Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSP Speakers, I'm Ready To Pull The Trigger

Mr. Lad

You can easily drive over to Rick's audio shop and listen to DSP speakers - bring a CD of your fav. tunes and your significant other and listen to what they bring to the table.

The DSP line has improved over time - but the 5K's (of which I have a pair in my HT) were really imho a great achievement, and continue to sound good to my ears.

They have added technologies to their DSP line - SpeakerLink, EBA, MQA (of course), DSD support but the core 44.1 PCM -> 24/96 PCM was supported by the "smiley face" 5K's.

There isn't really a ton of 24/192 content "out there", and DSD mostly seems to be a phenomenon of upsampling USB DACs and not an abundance of content in the wild.

IMHO the primary question for you should be, if MQA is widely adopted by the content owners, would you feel "left out" if your old DSP speakers couldn't play the content and Meridian didn't offer an upgrade deal. If I recall correctly, only SL 5200's were offered the "SE" opportunity.

There is also an outside possibility that Roon Labs licenses the technology and offers a way to stream/playback MQA over non-SE speakers. I guess the Meridian CEO promised that Meridian DSP speakers that had MHR would eventually get some sort of improved signal through.

The simple truth to me is that the DSP technology allows Meridian to control more of the "chain" of audio processing, ending up with a more pleasing, musical output. I am hopeful that the labels and the new technology will be widely adopted (MQA), and so it may not be a time to invest in non-MQA DSP speakers, but that is a judgement call. Never buy for "what is promised" but rather, what you hear (with your own ears) today.