Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems AC12

I agree with all of you. For the nonspeakerlink DSP's the AC12 should have been designed to work simply-- with the existing S leads for slave speakers. I am hoping that they can change that with a firmware upgrade otherwise soldering will have to be on the drwaimg board for me as all my wiring is inwall.
To top it off my dealer just informed me the price is now $750 US per box instead of $650 as was originally thought. Very frustrating indeed.
Joe

Internally generated requirements with little or no market research and no beta program? I'm not surprised at the results which, for the price being charged, are unacceptable. Heck, there are only two use cases, right? AC12 at processor end and AC12 at speaker end?

I think it`s really interesting that M did not to put a 7.1 or even the more common 5.1 Non-SpeakerLink DSP example in the AC12 user guide; may be they where too embarrassed.

I used to tell friends and colleagues how I loved M kit for it`s elegant technical design, sadly M kit need more converters, adaptors and extra boxes than I care for these days.

The AC12 is an over blown expensive balun, that has been ill conceived for real world applications.

Carl.

Funnily enough, I think we'll see a return to action for the Meridian 512 Patch Panel here

In most 5.1 and 7.1 cases with embedded S Comms Cables, it will be a simpler means of propagating Comms around to the other DSP's than Re-Soldering with BNC's

Of course, why Meridian don't just come out and say this is beyond me....................

Carl, I agree with your comments about the fact there are a total of 5 Diagrams in the AC12 Manual and NONE of them are about the most popular Meridian Digital Theatres (5.1 & 7.1) out there. Just makes no sense

+1

What "another" member proposed was a tiny converter at each speaker; in fact, the best solution would be a converter that locks directly into the SPDIF of the speaker or some such thing. I am not messing about with the new Meridian speakerlink solutions for now since this in and of itself will not offer any improvement in sound quality. The prices are simply insane overall too and not just for this but for everything and yes I'm also a staunch supporter of Meridian but come on now the technology is moving so fast and prices for most everything are rather decent and then we get hit with this upgrade of the v6 (in the USA) which is just nuts in 2010. My little dinky media players outperform the 800 video and some of them are sub $200. And now this balun thing comes out and costs how much and does not even do all it is supposed to do? The HD621 is also crazy priced but at least it really offers improved sound. I'm not complaining, I'm simply opining.

I pay for Meridian products and enjoy them immensely but there is a point when even diehard fans get miffed and so it starts and one never knows where that next greatest (less expensive) design crops up.

So let's say Meridian sells 400 v6 units and a factor of 3x the AC12 in the next year. Great. That's a decent profit I guess. Now what if the units were priced at the G series price-point plus 25% and Meridian sells 2000 v6 units? Well maybe it's better the way it is now but anyhow it's all in the stratosphere and I need a demo and some opinions on the v6 in an all digital setup, little overpriced balun boxes be damned.

I agree I love my M gear but this AC12 is a little hard to swallow cost wise plus lack of making it work in the real world. I don't know how many non speakerlink speakers out there have BNC comms but I bet the majority are S comms and most M owners I bet don't have extra M lead cables sitting around to swap out for all the S cables.
To make it worse for custom install wiring (inwall) I will need to solder at the back of my equipment rack ( instead of on a bench top).
I guess if this isn't fixed by a firmware change (it may not be cabable of that) than I will be asking some soldering questions in another thread.

The main problem I have with Meridian on this is that the AC12 penalizes the existing customer base. To my mind, that is either arrogant or dumb.

I seem to have 4* S cables with my DSP 3100 speakers.

I need to re-solder them according to the wiki: http://www.meridianunplugged.com/wiki/uploads/5serleads.pdf

I think i just ask the dealer to supply me the right cable and take back the wrong cable. (got these when i bought the speakers with a AC-11)
A BNC will work as well ?

I find myself in two camps here. Having just gone speakerlink across the front (new speakers) I can appreciate the reduction in cable count thats snaking around to the front of the room from the processor (i.e. 3x S5 + 1x M5 has become 3x speakerlink); but (and its a big but) I really did expect the AC12 to be an SL00 replacement - i.e. unplug S5 from ID42/SL00 on v4 and then plug speakerlink from v6 and S5 into AC12, job done - but it just ain't so (I have my AC12 at the processor end).

On the BNC front the soldering is dead easy if you are confident (or your dealer is!). I used a phono with a BNC converter on it - chop off (or unsolder) the Din at the AC12 end and you then have a 2 core cable; solder centre core to centre pin and shield to shield on the phono, screw it all back togethor and connect to result to master BNC on AC12 - done

GP

Does the purchase of an 861v6 come with a subscription to a soldering course?

Dit somebody open an AC12, are pictures somewhere?
What is inside the AC12?

Thanks

Robert

Will a normal BNC to BNC cable work between the AC12 and a DSP3100 and than from 1st 3100 to the 2nd 3100 ?
This might be the most easy to source (75 Ohm video coax terminated with BNC)