I have had a DSW with 5200SLs up front and 3200s for sides and rears for a few years now.

Contrary to assumption I found it very hard to integrate into the system and much of my initial thoughts were around the 'is it on?' variety. Then with swinging to a bloomy, muddy mess with only a few changes.

There is pretty no useful documentation, given that it is a DSP speaker, on how to integrate it with DSP speakers and Meridian processors.

After much trial and error with configurations such as crossovers, speaker sizes, bass modes and MRC I now have a situation where I can only really tell if it is on when I physically touch the cabinet to feel it shaking. However the 5200SLs as a result now sound like a bigger speaker with a tighter, deeper and more musical extension even if not an earth shaking one.

I think that I am almost there and perhaps as a result would have recommended it as a natural partner to 5200SLs but given the recent developments regarding MQA I am now not so sure. If the 5200SLs do become MQA capable in some fashion or I upgrade to MQA SEs then I have to assume that the latency of DSP operations will change and thus affect the timing and therefore integration between the DSW and 5200SLs. I haven't heard Meridian comment on how MQA and non-MQA speakers will interact in a multi-channel environment which I consider to include a 5200 and DSW pairing. Also given that when the DSW was given an EBA compatible upgrade it seemed as more of an afterthought I have to wonder how much attention it will receive in an MQA world and beyond.

In summary I think that if you have legacy 5200s I would probably on balance recommend the DSW provided that you have no intention of upgrading them to MQA enabled speakers and are happy to spend some considerable time integrating them. If I was doing it again and had no MQA thoughts I would consider the time and effort to integrate them worthwhile and would have made my purchase again.

If I was buying now with MQA intentions I would wait until Meridian issue some clarity on the DSW before making my final purchasing decision.

Hope that this helps.

Cheers,

Tony.


Sources: MS600, Fidelity Audio Reference Oppo UHD-203, Roon/QNAP, AppleTV 4K
Processors: Arcam AV40, 271 x2, Lumagen 5348 with Keces P8
Speakers: DSP7200SE FL/FR, DSP5200SE VC, DSP3200 x11, DSP320.2 VOG, DSW x4
Display: JVC DLA-N7 with PK-EM2, Panamorph Phoenix Pro, 128" 2.37 Curved Silver Ticket AT Screen