Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian 800-series trade-up details (UK)

Ronnie,

i agree absolutly with your solution as described with a),b) and c).

But that means that the AC12 is sitting by the 861,and you can leave your installed cables unchanged.
So how many SPDIF a AC12 have ?-for one,two three or four pair of DSP?
Is there any description from M of the AC12 or thats all rumours?

So with one(or more) AC12 sitting by the 861-
it is the same solution as your idea with the OA14 card,
the only difference that the card is internal in 861 and AC12 is a external box at the 861.

My second proposal (and so dit understand the usage of the AC12)
that this is backpack ON the the DSP (one for each pair)
So one speakerlink go daisy chain to all speakers.
Doing so, you have the sonic advantage of the cat cable and can save some $ on the (expensive) SPDIF cable if you have one
but you have to pay more to get this sonic advantage.
Or a better, more elegant solution is instaed to have that backpack,
to swap the interface board on the backside of the DSP.
Then you have also a possibility to get some voltage to supply this board-
as the voltage is allready on the "old" interface board.

Sorry about my english-hopefully that is clear now?

So its a owner choice to buy one of the three solution

a)OE14.. internal card in 861v6 with output of 4x SPDIF and com

b)AC12 at 861- external box by the 861v6 with 4xSPDIF and com

c)backpack or new interface board on DSP- speakerlink in and output

Robert

Carl, I believe you have it right. Thats what M has told me.

Thanks for that Carl

A Balanced Digital Connection may well be Incrementally better than SPDIF, but as mentioned previously, when I brought up that EXACT question (separately) with Bob, Rhonda and Des at HH2, each of them responded that any difference would be minimal at best, with each advising "no need to start ripping out existing cables"

For my personal situation, I laid out the room so that the distance from my 861 to the Front Three Speakers was minimal, with the longer runs being to the Side and Rears, so difficult to see that incremental difference being audible. The hassle of running a Speakerlink Cable would need some MAJOR justification in my case at least!!

As regards your interpretation of it being a User Choice to cable the DSP's in Pairs or in a Star arrangement.........Did you read or hear something that would lead you to believe that?? I must have missed it

I guess that I have to decide whether I can afford the upgrade or stay put with my current 861. The other option would be to sell my 861 v4.2 now. I wonder what I could get for my unit. As I see it I have to decide by the summer.

Other than the press release, I have not seen any official info on the AC12.
However, looking at the AC11 user guide, it shows wiring examples of both "star" and "paired" connections for SpeakerLink DSPs.
With the restriction that when wiring in pairs, it must be the Master DSP that is connected back to processor.

AC11 User Manual (on Duncan's Site)

Also with SpeakerLink DSPs it is also possible to go

SpeakerLink in, SPDIF+COMMS out (ie to hang a SPDIF sub off a SL DSP)
OR
SPDIF+COMMS in, SpeakerLink out (ie 861v4 --SPDIF--> DSP(l) --SL--> DSP(r)



Regards,
Carl

However, the SL00 doesn't connect to the 861's backplane - it is only about 1" deep and just has the 4 DINs wired together on the PCB.

Regarding the trade-in prices, I see some v4 owners selling theirs privately and buying a v1/v2 cheaper to trade in. The differential in the trade price isn't that great, especially considering the vintage could differ by nearly 12 years. I sure hope HealthNut bought from a dealer who gives 100% trade-in within 12 (or 2 in his case) months

ì hope a AC12 does work for 2 speakers which are not a pair.
Cable wise it would make more sense to have my side and rear speaker on both sides combined. Otherwise i still need to run those funny old cables through half the room.

To bad the 400 pound price tag. Otherwise you could perhaps buy one for each speaker and have very short old cables..

Perhaps a good article for a group buy ?

Carl, thats the AC11, not the AC12. Jaco, I think this will come down to how you can configure the M COMS. If you could have run your setup like that before I think it would work but you might need two separate AC12s

Typo I have corrected the name of link to AC11.

However, what I said holds true, when looking at the options for wiring SpeakerLink DSPs back to an 861v6.

If you consider that the AC11 SpeakerLink Outputs (8) are analogous to 861v6 SpeakerLink Outputs (8). You can see the different posibilities.

Just ignore the rest of the AC11 connections they are not relervant.

Regards,
Carl

Jerry, all my stuff is boxed right now.
I am about to start with theater construction. So it is nice to know now which cables to put in the room.
I get free cables for the DPS3100's in the lenght up to my cabinet. I have a OE12 and a AC11 completely new which i do not need any more (1K Euro down the drain). So i can simply put 2 times a AC12 in my rack and hook up the cables that would have gone in the AC11 i assume.

It seems however better to put a AC12 in the middle of the side and rear and hook them both up. That would give the shortest run of coax and the longest run of speakerlink.

I hope some info on the AC12 will be released. Otherwise i will need to look if they have on on the ISE and look for myself.

Will the trade in result in a whole new unit ?

That is nice, i thought the outside was to be re-used ?

The Meridian press release for the ID Sooloos Card reports there is much more to gain from an ID40 in the 861 v6 or 808.3.