Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Running 2 D1500's

VK, the important thing is to use the 568.2mm Xover function. stereo vs. mono bass is a more academic question. But the Xover of the preamp is where he will have most control of the result as well as easing the load on the DSP33's which will help their midrange.

The reasoning behind mono bass radiated from several sources is that you will not have nulls and will even the peaks. You will not "miss" a single bass frequency from your material. You will get a sound <80Hz from all mono subwoofers and from the midrange/top speaker that is playing the channel with the specific <80Hz sound. Meridian uses 2nd order Xover if I'm not mistaken which corresponds to 24dB/octave. That means 40Hz is played 24dB lower from the DSP33 speaker if Xover is 80Hz (1 octave difference is always half or double the frequency in Hz).

With stereobass you have the notion that you will pick up <80Hz directionality and therefore you want the channels separate for music. If there is a specific <80Hz sound from one channel you will only get that sound from one subwoofer and from the midrange/top speaker that it is Xover to. This gives the possibility of missing a sound because of one null point (placement) with only a single subwoofer reproducing the sound. Ofcourse we could stack/chain the stereo channels as well with 2 + 2 subwoofers to reduce this possibility even more.

Now, with the same number of subwoofers 2*n I think this practically will not be much of a difference because the bass frequencies are often coming from both channels in a 2 channels music mix. And for movies you only get mono sound from the LFE anyway (which stands for most bass cues).

The important thing here is to use the Xover in the pre/pro to reach the best integration, control and added headroom from DSP33 speakers (needs to produce less bass thus easing the load on cone giving clearer midrange).