Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming My Mini Review: 861v6, 7200, ID40 & Sooloos

Hi All,

I promised a brief report on the additions to my kit; so at long last here it is.

My 861v6 & 7200s where installed earlier this month; with the guys at Music Matters doing the heavy work of carrying and unpacking the 7200s.

As I was switching from coax to all SpeakerLink and MMHR; I decided it was a good opportunity to pull all the kit from the rack and give it a 'spring' clean and tidy all the existing cabling. I had a bit of a shock when I saw how thin the Meridian SpeakerLink cable is, it`s only about 5mm x 2mm.

I'm using Meridian SL cable for my fronts and for the HD621 however, my rears are just on standard UTP Cat5 patch cables across the floor for now (WAF very low) until I get a reel of F/FTP cable and pull it though through many metres of ducting that I already have in place in the walls and ceiling.

So after sorting out the rack, cables and setting up the v6 with a new configuration I eventually fired it all up. I played a few tracks just to check all was well, there was an immediate difference in what I would describe as improved clarity but without being harsh.

So next up was to recalibrate speaker levels, double check distances and then run MRC and produce a new set of filter profiles to listen to: MRC calculated 578 milliseconds (3 filters) I then created more filter sets at 350, 300, 250 & 200 mS. After some time listening to a range of choice tracks that are 'rich' in bass I settled for 300 mS. At this setting; for most tracks there was little difference between this and in bypass however, it really helps to control the bass as and when required.

Top Tip
I use a Beyerdynamic GST 500 Heavy Duty Telescopic Boom Stand with a 3/8 to 1/4 inch thread adaptor so I can attach my SPL meter to it. Much better than using a camera tripod; as you can position the microphone exactly where required.

Beyerdynamic Mic Stand

Canford Thread Adaptor

So now all setup, calibrated and MRCed it was time to have a good listen, except my parents came round to visit and we ended up watching a movie together. This was cool, as it enabled the 7200s to burst into life!

DSP5200s to DSP7200s as rears

Upgrading from a pair of 5200s to a pair of 7200s at the rear, the improvement was immediate and very apparent the extra height works well. When playing multi-channel sources: for movies the extra base response really helps to balance the system up against the 8Ks & 7K2HC at the front, for DVD-A the extra detail is also very noticeable. However, for Trifield the improvement is a more subtle, it is there but it takes several playings of “reference” tracks to tune in to it.

861v4 to 861v6

In order to eliminate the 7K2s; I first chose to do some listening in DIRECT mode i.e. only the front 8Ks in use. I always like to this with any changes to my system. After an hour or so playing some of my favourite tracks (we all have them). It was quite apparent that the v6 was adding some extra magic or perhaps to be more accurate is was adding less so that more of music came though.
What`s extraordinary is how the 861v6 has reduced the void between DVD-A and CD replay; both in terms of smoothness and dynamic range.
The sound is accurate and has great imaging but is still warm and devoid of any harshness.

Bring on the Trumpets (sorry I mean Sooloos)

After a week or so with 861v6 and 7200s bedding in nicely, I had a call from my dealer to say that he had manage to borrow a Control:10 & Ensemble from Meridian for me to evaluate / have a play with, whilst my Sooloos order was been processed. So I popped over to the shop and promptly loaded up my car took it home and draped LAN cables across the floor, much to my wife`s dismay.

After an initial period of 'playing' and looking at every menu option I could find on the touch screen; I was ready to do some proper listening of the Sooloos and to compare it against my 800D.

So sitting in my modest room (which, as my wife often reminds me, is also our sitting room) and after playing a selection of tracks from my favourite CDs, both on the Sooloos and my 800D, this is what my ears tell me.

My order of preference (one might say most optimal setup)

-- 1) Control:10 via ID40 (PCM 44K)
-- 2) 800D via SPDIF (MHE 88K, upsampled by 800D)
-- 3) 800D via SPDIF (PCM 44K)
-- 4) Control:10 via SpeakerLink (PCM 44K, Meridian flat cable)

All source material was 2-channel 16/44K.
All source connections are to the 861v6 in Trifield mode and HS=Y (L.C.R. calibrated to +3db).
This older version of the Control:10 did not have any upsampling support.

I can only speculate on the technical reasons for my preferences; but what I draw from this is that having lower jitter is more important than apodizing and that the 861v6 which is arguably the best digital processor in the world, is not totally immune to input jitter.

Further Comments

The relative differences / improvements above are all subtle, I think this is testament to how well engineered the 861v6 is in dealing with the various input formats and sample rates.
The 800D spinning a 96/24 DVD-A still sounds better than the above, but note my previous comment on the v6`s ability to significantly reduce this gap.

Looking forwards

I have not had time to study how to RIP 2-channel DVD-A to FLAC; so I have not yet performed any direct comparisons between DVD-A and Sooloos 96/24 files.

With the launch of the new Control15 that can upsample & apodize; I would expect this to raise the SpeakerLink connection performance closer to the bar set by the ID40. How close? Only time will tell. I`ll be able to test this in a few weeks once my Control15 is installed.

Trust you find my account interesting and hopfull a little amusing to boot.

Regards,
Carl

PS Has anyone compared an 808.3 against 800D/861v6 combination in an all DSP setup?

Carl,

thanks for your in-depth review of your new setup.

The combination of the 861V6 plus the ID40 card seem like a real "home run" !

-mjt

Thanks Carl. One observation I have about apodizing is that I think it really makes a difference for material recorded in a live acoustic. So much studio material these days is recorded "dead" and reverb added, which isn't, of course, something that the brain can resolve given a system of sufficient transparency.

Thanks for that Carl.

Thanks - this is really interesting. Couple of questions on the actual configurations for the Sooloos test:

Did you have the 861v6 in the loop and if so were you playing 2-channel or something else?

Re 4 above, what was the actual connection from the C10? Was it SL direct to DSPs or via 800D or 861v6 or both?

Oh, did you use the 3dB trick?

Interesting review, thanks!

All source material was 2-channel.
All source connections where to the 861v6 that was in Trifield mode (with L.C.R. calibrated to +3db).

800D --SPDIF---------> 861
C10 --SpeakerLink---> 861
.... --LAN--> ID41 ---> 861

Trust this clarifies the system setup.

Regards,
Carl

Yep, L.C.R. calibrated to +3db, rears at -1db to maintain correct relative levels.

The 3db "trick" works on v4 and v6 versions (thanks again George).

Regards,
Carl

Here is good article how to RIP DVD-A to 96/24.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/How-Rip-DVD-Audio-DVD-Video-Audio-And-HDAD-Discs

Pete

Pete,

Many thanks for the URL I'll have a read.

It's my intention to RIP all my 2-channel DVD-As to FLAC and put them on HDD.
I just wish Meridian would also support FLAC 5.1, if they don't do it soon I'll be looking at a Dune 3.0.

Regards,
Carl

Carl,

I have all ready ripped all my DVD-A's to FLAC:).

If you have energy try this:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/c...-Downloads-Courtesy-Reference-Recordings

What happens when you play HRx 24/176.4 files thru Sooloos?

Pete