Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861 room correction

I have always used the internal tones for levels. I'll give Avia a try comparing decoded vs non-decoded, but the loss of bass not subtle by any means.

FYI, my setup is 7.1 with all speaker set to large max with protection at 23 on the center. I use 2 CS Ultras for the LFE channel. Room dimensions are 17'W x 21'L x 8'H with bass traps as well as sound panels.

I have all speakers set to small with mono woofer for all the modes.
Have calibrated the 861 with internal pattern.
As soon as i have my cables.. (waiting for over a month) i will test with avia.

Jaco

Ok, I used the Avia disc to compare if there is a level difference in the LFE channel having the 800 decode vs the 861.

The results are what I have been reporting since the V3 upgrade. There is a difference of 4db between the two......Having the 800 decode the bitstreams results in the LFE level to be -4db down vs the 861. Like I said......not subtle at all.....

I'm not complaining because the 861V4 w/RC is just unreal with its performance, but it would be nice if M could come up with a fix for this. Now I just need a 1 button push on the MSR so I can go between decode or not on the 800.

That is easy. The 800 has two outputs, main and aux. Set the aux to bitstream and the main to decode in box. Then assign Aux to another button on the remote.

Stacey has it right. Heres what I found re: loss of bass

I used VE because it gives an easier to measure sub channel pink noise. no decoding=no upsampling since the soundtracks are decoded in the 800 and then upsampled by the 861.

all options are set to default except the lfe on cinema mode, there its set to 0 so I can get a true sense of whats going on.

what I found is that with no decoding the lfe channel equalled the output of the others. with decoding the lfe needed to be +10 and the resulting sound definately seemed to still suffer a lack of bass even with the lfe set to +10 as the measurements would lead one to believe corrects whatever is going on. my guess is there was a loss of bass from the other channels.

with v4, doing the same measurement the results were much better. the tests show there is now no difference between the decoded and not decoded in the 800 soundtracks. at least in my system- the only difference I can see between Deniz and I are the speakers- but thats the results Im getting.

now, if I can bring up another nit: the chroma bug- please make it go away!

to be sure, this is now nit picking. the resulting presentation is simply spectacular.

Jerry and Deniz,

Can you both post your 800 and 861 software versions? Press display while they units are in standby.

Jerry, you have all speakers set to large? No sub at all?

I will do the same experiment tomorrow, when I get home. (I have been gone all week, so I could not test it.)

I do recall getting a lot more bass when I have no sub in the system and all speakers large. When I add a sub, bass is gone. This is all with 800 decoding. I will try 861 decoding and find out what happens.

I am running two SVS and 2 buttkickers off of the LFE output. I don't feel much from the buttkickers at the moment, we shall see if it changes when 861 does the decode.

[This message has been edited by sspears (edited 07-05-2003).]

I think that may be the main difference here. Jerry does not use an LFE woofer, and has all of his speakers set to large max. With 4 8000s he probably doesn't need a separate LFE unit

The 861 info reads as follows: 861 4.02/4107

The 800......................: 8003_244

I have the same software versions in both units. so it seems there are 2 differences. 1- digital speakers; 2- no sub.

Deniz,
maybe you should try the video essentials test tones comparing your setup with the sub in the loop and with it out. I find VE preferable to avia for this as VE has a LFE pink noise channel, whereas avia has a sweep. its easier to measure the SPL of the pink noise. if you find youre losing bass with the sub setup, you could integrate your sub outside of the 861....

I found an even better test disc to use.......the Sound & Vision disc.

Now here are some interesting results:

Having the 800 decode the bitstreams for DD lowers not only the LFE levels to approx -3db or -4db, but it also lowers the levels in the main channels. The S&V disc alternates between the front left and the lfe channel for the subwoofer test.

The S&V disc also contains the same test tones for DTS. So I repeated the test above, and it works in the opposite way. If you let the 861 decode the bitstreams the bass levels for both the LFE channel as well as the mains are reduced...........So having the 800 decode DTS provides an increased level of bass, and having the 861 decode DD allows for the same.

So what's right?

Deniz,
I dont know. Did you try running these tests using a no sub configuration? then we could at least compare the digital speaker to analog speaker setups more accurately. also when the mains were lower, are you saying they are lower than the surrounds and then the lfe channel was even lower than the mains?

I didn't try a no sub config, but later on this week I intend to.

The levels of the mains were lower/different not from each other speaker. However they differed depending on which unit decoded the bitstreams.

I have had my 861 upgraded tuesday evening. Did some listening tests, and find it to improve the sound a little.
As i had not much time yet, and the install was only done late in the evening i got only yesterday to listen.

The total sound image improved, also without RC like written above.

I have however 54 filters when i do the automatic procedure. Seems all but a perfect room

Jaco