Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Dipping a toe into Meridian waters : speaker quandary....

FWIW, having your Sub work on Multichannel material with a .1 LFE Channel (e.g. Bluray) is a fairly typical Meridian configuration

Therefore, in Stereo for 2-ch Music, your Sub would not come into play

This sounds like what you experienced in your post above and is "what you should expect"

Having had the 802D's for a while myself a good few years back, they are more than large and capable enough to produce a very good musical performance with 2-channel music, WITHOUT using a Sub

Trying to get all the Speaker Cones (including Subs and Surrounds) "moving" while listening to 2-ch Music is likely to lead to frustration. IMHO, when listening to 2-ch Music, the Music should sound like it's only coming from the Main Front Pair only. The Listener should only realise that the other Speakers are in use, after they have been switched out of the sound field

The Meridian Processor has a good number of other Soundfields that can be used to get all the Surrounds and Sub making noticeable contributions

Worth bearing in mind if you do decide to revisit the situation..........

I wouldn't assume that. And don't assume because other folks do, it does no harm.

For example Meridian is capable of changing delays on the tweeter PER speaker to "tilt" the image up or down. But when in a HT they go out of their way to defeat the per speaker adjust and only allow it globally to be the same value on all speakers. Some folks like to overide this behavior. But Meridian went out of their way to do something that appears trivial to allow.

Keep in mind that each speaker has different delays and you start crossing them over at different frequencies and routing that to speakers at yet another delay.

I think folks underestimate how complex things can get and how quickly you can butcher it.

Good points, well made !

? Isn't "stereo" 2.1, while "direct" is 2.0 ?

Agreed, the 802D does go down deep, but there's plenty of (IMO good) music these days that goes deeper. Of course there's plenty of terrible music too & it seems to me that some genres are dedicated to bass extension only (!), but I digress....

Trying to get the cones moving isn't what I'm trying to achieve.
Some movies have lots of LFE which is clear - that's taken as read - and in that case my sub's working fine. However, like I say, some music does have significant amounts of low-frequency content which should be routed to the sub as it's clearly better to do so - in an attempt to be true to the music & hence ultimately my listening pleasure !
In my old set-up, the <50Hz frequencies were re-directed to the sub when I was playing 2-channel music. I don't sit there looking at my sub when I'm listening to music - but when I'm setting things up or I think it's not contributing, just looking at it or touching it is the simplest test to see if it's working.
I was under the impression that a standard red-book CD, when played through "stereo" would come out as 2.1, but with my system at the moment that doesn't appear to be the case. I'm really not interested in Trifield or any of the other settings to be honest, I'd like my stereo music to sound just as when it was recorded.

Oh, and it seems like I've reached a compromise with my Dealer & Distributor, so the 861v6+HD621 are "here to stay".... Next step after getting the max out of the 861 with my passive system may well be trying the DSP speakers - as per my original plan.

Direct and Stereo and Meridian Soundfields or Presets

These will be overridden by the "Setting" used

Suggest you go to Page 46 of the 861v6 Manual

** Use the Instructions there to to determine the "Type" (or Setting) that your 861 is currently set to

** It could show anything from Type 0 to Type 5, but Type 0 or 1 is likely in your case, as Analog speakers. It could also display a different Name that your Dealer or Installer has used. In this case, it's best not to change it

** If the 861 is set to Type 0 (which is no Sub on Music Presets) then try changing to Type 1 (which will activate the Sub for Music)

Of course, using the Meridian MConfig program (if you have it) is the best way to determine what is currently being used and also for making changes

The 802D's are more than capable of handling all the Bass Frequencies of Older and Modern CD's and IMHO a Sub will be very hard to dial in properly. Movies are a different matter and the LFE Setting in Type 0 or 1 can be used for that.

At least play around with the Direct versus Stereo Presets to see whether the Sub adds anything. Most around here don't feel like it adds too much when one is already using Large Main Fronts

"Types" are just a "default" configuration to start with. What you upload in MConfig overrides the "type" you started with and the type then becomes meaningless. If you change type on the processor you will lose any custom configuration from MConfig (assuming MConfig was used). If it was all done from front panel (with types) then switching types is not to big a deal.

That's how I always look at it anyway.

OT: Does the 861V6 still have a limited Front Panel config like the 861V4 did or was it upgraded to have a G68 series like wizard (which gives much more control from front panel)?

It's the same as the v4, in fact from most respects (sound quality, SpeakerLink & MMHR accepted) there is no differance between a v4 and v6.

I must admit M should realy look at developing some "proper" firmware updates for the v6 / M-config.

Regards,
Carl

That's a shame. I'm moving from the G68 to the 861 v6 (still about 4 weeks away from v6 delivery)primarily for the ability to do discrete 7.1. Better sound quality will be nice too. But in the mean time I have learned to enjoy certain features of the G68 and the Wizard from the front panel is great.

Ta, this could well be the key !
Edit : Yep, it was set to type 0. And as commented, changing the type then wipes all the settings....not good but of course it's partially logical. So, will sit down & re-create all my settings with type 1 (Mono sub instead of LFE sub) and see if I get what I was previously used to having.

An aside - and referring to an original point - I've just checked & my HD621 was supplied with 1.03 firmware. I've just updated it to 1.08 - time will tell whether there's any difference or not....

Hi Rolski,

From your previous posts I thought you where using M-config, it's the only way to go with a 861.

So you don't have to re-config from scratch just download you config again.

Top Tip
Date stamp your M-config .msl files eg. "2010-10-10 Changed Sub Xovers".
Then you have an archive of your system's config history and can revert back to a previous revision if required.

If you wish me to have a quick look at your .msl file just email it over to me.

Regards,
Carl

PS.
I've also got the (delayed) F1 qualifying and then the race to watch today.

Thanks Carl, I have been using MConfig & I've been "stamping" my files too - but it's a good tip to remind people of.
The problem that I encountered is that when I re-typed, MConfig didn't carry my old config over - in fact it decided on what sources I had itself (based on the connections I had) which were totally wrong !

I'll give it another go just to check in case I was doing something wrong, otherwise I'll just start from scratch with type 1 - shouldn't take too long - but I'll have to re-run the MRC measurement routine.

I should have time later - I was nuts enough to watch the F1 live - but don't worry, I wasn't nuts enough to watch the delayed qualifying !