Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Trifield and DPLII/DPLIIx

I've been primarily listening to stereo with 561M and 861V2. Now that I'm trying to properly set up for Trifiled and other multi channel music mode as DPLII.

I have some questions please

1. With 7.1 speaker set up, what kind of signals sent to Rears and Sides for Trifield and DPLII

2. DPLIIx(7.1) is supposesd to be better than DPLII(5.1), how about for Trifield? is 7.1 set up supposed to be better than 5.1 for Trifield?

3. How's Trifield compared to DPLII/DPLIIx

4. What % do you listetn to various modes for music (for example, Stereo 50%, Trifield 30%, DPLIIx 20% etc)

5 What are your speakers and the bass management setup for the multi-channel music such as Trifield and DPLII

I have JM Lab Electra 926, CC900, SR900, REL Strata II. Right now, I set no sub for Trifield and have my REL connected to high level to take care of anythin below 38hz, and for DPLII I set the processor to send below 55hz to sub.

It sounds little boomy for DPLII.

Both PLIIx and Trifield are ambience extraction algorithms, with PLIIx being far more agressive about the extraction.

PLII and PLIIx are really the same at 5 channels. IIx just allows for 6 (and 7) channel configurations and adjusts its output accordingly.

For Trifield, the surround channel output is very minimal in my experience (as it should be) and as such I don't notice a dramatic difference between 5.1 and 7.1.

Trifield's primary function is to solidify the front soundstage with the more sane inclusion of the center channel. The downside is that it pretty much demands an identical CC loudspeaker in my experience. This isn't the end of the world FWIW, but I find that the Trifield experience is dramatically improved with identical front speakers.

Trifield 90%. Stereo 10% for review purposes only. PLII/IIx don't cut it in comparison for music listening anymore.

The same as for everything else. Crossover at 55Hz for all speakers for all material.

I prefer keeping the system identical at all times, but that's a matter of preference and how do you argue about that?

CHeers,

The whole concept of Dolby is steering the sound to the speaker(s) that's in proximity to the sound source, with the ultimate desirability being that the sound be produced by a single speaker (if the sound is coming from the location of that speaker).

Trifield works with the primary sound source and extrapolate to 2/3/5... speakers. And since those front speakers works in concert to simulate a wavefront, there is no sound being steered, so there is less likely to "see" the image hop from one speaker to another as it moves in the soundsage.

70% Trifield, 30% Stereo.

I had Magnepan MG-IIIa for the fronts with a small center channel MGCC1 sitting on the floor (below the drop down screen). I had to fine tune the center delay to make the center speaker disappear in Trifield. It cannot disappear watching movies because the discrete "or steered" channels makes the center(ish) sound exclusively come out from the center channel. Used 2 seperate subwoofers with seperate crossovers, one w/51hz high/low pass xo for the mains and 160hz high/low pass xo for the center channel. Made the somewhat diffuse soundstage of MG-IIIa much better focused. You would never know that the sideway box on the floor contribute that much to the sound.

Then moved to MG3.6/R for the mains and put one of the MG-IIIa for the center. Used the Meridian's xo to do bass management @ 50hz since all 3 front speakers could handle low bass. It was much more easier to integrate because all 3 are the same size. the MG3.6/R imaged much better than the MG-IIIa and the improvement was not that vast anymore.

Thanks for the good responses.

The reason you guys set the crossover at 55hz and 50hz is because your speakers' base response goes down as low as 55hz and 50hz?

Anyone compare the following DPS's that create 7.1 output?

PLIIx (Dolby Digital)
Cinema (Meridian's DSP)
THXU2Cin (THX's DSP)

My casual listening indicates that Cinema changes the frequency balance of the front channels compared to PLIIx.

With dipole planars for the main speakers, the sound of a dynamic woofer has very different sound from it. So in order to minimize that difference in sound, the crossover is set as low as feasable, pretty much to the point where the sound is starting to be felt more than heard. With the mains going down to 34hz (although very limited in dynamic range), 50-60 was a reasonable compromise.