Originally Posted by brucemck2
Originally Posted by Tassie Devil
Back to the 861, I've never been a great fan of what is does to 2CH in its surround modes. To these ears it corrupts the 2CH output at the expense of the (rather nice) synthesised surrounds. I have got around that by feeding 2Ch into a McIntosh preamp with L/R going direct to amps and speakers but still capitalising on the 861 surround sound capabilities by feeding a signal back from the preamp so the 861 does its bit on the rest of the system. A bit messy, but it works fine using a progammable Aeros 850 remote + a few IR operated relays.


I too took this approach; this works really well. It'd be nice if Meridian offered a music surround mode that left the Left and Right channels "pure" while adding ambiance via the surrounds.
Which goes to prove that great minds think alike, doesn't it.

John (not quite senile yet but getting there!!!)