with any SAM Measurement GRADE Report Genelec

Subs are not Studio equipment: 2 x Dynaudio 9S

Streaming/Pre-Amp NAD M66 with Dirac Live and newest Bass Management option. DIRAC Live now doing the lower end correction which is not controlled by Genelec SAM.

Making of Stereo a Three Channel Setup: James Bongiorno Trinaural Processor Trinaural Bongiorno And THIS analogue will be exchange by the Meridian 568.2 to control Center/Left/Right. - schematic system layout.



Sorry for that very long post...

Olli.

Trifield is absolutely excellent.

I personally wouldn’t use the 568.2 in this way, I would ditch the NAD and Dirac just let the 568 just do the whole lot, you might be surprised how good it sounds. Just get your speaker/sub placement right and possibly look at some physical room treatments if you are worried about bass issues. Give it a try both ways for a few weeks and see what you think. The 568 is a very, very good DAC.

Meridian also make processors which include their own room correction, MRC, which is transparent and designed to work seamlessly with Trifield processing, if you really do end up needing some digital correction.

3dit0r,

I guess I HAVE to do that.

With the NAD and Meridian in a Daisy-Chain configuration and doing the volume control via NAD Pre because the sups are connected to the NAD/Dirac I need to set the volume to 90 to 99 - and then there is a MASSIVE NOISE.

Is this usual ? - I didn't have any noise on the Bongiorno analogue device in that configuration!

I am not sure why you have the noise you have.

I know what I am going to say won’t fix the issue of noise however, is it worth setting up the 568.2 and 3 Genelecs as full range, to assess Trifield? I know that means no subs and no Dirac but it would surely be the easiest way for some level of assessment. This does assume you have an alternative stereo source to connect to the 568.2.

Similar to 3dit0r, I do think that running the 568.2 without the NAD would yield the best results. I would consider a miniDSP to help integrate the subs, in the long term.

In the suggested setup from the ts it's important to delay the subs as the 568 adds some delay due to the processing.
But I agree to my colleges above and would try to use the 568 with the subs connected to it.

Thank you everyone for your reply.

To be honest, I can not resign the performance of NAD, Dirac and especially the bass management feature of Dirac/NAD. This is an absolut blast - give it a try if you will have the chance. Any Tri Stereo-Music processing, doesn't matter if with Trifield or Trinaural, is just the cherry on the cake for me!

And regarding phase behavior or delaying subs - wouldn't expect this is relevant at all. It is mentioned that any DSP multichannel latency is aprox. 1 to 2 milliseconds (quote: Trifield probably less). And this will not have any effect at subwoofer frequency range or phasing.

I will try to accept a reduced overall sound pressure level by keeping Meridian level below 75 - humming is acceptable below this level.

What I can hear so far is that Trifield is delivering a impressive width, staggering and massive improvement stereo build up. It seems a little different to Trinaural behavior but I would give it a go so far!


AND I LOVE THE OLD SCHOOL PARAMETER SETTING! This is anyhow strange but cooooool somehow!

Im not so shure about the latency of the 568 but the non DSP 218 ads 16 milliseconds ;-), the G68 aprox 7,5 ms, Ive red somewhere that the 861 can be around 32ms so 2ms can be a little off?

As for resigning the Nad, thats understandable. But i would give the 568 a try. I came across M late in my "high end" audio career but wish it had been sooner

Rick7,
I got the numbers for latency from a talk to ChatGPT only ... that was it's reply:

I would look at both the connection and protocol from the Dirac to the 568.2 for the probable source of noise you are getting.

Triolli,

Why bother to make use of the collective decades of experience here if you trust what an AI spits out? The 568 doesn’t even have room correction, so how accurate do you think the rest is?

I was thinking that, but I didn't want to be that guy.😁

If you have another (preferably digital) source, you could run that straight into the 568 to hear what it can do on its own with Trifield.

In my experience, Trifield comes into its own when you have rear ‘speakers, with some music it can really envelop you into the sound.

For it to really work well, all 5 ‘speakers need to be the same or similarly voiced and phased.

All the best,

Steve.