Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861v6 experiences

I love the sound; not!

I'm still debating whether to upgrade from V4 to V6. I have analogue speakers, so would require the analogue output card option.

When you say there is a marked sonic improvement; is it night and day?
Does the V6 totally outperform the V4?
I was expecting there to be a small but worthwhile improvement.
I understand the balanced analogue output card on the V6 is better than what was used in the V4. Better D to A converters i assume?

Remember that most (all?) of the v6 vs. v4 impressions have all been from a non-apodizing v4 scenario, or from an analogue input or output scenario so there's little wonder that there is a big difference.

I wondered how my HD621 into my 861v4 compares to an HD621 into a 861v6, both using analogue output. If the HD621 apodizes, then does the 861v6 Apodize a second time?

Nope, you Apodise Once, as early as possible. Chris

So i finally got to install our first unit today....

System:

861 v4
HD621
Denon A1UD
Kscape
Sky HD
Sooloos
DSP7200 (speakerlink)
DSP5000C Mk2
DSP 5200

So today we added the v6 and 2 x ac12, we left all legacy cabling in place, and then ran new cat5 to all speakers, and then soldered on site as short as possible Meridian speaker cable for centre and rears, HD621 was connected via MMHR to the v6 and 3 x Coax for v4. Sooloos was via SPDIF for both (for ease of demo)

We used a variety of sources, including Dire Straits SACD matrerial, various Sooloos CD's (Norah Jones / Diana Krall etc) and then a good few film clips.

I can honestly tell you that IMO the difference was marked, bass had far greater control (everyone commented on this) and the transparency to vocals was quite startling.

Just to be sure i then played the same Sooloos track on both processors 6 times, i had a handy assistant doing speaker ends (and changing config on 7200's) while the 4 users were blind folded throughout (nerdy i know but thought you guys would like that!) so with a good 2 minutes or so between the repeat of each track i can tell you we had the following results:

Listener 1: v4 picked - 0 v6 picked 6
Listener 2: v4 picked - 2 v6 picked 4
Listener 3: v4 picked - 1 v6 picked 5
Listeber 4: v4 picked - 1 v6 picked 5

This was done in the following method,

played:

v4 then v6
v4 then v6
v6 then v4
v4 then v6
v6 then v4
v6 then v4

So pretty random.

Colour me impressed.

Just to be sure we then used

It would have been interesting to play V6 then V6 or V4 then V4 to check if there was a difference. Thanks for posting your results.

Did you test if the 861v4 has the same quality improvement as the G68 with the main DSP speakers at +3dB?

I did as much as i could at the customers home in the time we had available, he is not your average client as Viruskiller knows but he wanted a demo of what he was spending his money on, sorry it couldnt be more extensive.

We didnt have a G68?

IME the v6 is a pretty dramatic improvement. I expected more subtle differences. Instead, they were pretty stark.

Like you, I am going analog out.

A LOT of money to be sure. IMO worth every penny.

i TOTALLY agree.

People will think i am just saying it as a dealer, but i really was blown away by the differnce, i just didnt think it would be that obvious. It has certainly made me rethink being happy with a traded in v4 unit which is what i was planning on having at home.

I should also point out that for Sooloos tracks we were running as pure 2 channel on the 7200's so the only difference was the use of speakerlink as a connection medium and the v4 vs the v6.