Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861v8 - still a good buy?

Hi Cliff, good to talk to you.

The Trinnov is a magnificent processor with superb sound. I have just been very impressed with the Meridian 861v8 and its particular brand of hi fidelity. What I want from a processor is excellent sound quality and consistent ease of use.

The Trinnov seems unmatched for Dolby Atoms etc. As far as music goes there does seem to be quite a bit of tweaking involved and these days I'm more of a plug and play kind of guy with something more established.

The Meridian seems a better fit for myself with no Atmos aspirations and a desire to keep things as straightforward as possible whilst still enjoying the wonderful fidelity of the system.

Paul

Hi Paul
I’m not sure I’d describe the HD621\861 set as plug-and-play (judging by the number of help threads over the years) but I know where you are coming from. In actual fact I found getting a set of room correction measurements into the Trinnov a lot easier than some experiences I’ve had with my 861. But yes, there are additional layers of complexity on the Trinnov that currently don’t exist on the 861.

I posted above to dispel the notion that the Trinnov was primarily a HT processor and somewhat of a comprise for music. It most certainly is not and hopefully in the near future there will be Altitude32-271- DSP speaker demo set-ups so people can make their own judgements.

Hi Cliff,

Out of curious,you have owned both 861 and Trinnov? I know the Trinnov has much advanced EQ, but how about pure sound quality wise? Does the Trinnov sounds more analog than the 861v8?

The biggest complement I can give the Trinnov is that it sound very like my 861 the way I have it set up at present. In 'Hey Now', Hannah Reid's voice sounds just as silky smooth. The main difference is that when the bass kicks in, it doesn't hurt my ears. MRC was never able to tame the bass properly on that track in my room. The Trinnov does.

Thank you.
I assume you use the digital crossover on your Trinnov?

I attended Cedia and heard a few Trinnov setups including JBLs $250K setup and I agree it does do an incredible job with home theater.

I listened to the M setup with the new 271. They had it partnered with a Denon receiver along with DSP520 fronts and DSP320 surrounds in an Atmosphere setup (it was unfortunate that they didn't use a Trinnov). I have to say I was underwhelmed. I felt my 861 setup was far superior (of course in fairness the front speakers were not the same and the "room" was not ideal). I just felt like for me to change processors and keep the quality of the 861 I would need to change to the Trinnov but without hearing a Trinnov/M DSP setup first I would be hesitant to switch as obviously it is a big cost.

I did get to speak to the M America VP - Ryan Donaher (very nice gentleman) and asked him about the future of the 861. He told me M has been working on the custom install market and have not forgotten about the 861. He seemed to indicate that it is not a dead product. I also asked why M couldn't have at least added an MQA card to the 861 and as we all suspected he stated there wasn't enough DSP power to do it.

I got the feeling it may take a bit of time before we see an updated 861 or replacement product but I was encouraged that it hopefully will happen.

Joe

There is no reason why a 271 like card couldn't have been built for the 861. It would be exactly the same thing (it's a technicality of powering it and passing 24/96 over the bus). No different than ID41. Put all the MIPs you need on that card.

So MIPS wouldn't be the reason.

Now things like MRC and upsampling might have to be disabled to pass through that architecture (that might not have been acceptable), but that's the case more or less now with the external 271 bypassing 861 completely for MQA.

So it's either an architecture problem or a marketing problem, but it ain't MIPS.

You can blame lack of MIPS for lack of a software decoder for 861. But for a card, no.

I agree. Very unlikely to be MIPS.

But you would effectively be making the 271 the processor. Remember Atmos\DTS:x can only be decoded from bitstream so it would have to have all the data regarding the numerous speaker layouts, speaker distances, bass management etc. etc.

When you hook a 2 channel PCM 24/96 source up and put the 861 in Direct mode how much “Processor work” is the 861 doing?

Since MQA transmits as PCM 24/96 (unfolded) and strictly 2 channel how much “processor work” is left?

I think an internal “271” could also have the same advantages as an ID41 has with clocking/jitter minimization.

Atmos/DTS:x could be a card too but the whole system doesn’t have enough channels to fully support it.

Oh and to handle full analog MQA in an 861 would just need “SE” DAC cards (in addition to the 271 internal decoder [or external 271 for that matter]).

All the 861 has to do right is internally pass 2 channel 24/96 over its bus which we know it can.

That's pretty much the key issue, isn't it? Also, I'm not convinced sufficient processing power can put on a card and efficiently cooled within the current 861 double skinned architecture. My Marantz 8802 processor use to get pretty hot and my current Trinnov has a fan-cooled Corei7 processor driving things. Given it does a bit more than just decode Atmos.

True doing "Room Correction" on 16 (or more) channels could take a few "watts".

But I suspect a "271" like card (e.g. think Explorer 2 as far as Watts/MIPS needed for Decode) and probably an "SE" DAC card probably could be supported by the 861 "Case" (also a good example of not that many watts probably needed as I assume say a 5200 still runs fairly cool which has a fairly limited means of passive cooling).

Also keep in mind since the Trinnov is a "PC" under the hood, it's not going to be quite as efficient with Watts/MIPS as something dedicated/embedded.

But for Atmos/DTS:x 16 or more channels you are probably right.