Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Best Upgrades

I was wondering whether anyone has got some 'best upgrades' they have made to their systems to share?

For instance, I just bought some soundcare superspikes to replace the standard spikes on my DSP5K's, and the soundcare 'feet for electronics' to support my G98. Wow, what a difference in soundstage depth, and low frequency control.

I also replaced my 3 seater couch (which sits between my speakers) with a 2 at the same time. So not sure how much of the improvement is attributed to which upgrade, spikes or couch

My two best upgrades were non-trivial:

1) Audio: I replaced my existing (budgetish) 77-series Mission front three speakers with a trio of 18-bit D5Ks. Obviously there was a massive improvement, but the clarity and authority of the D5K centre hits me again and again. As an example, I often listen at calibrated reference level (87) to the Star Wars scene where Luke and Obi-Wan are talking in Obi-Wan's home. The clarity, authority and lack of distortion in Alec Guiness' voice is simply amazing.

2) Video - Addition of a Crystalio VPS-2300 processor in between DVD player and projector. Removing the de-interlacing duties from my PJ and being able to scale the image to match the number of lines in the LCD panels made a massive and unambiguous improvement (e.g. Return of the King).

Incidentally, I've rarely seen improvements from cables or other "tweaks". Others' mileage clearly varies.

Did the Crystalio improve video too or only DVD and which PJ do you have?

Thanks

Darryl

Ps My best upgrade was acoustic wall treatment.

Hi Darryl.

I don't use a VCR in my HT system (if that's what you meant by video). The quality of digital terrestrial (Freeview) in the UK is such that nothing is going to improve it drastically when it's blown up on to a big screen. Having said that, the Crystalio did help for the same reasons stated above (feeding the correct number of lines to the PJ).

My PJ is a budget Panny AE300 affair, fed with a component feed from the Crystalio (due to a major oversight from the Panasonic designers, 1:1 pixel matching is not possible over either D-Sub or DVI). I am clearly at the point when the PJ is the limiting factor in my video system. My next PJ will have at least 720 lines and will be fed via DVI/HDMI. Something like an ex-dem or end-of-line Themescene H79 would seem to fit the bill. I'm not going to spend mega-bucks.

Its not big screen but on my 32" LCD screen, upclose, Freeview SD -> s-video -> G98 upscaled to 720p -> HDMI/DVI -> Display scaled 1366x768 beats Freeview SD -> RGB -> Display scaled 1366x768 by quite a significant margin. At normal viewing distances, the RGB feed is not substandard in any under normal viewing conditions.

Thanks very much.

By video I meant free to air but obviously what we're receiving in Australia is vastly different from what you're getting in the UK and therefore my question was inappropriate.

Here we have HD digital broadcasts in 720p and 1080i and in my case these are being sent via DVI into a Marantz S3; I'm trying to ascertain if a processor such as the Crystalio will improve what the Marantz is putting out.

Regards
Darryl

Interesting, Ian. i route my VCR the same way as yve described for your freeview but I get a better result with freeview going :
Freeview SD RGB output > JS Tech RGB to SVid converter > display at 1366x768

Back on topic - one of my favourite low cost upgrades is Nordost Pulsar points. Worked fantastically with my B&W 850 sub and going to try them on the HTM2D centre, this weekend.

Best upgrades for me......

Dunlavy speakers, more like studio monitors but never harsh or shrill, can play them at reference (with 568.2 and Classe power amp) and the wife never says turn it down.
With my Lexicon MC8 and or the Kef speakers I would never get passed -15db on a film without her moaning!!

Also Crystalio for me too, I SDI modded my Sky+ at the same time and it transformed the picture, went from something that I was never happy with to something that blows me away at times. Using Panasonic 50PHD8 plasma. I was a Lumagen user up until that point, and although good it really doesn't compare.

Crystalio does amazing thing with Laserdisc too, if that is your thing, best Laserdisc images I have ever seen, and that is on a Marquee 9500 CRT projector properly calibrated, not some poxy plasma or digital projecctor!!

On speaker supports. I used granite plinths each on three spikes under D5K's.This increased stability on a suspened wooden floor and improved the sound quite markedly. The speakers were coupled with blu-tak to the granite.
One major benefit of the plinths was that the speakers could be moved incrementally on them to get the right toe-in, without hacking the floor to pieces.

I have two:

Playback via my PC of my network media server hosted .WAV files through FooBar2000 doing upsampling to 88.2K and then into the Meridian 568. Best redbook experience so far.

Second is replacing two Velodyne ULD-18's with my built-in Infinite Baffle sub . Mates beautifully with my Martin Logans and is a bottomless pit of low frequency bliss.