Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems New to Meridian - DSP5000 connectivity

I've only recently started listening to Meridian speakers; bought a pair of M2s a month or so ago and was very impressed, compared with my previous (high end Mission) speakers.

So when the opportunity came along to get a pair of DSP5000 and an MSR in excellent cosmetic condition for very little money I didn't think twice. Upon inspection it turns out one of the bass units is kaput, but I found and bought a replacement from the US. Other than that all is good.

My question concerns connecting the DSP5000 to my analog stereo system. I have a small ADC which converts the output of my pre-amp to 16bit 48k (the DSP5000 is 18 bit). Having worked my way through the relevant parts of the user guide all of the examples use both a data and control cable, having set one speaker
as master and the second as slave.

Very simply, why is this better than having both speakers set to master, and using just a data cable.
I realise I need to keep the MSR far enough back so that it is 'seen' by both speakers, but I can't see
any other disadvantage.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this an acceptable way of using the DSP5000s in an otherwise analog system?

The control cable keeps the status of the speakers syncronized. Sure, if they are both masters, they will both accept IR. Keeping the volume on both speakers the same level may prove to be a challenge.

It's controller that determines what is IR receiver, master is the speaker that controls the slaves, in speaker terms rather than IR terms, ie first speaker in the chain and the one with the M5 lead connected to inputs and S5 lead connected to outputs, ie one end of M5 matches the DIN control sockets on other Meridian boxes, the S5 lead on matches din sockets on back of both speakers.

Some people do run multiple master, some times it works, some times it doesn't. It was designed for one master speaker.

However, when running with just DSP speakers, master lead is not required, just a digital coax to the master input, then the S5 slave cable between the speakers, connecting comms and digital audio out from master, to comms and digital audio in on the slave. Just the one shotgun (twin comms and audio) cable or, if you don't like the silver VDH audio side of the S5, a digital audio cable of choice and the DIN comms side only of S5.

Not sure why anyone would want to run 2 masters in this scenario, it’s not how it was designed to work. If you want to confuse things, like double stepping on volume, you can run multiple controllers, but that’s not the same as multiple masters.

What I can’t remember is if you can run master on one and IR controller on the slave. But it’s easiest enough to swap over by changing master and slave in config, and swapping S5 from in to out on old slave/new master and vice versa on old master/new slave. I suspect in auto controller mode, with no other connected Meridian boxes, Master will auto config as IR controller, but it does not have to be, which is why it seems that IR controller is the Master, but it is not, its a separate setting.

Hi Ralph

Welcome to the forum.

I'm having difficulty imagining what advantage there may be to having both speakers as Master, other than saving on the need for a Meridian S5 comms cable between the pair, if you don't have one immediately to hand?

As Bruce and Ian have mentioned, you could run this way, but operating the system will be glitchy, and in the long run you'll probably end up going with the conventional Master/Slave set up for an easier life!

Cheers

George

The only reason that you might want to do this is to have different settings for each loudspeaker (e.g. boundary), as IIRC the slave in the pair normally inherits these from master.

I seem to recall that these settings in contemporary Meridian speakers are per-speaker, the implication being that not being able to set one speaker as "Wall" and the other as "Corner" was not an audio consideration, but a comms system limitation / simplification. But I could be wrong. Perhaps someone could chip in here if they know more?

Thank-you all for your comments, it does seem that going M-S is worth the inconvenience of an extra cable.
To that end I've made up an 'S' cable and am now running the DSP5000s as designed.

Extra cable? Presumably you did not get any M5 and S5 cables?

May be worth seeing any for sale here in restaurant at correct length if you just want a single (twin function) cable instead of separate cable for comms and audio. Meridian stock cables are pretty good silver VDH cables despite looking like a piece of wet string and are nice and flexible.

Alternatively, (another) Ian Mi' can make an excellent quality set to suit.

HI,

If you are looking for cables we can make specialised custom lengths.

Regards
Edd

Thanks guys, I have several different types of coax, so knocking up an exact length of RG-59/A only took 10 minutes or so for the data cable.
It was simply a matter of duplicating it for the control cable, I can live with one extra cable between the speakers