Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Distributor 1 - New product? An obvious extension of distributor 3

Just noticed this on the M site. So new, not even on the Feb price list? Always wondered why this didn't exist, post the release of the Distributor 3. Seems a useful piece of hardware blending non-M kit into standalone location DSP's.

Distributor 1

Interesting.

Under Specs > Weight/Dimensions it says, "To be confirmed from March 2016"

No mention of MQA decoding but it does run MHR. No ethernet input. USB input only for configuration? Is this a bit like a 562 in the old world?

Hi All,
I've seen the Distributor 1 at ISE over in Amsterdam. It is basically a one zone version of the Distributor 3, nothing less, nothing more. It comes with a rack mount that doubles as a VESA mount so that it can go behind a TV. It has the full RS232 control that the Distributor 3 has so it can be controlled via a Control 4/Crestron etc system to allow different inputs (analogue, digital and speakerlink) to be connected into a pair of DSP speakers.
Does that all make sense?
Thanks,
Peter

Here are a couple of pictures of the Distributor 1 that I took at ISE. The mounting brackets can be attached in different positions which is why they look asymmetric in the picture. One was for rack mount and the other was for flat/VESA mount.

Rear View

Front View

Isn't the omission of Optical Input pretty serious considering it's use-case placement behind a modern TV?

Was thinking exactly the same thing.

I thought it might be the ideal thing to attach to the back of my Panasonic TV.
As it is I would have to use optical to coax converters, so no sale.

Likewise regarding optical but there is always analogue and it would serve a purpose in one of my options.

Peter, do we know the quality of the ADC? And an indicative price?

Thanks

Hi,
I'm not sure of the price yet, I think it will be announced shortly.
I'm going to HQ on Thursday so I'll ask then. I think that Meridian expect you to use an Optical to digital convertor to use the optical output of the TV. Otherwise, it is quite a good way of adding a few extra sources to a pair of DSPs.

Peter

It wouldn't be Meridian without omitting at least one important feature that everyone else would find useful.

Well they nailed the Optical on the F80. That's the reason it is used every day as flatscreen TV speaker. If it had Bluetooth it would be used even more instead of the Soundlink Mini (Bose) in the same room.

So Distributor 1 HH Edition SE with Optical & Bluetooth would sell like hot cakes for our rooms, just add speakers...

..Or if it was already present in the smaller DSP speaker models they would attract a much wider audience.

Maybe they have a HD321 in the works? My understanding was that the Distributor 3 was built expressly for US integrators to integrate larger distributed AV systems. So there would typically be either an analog or digital out from a Crestron/AMX output box. I would imagine the same is the case here? Don't know, but it seems like they are slowly edging towards a larger integration option.