Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Unusual Meridian DSP's setup

Hello guys!

I want to know couple of DSP's not documented features to get them to run in home cinema. Client has an 861 processor which he has decided to upgrade with non-Meridian gear - Datasat RS20i. RS20i has 16 output channels available both as analog and digital. So I can take 7.1 - 8 digital channels which I have to connect to corresponding 8 Meridian DSP's.

But :
1. Meridian speakers connected right now via traditional Meridian way - with paired speakers - with comms and 2 channels in one wire- Left and Right front, Left and Right sides etc. It it possible to send signal to one speaker only? And Is it necessary to deal with Master speakers, Slave speakers and so on?

2. Is Meridian DSP's have a possibility to turn on from standby when digital signal is coming and go to sleep if there is no signal?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Yecora

Welcome to the forum.

Meridian DSPs will only turn on/off in response to a comms signal (or remote control), not the digital audio signal.

In the scenario you describe, there would be no way to control all of the DSP speaker volumes unless each was daisy chained, or a 511 patch box was used. You would always need comms cables in some configuration between each of them, and one DSP set as Controller and Master (the rest to slave from this).

No sure what you would do about level calibration either, as that is normally handled by the M processor.

Does the Datasat send out single channels of digital audio on each SPDIF? I suppose you could run each into the relevant DSP, but it does all feel like a bad compromise...I think if he has a lot invested in DSPs, he'd be best sticking with an 861, or go for a full system change.

Perhaps others can chime in with suggestions on control/automation systems which may help here?

Cheers

George

If you want more than 8 channels, you perhaps look elsewhere, as Meridian seems not too interested to bring out features where there is no source material for..

Jaco, the OP has looked elsewhere and wants to connect it to DSP's.

Meridian call their processors 'controllers' and not 'pre amps' for a reason, because they control their speakers.

The speakers are a DAC, pre amp, power amp and speaker in one cabinet.

They take a fixed level digital signal and the controller then sends signals to each to tell it what to do in regard to volume etc.

You simply can't use other kit with them as other kit does not have the control.

gizzE,
not strictly true. The OP could send SPDIF to all DSP's and have a single DSP set as controller. It would work, albeit, perhaps not very well. Daisy chain the comms between DSP's.

Effectively it would be like using 8 non-M CD players directly into DSP's.

Well, in addition to all mentioned earlier:

1. Can I use one DSP as a MASTER CONTROLLER for the rest of them w/o G or 8-series components? I worked a lot with Meridian equipment in my past, but some knowledge was gone with time. I assume that Meridian prefer to sell their pre/pro with speakers, but they definitely told me that it's possible to use couple of speakers with third-party digital device - like CD player. In this case couple os DSP's should be daisy chained with comms and coax SPDIF, and user can control volume with MSR. So - why I can't just increase of amount of speaker comms with 511 block?

2. To be honest all that "Meridian SPECIAL COMMS PROTOCOL BLA BLA BLA" is not more and not less than regular RS-485 based protocol. So, I have enough experience and client has enough money to add Crestron controller to the system. So, does anybody have idea of how that protocol works?

Thanks,
Oleg

Does this help?

Nope, this is RS-232 protocol, describing how to communicate with 861 processor. I need to know how communications between 861 processor and DSP's are happens - for instance what commands 861 sends to DSP's when user rotates the volume knob.

You may can do it like other HH allready suggested.
Select one speaker as the master and he controls the other slaves, you need to connect the speaker via the traditional com cables.
That comm is not a traditional PC interface like RS232 or RS485 or others.
To control the master you need a RS232 remote control,
the commands are on wiki or Duncans page here(top of screen).
Or use the Mcommand or from Meridian via a PC.
Take a look which commando you can do with the speaker.
The other possibility is to select each DSP as a master and control each speaker via RS232.


The speaker selct the correct audio stream(L/R) or better say channel 1 or 2,
depending how the speaker was configurated(L,R,C,sub,Side..)
So when your RS20 have "only" one output per channel(thats unusual i think),
its simply one digital audio cable to each speaker for audio(and another cable for control).
If your RSRS have two channels in one output,you have to use a (active) digital splitter and then run to each speaker.
Or you run the audio signal in daisy chain from one speaker in a pair to the next speaker(standard from Meridian)

But i think you loose audio quality without an M processor as M makes MHR encryption thats decrease jitter.And without a M processor you have to take care of all setups to get a correct sound like distance,level calibration,room correction and dont have DSP presets like Trifield and others.

Robert

Robert, nice answer, thanks a lot!

Obviously I understand what I'm trying to do - Rs20i is a quite good processor which will take care about delays, DTS HD/Dolby True HD decoding and all other things which real cinema processor has to do. Also it's able to send 48/92/192kHz signal to digital outputs, which, I think carries one signal per wire. And it has a very nice Dirac Live room correction system, which I hope works a bit better than Meridian RC.

Oleg

And is this protocol available ?

Thanks in advance!

Oleg