Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSPC influence on highres/apodizing sources

I'm even later to this party. With a BIG assist from Robert W., I changed to the C00044 file this afternoon. Immediately, I thought the highs smoother while listening through the Touch to Classic FM in London. Very clear, very much like the 808.2 I had a while back. I'm exclusively using the Music preset with a few filters helping from MRC.It's even more impressive while listening to streamed CDs as I write this. Overall, to my ears, an improvement at least as significant as the recent software release. Maybe one proviso. The steering is stronger in width, meaning the speakers don't disappear as before but seem more to be the sound source. I'll have to play with positioning to see if I can get back to a full sound stage.

Can you explain?

I have now had a chance to do some more listening and playing with Trifield and c00044.

The width control is like I remember it from years ago and there is a setting which is obviously "right" in my room. The 1.0 is too narrow to produce a spacious effect and the 1.5 too disjointed. However, the real revelation was the depth setting which on c00052 did work but didn't seem to have a clear "sweet spot". Now there is definitely a point where the coherence across the front is in sync particularly with good bass reinforcement from all 3 large front speakers. Maybe it is not just the width which is broken...

Because of this, I have now been encouraged to change some other settings to be more pleasing to the ear. I am also wondering if my previous disappointment with MRC (I use my system with it bypassed now) was due to this whole matter. If the bass wasn't right before then this must impact on MRC as this operates at <200Hz.

Has anyone else found these types of issues after making the retro change?

Good point I forgot to play with depth since puttin c00044 on. I swear it never behaved right in long time. It would muck up the bass. So rearanged the room to make from 3 speaker equi-distant set the depth to default (neutral, I forget the value) I gave up on both width and depth.

Like you said depth used to have ONE clear place it locked in and felt right.

I haven't re-used c44 yet (no time) but I can say that I have struggled to find the sweet-spot with c52 also. Have gone back to direct as it is much better than a non-optimal Trifield.
I don't recall what the 861v6 had before the recent updates. I have asked my dealer for this info.

Hmm. "Dear Meridian, we think that Trifield might be broken..."

Oh no not again

Now at this point it would be good to have Meridian explain the difference between the various C00 versions and why things may sound different and why they made the changes they did.

That way we could start to understand what's happening here and not just have to experiment with no real idea why things happen to sound the way they do.

And perhaps in providing the explanation they might just see if anything is actually wrong.

Chris

Sure. Robert W. Outlined the update process as I hadn't used Mconfig for software updates before, just Mfup. I've been talking with him about using the Reviver with a new MC200. I didn't follow all of his instructions and heard a troubling balance shift to the right at first. When I powered down and back up, the image shifted back to centre. All good. His was a BIG assist, and beyond the call of duty so I say thanks again, Robert W.

I never tested Depth Behavior on the latest firmware or C00044, it might be fine. Not sure. Not sure it's even (or ever) broken.

All I remember is back in 561 568.1 days was Width worked as expected and Depth you'd adjust until things just snapped into focus. By the time I ran into issues with Depth, I had an 861V4 and completely different speakers (I wrote a long thread about it). I worked around Depth by moving things around physically. It seemed like the bass would go up and down with each step and you never got that feeling that it snapped into focus. But since Depth is a Delay on the center (I beleive) it made some sense that it behaved like this. So I would not say it's "Broken".

I'd have to play with Depth again and compare 44 with 52 and see if it's different before I'd say it's broken. It might be F.A.D. (Functions As Designed).

One thing I do notice running C00044 is I tend to get Pops in the speakers during HDMI handshakes, Audio format changes in the start of Movie (menus to movie etc.).I did not get these with latest firmware. I have to wonder if the code for minimizing "Pops" which folks constantly complained about somehow effected the sound in the later firmware. Just a wild guess on my part.

Thanks Jim for your comment here.
I did go back to C00044 from C0003B as it sounds more natural and correct.
As said with special 800v3 firmware and 6.03 from M with C0044 plus new speaker firmware my sound is much better than before.

Robert

Strangely I have the opposite experience with 'pops' with the latest firmware on my 861V4. The handshake between PL-11 Movie and Cinema which used to occur whenever the formats changed is now taking significantly longer and causes pops (mostly on rear 6ks not so noticeable on fronts). This is mostly on Virgin Media cable HD channels where the formats change quite often as the adverts are stereo or pro-logic and the programs/films in dolby digital.

Chris