Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems EBA or not to EBA?

Could someone clarify when you use EBA.

I have an 861v8, 7200.2 L/R, 5200HC(SL) and analogue rears getting SE versions this week.

I have read that EBA should only be used on music sources and not on multi channel sources.

However on the latest Meridian Config Program there is the option to enable EBA for all DSP presets including Cinema and THX which are multi channel sources.
If EBA should not be used on multi channel sources why is it an option?

Could you also clarify the SpeakerLink set up for my set up.
Am I correct in thinking:

1. The DSP speakers are set up so EBA and centre hight are set to SL
2. The front panel SpeakerLink option is set to 'as configured'
3. EBA is selected to be on or off in the DSP preset menu in config

Multi-channel is fine if all of your speakers are EBA capable.

The only potential problem is for (video) systems where the video processing latency is very low. In such a system you might need video delay to sort out lipsync; and video delay is virtually non-existent in consumer video processors.

Thanks for the reply.

What happens if I select EBA for a multi channel input. Will I get EBA on the front and centre but not on the analogue rears or does the processor recognise that there are non EBA enabled speakers in the set up and doesn't implement EBA even though it is selected.

Is it the case that for non stereo DSP presets including Trifield all speakers in the set up need to be EBA capable?

Have you talked this through with your dealer. You are spending a fair wedge of cash. I would have thought he would be more than happy to go through the optimal setup.

So, my 2-cents. I would imagine you would want EBA enabled permanently in your scenario. The analogue rears would be oblivious of course so you would add an artificial extra distance to cater for the (35ms???) delay introduced by EBA in your MConfig setup.

Of course, once installed, you can then play and decide what settings work best.

Nice system, by the way. Should sound like a dream.

Cheers
Greg

SORRY

Didn't spot the analogue rears. I think the advice in this case is, unfortunately, NOT to run EBA in multi-channel mode, with the option of adding EBA-capable speakers at a later date.

Bear in mind that the analogue rears will already have their own group delay in the bass, so adding additional delay isn't really the correct thing to do.

In 2- I would have (have) "SpeakerLink on" then you can change the EBA via MSR+ and play with it, toggle on/off to hear the effect.

I have EBA all round most of the time. You can set distance to reduce latency, set EBA speakers further away so the sound sets off earlier.

With a mix of EBA/non EBA I find there is an echo, making the room sound larger. It also makes the imaging less solid. It's not unattractive.

There have been some heavy hints here that the next firmware update will allow for EBA/non EBA mixes, taking latency into account in the processor. Don't hold your breath though. Also waiting for EBA on other speakers (also overdue).

Interested to hear how direct with EBA on compares to Trifield.

SE's! Nice.

(Lovely white 3200s (inc stands) make lovely rears.)
(Personally I think EBA is a significant improvement.)

I warned you my advice wouldnt be worth much. Looks like 2-cents was overselling it some what.

I guess it depends on the rears. I personally use some old but very capable M+K tripoles. Hardly point source speakers.

I can imagine echo effects mixing EBA across the fronts, less so with rear channels.

Anyho, dealer really should be the first point of call for this sort of question IMHO. Asking here will probably just be adding noise.

Let us know what they sound like though, especially through a v8 should be really quite something.

Cheers
Greg

The last I heard was that to take advantage of EBA all in the room speakers [in use for a given preset] needed to be EBA capable otherwise the advantage of using EBA would be lost due to the non-EBA speakers.

With this in mind, I don't see Meridian allocating resources to supporting a mixed EBA non-EBA setup.

Also the unified latency for non-EBA DSPs is 7.5ms this increases to a unified value of circa 25ms when EBA is active. Given this the EBA speakers would have to be 'configured' about 35 feet farther away than there actual position and I don't believe the 861 has enough buffer to support this amount of additional delay to the non-EBA speakers.

Regards,
Carl

This was from SteveJ

That is incorrect. Unfortunately, I think some dealers got the wrong message. I repeat, from my conversation with Richard Hollingshead:

1) Each speaker needs a different amount of group delay correction (from treble to the lowest - uncorrected - bass) ACROSS the speaker frequency range.

2) Additional delay will be added to most (if not all) of the speakers, so that they all have the same overall latency. In fact, the 3200s and 3300s don't have EBA, but have an amount of "pure" delay added to them when EBA is on so that they are compatible with other EBA speakers.

3) The alignment delay between different models of speakers is NOT implemented in the processor (other than switching EBA on and off).

Fair enough, shame though. Perhaps we could have two types of firmware for the legacy DSP speakers, old universal latency and EBA universal latency, keep everybody happy(ish).

There has been no mention of firmware for legacy-connection speakers to increase their latency to match EBA levels. (Speculation: It would involve a substantial delay system which may beyond beyond their MIPS and/or buffers.)

On the other hand, all SL speakers (apart from 420) will be able to do EBA (or match the latency, in the case of 3200/3300), or alternatively can have it switched off for compatibility with legacy speakers. This means, as well as all SE models,

8000.2
7200 all models
5200SL
3200/3300
M6
New in walls
DSW

No speaker with only legacy Comms will be able to do any EBA or match the latency. There just aren't enough MIPS not even in 8000.1. Meridian tried but it didn't prove possible. So in a mixed legacy/SL system you either have to switch off EBA or use presets which only use your SL speakers, depending on your source material and wishes.

This info came from Richard at HQ.