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

Hi there mwiebelhaus,

Many thanks for your comments, however, something may not be right with your setup with respect to Bluray sources and I suspect you are not getting the best from your setup.

When your processor is displaying PLIIx ... it means it is being fed by a 2 channel signal, not a multi-channel (DD or discrete source). What BD player are you using, can it decode internally and if so, is it configured to do so? Is your HD621 set to Linear PCM 8 channel?

My v6 arrives tomorrow, once installed, I`ll be in a better position to comment further.

Regards,
Carl

@Carl,
You are mistaken: PLIIx also works for 5.1 sources if you have a 7.1 setup.

PLIIx Mov6 is a multi-channel preset which is only available if you have four surround speakers. It's basically Cinema with four surrounds synthesized from the back two.

PLIIx Music, PLIIx Movie and PLIIx THX are the two channel PLIIx presets.

Appoligies for duplication, I started my previous post, before the other posts where posted.

Carl.

I had not done a from scratch 861 setup for a very long time. When I did one for the 861V6, I could not understand why Dolby IIxMov6 did not show up as an option. I had to specify four surround speakers vs only two in m config and then the preset showed up!

Great review - thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

I wish a v6 was within near term financial reach.

Ooops, my bad. You're right.

Just wondering what people with HD621 and 7.1 layouts who upgraded from 861v4 to 861v6 feel is the effect of the 8 discrete channels. Is there material on which going from matrixed to discrete has made more than a marginal difference?

Just curious.

Is a good question! I must confess to having been somewhat underwhelmed so far - although I suppose it is reasonable to expect a greater number of discrete releases in the future where this capability in the v6 will become more significant.

Although I seem to recall reading that most 7.1 releases to date are just mixed from 5.1 masters.

There are not very many 7.1 releases. The 7.1 releases that do exist are almost all derived from 5.1 masters. Toy Story 3 is being trumpeted as the first mass release true 7.1 soundtrack. I use PLIIxMov6 to derive 7.1 sound from all 5.1 sources. It does a really great job. If a 7.1 soundtrack exists on the disc, PLIIxMov6 will default to it. Therefore you can simply leave your 861 in that mode at all times.

Many (the once that has been released)of the movies soundtracks are mastered from either 5.1 EX or dts-ES and are now released as 7.1 on blu-ray.
Here are a liste over BD's and Audio used.
http://price-adjustment.com/BLURAY-audio

I guess it depends on how you define many. Compared to all releases, 7.1 titles are few and many of the titles are not current releases. Studios have gone away from 7.1 in more current releases. They did more when the format was new.