Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 568 and seven speakers

The 568 manual says it can drive seven speakers: fronts, sides, rears and a center. But it can only do 5.1 surround. So if it has four surround speakers, how does it make 7.1? Does it just play the surround channels the same through the sides and the rears? I can't find any details in the manual.

As far as I’m aware it will matrix the sides from the surround information in a similar way to pro logic. But I’m sure someone with more knowledge will chip in.

568, G series and 861v4 and prior only have 6 INPUT CHANNELS.

They however have up to 8 OUTPUT CHANNELS.

If you use discrete DSP modes, such as DIRECT or CINEMA, then you are limited to the number of input channels that are active, but other DSP modes will mix/matric the inputs to synthesise more output channels than there are inputs. This is not just 6 to 8 channels, there are other modes such as Trifield and others that can take cues from say 2 channels and make a surround signal, or modes such as DD and DTS that take compressed formats and expand them out.

This is much more than just filling the speakers with audio, this is analysing or decoding the signals and making something from the information that is in the signal. Meridian were very good at this which is why their processors had such a good reputation.