Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Trifield

Concerning the use of Trifield, i'd like to know if you guys, use the suround (on/off) and if you keep them with the default setting with 3KHz low pass filter or set it to 7kHz ,or full range?
Thanks to share your habits!

juno

Trifield is great for listening to the more modern CD`s, modern CD`s have higher gain levels than the CD`s from the 80`s (Dark Side of the Moon, Crime of the Century, Brothers in Arms Etc.), I find Trifield tames the gain in a modern CD.

So I listen to the modern CD`s in Trifield and for my older CD`s I have a separate cable that runs from my 598 auxiliary output direct into my DSP 5000 D2 input.

I have a 598, G68, DSP 5000`s, DSP 5000HC and a pair of M60`s and when I listen to DVD Audio and modern CD`s I have the G68 switched to the DVD source.

When I`m listening to older CD`s I have the G68 switched to the CD source and this tells my DSP 5000`s to change over to the D2 input and then the processor is bypassed completely.

When using direct/stereo, the speakers (if good) can project a sound stage that appears several meters behind the speakers.

Do you feel that you loose that when using a center speaker and Trifield/music etc, if so do you run without the center in Trifield/music to avoid loosing this?

/SA

[This message has been edited by saster (edited 05-27-2005).]

Why does it seem to me that so many people think 2 Channel stereo is some kind of perfect system which is being polluted by multi channel sound processing.

Stereo I believe, was originaly designed to have a centre channel. Only technical difficulties with record deck and stylus design etc made this impossible.

If you go to a concert or show, permormers will not stand either side of the stage and try to project a cental image with depth and hieght etc, the very idea is laughable.

They will fill the sound stage and a multi speaker System properly designed and built, (Meridian) is the only way to reproduce this without compromise.

Mozart would probable have embraced multi channel as much as he would have used extra octaves on his keyboards had they been available.
Get with the future, Re-Learn stereo, but most of all, enjoy the music.
Cheers Chris

I agree with Chris, but....

I've never been to any kind of performance where some of the performers were behind me....so where does DVD-A place you in this scenario - and if you are in the middle of the band / orchestra / opera etc etc - are you supposed to bring your own instrument with you and play along?

Hmmmmm......maybe an idea there.....pick your part and join everyone else....

I know this is not exactly about Trifield but the "in the band vs. in the audience" presentation of multichannel audio has been the subject of much previous discussion.

It's all down to preference with the musicians among us preferring to be on stage while the rest of us prefer the rears to add ambience. The only fly in the ointment is the propensity of producers to use all the channels in a gimmicky way to demonstrate just how "wonderful" MC can be.

On Trifield, there is no depth perception problem when correctly set up for the room. The amount of ambience on the rears is really quite modest in most circumstances so when people report massive improvements from rear upsampling I am very surprised. I can hardly detect consistent differences between HS=Y and N.

I find Trifield to be absolutely amazing, and the #1 reason I own Meridian gear (568 & 518).
With the 1,300+ redbook discs I own, it's a godsend.

As others have mentioned, Trifield (as well as Ambisonics, and heck all multi-channel systems) depends on absolutely correct phase coherence and delay settings from the speakers.
When I finally got all my speakers dialed in (using ETF to validate) for phase and delays, Trifield (with ‘delay` at zero) works like a champ. The ‘width` setting also has more noticeable impact when everything else is correct.

I do find that Trifield adds a bit of bass to the mix, but that`s not such a bad thing.
Actually, with older recordings, I even kick in the DBX sub-harmonic synth on my DBX DriveRack 260 speaker processor. That adds a nice foundation that was missing in the recordings.

My speakers are Martin-Logan Monolith III`s, Logos and Sequel IIb`s. Large electrostats supplemented by a 4x15” infinite baffle sub.

While stereo (‘Direct`) sounds fine, Trifield is just simply superior in all ways on my rig.

I agree with a lot of the comments here.

If you compare out of the box Trifield with out of the box Direct, you will find that Direct is better at acoustic instrument spacing and soundstage depth. However, Trifield when adjusted more than overcomes Direct's out of the box advantages.

My adjusted Trifield is simply astounding. Direct does not compare favorably in any way. I do agree that Trifield out of the box adds a lot of bass that I tame with the Trifield bass adjustment by comparing it with the bass from the Direct mode.

The parameters I have found that are crucial to maximizing the sound quality of Trifield are: depth, width, center channel volume, and frequency EQ (I set the EQ at full range, which prevents the "dull", rolled off sound that some people hear).

You really have to methodological about making adjustments. For instance, I will compare the standard Trifield to the augmented Trifield +1 depth, augmented Trifield +2 depth, etc., leaving all other settings the same. You have to isolate the changes like this because changing multiple settings will affect the overall sound quality, making it hard to know exactly what a single change sounds like. This is a very tedious process, but is well worth doing. When properly adjusted, Trifield will sound so good that you will think you have upgraded your processor.

Damon

Agreeing with Damon's post - there are many very sensible comments above.

I'd like to add that Trifield does bring in the sub if you have one and have configured it to do so. That may be where the perceived added bass is coming from.

I also struggle sometimes with OTT 5.1 mixes and actually find that I listen in regular 'direct' most of the time. I also have to confess that of late, since recent speaker changes, I have not have chance to perform the required tweaks to get it just right.

I just picked up Pizzarelli's 'Swing Live' DVD-A this weekend (1st DVD-A in absolutely months and months) and find it's smokey-in-the-club mix to be quite amazing. Close your eyes and you are just there. If ever there was a good use of the rears to put you somewhere else, this is it. The sound of chinking glasses being collected from tables in 96/24 is actually really funny....realism to the limits. Of course it's AIX therefore is always going to be A1 SQ.

I'm about to experiment (hopefully tomorrow) in my room by switching the DSP's around by 90 degrees. Normally I listen about 3.5m away from L&R which are spread apart by approx 2m. I going to try facing the long wall at 3m listening distance with spread of maybe about 3.5.

The reason I mention this is because I think that Trifield may become quite important especially when listening from off-centre as the new sofa layout will dictate for some listeners (obviously not me though )

I've modelled it in Cara and it's shows a completely difference response firing across the short wall than down the long walls. Curious to see what my ears make of it.

Rgds

Nick

Doesn't MRC transfer the optimum settings to Trifield or does it simply add the MRC profile and that's it? For example, all my speakers are identical and in Trifield the EQ is set as EQ1. Is this correct? How do you define the width/depth/delay settings? By ear only? I can't believe that this isn't documented anywhere

Given the room dimensions, speaker types & position, and seating position, it shouldn't be that difficult to get this right if there is some kind of guidelines or formulae to it..

Up until yesterday, I couldnt even hear if the rear speakers (3m back from seating position) were playing in Trifield (even up close to them), so I set the level to +10db - Now it seems I have a whole new DSP mode and much better sound overall, so I am curious if I need to tweek Trifield more as well as the rest of the DSP modes. And I doubt if my dealer has done such tweaking ever to help me out on this.

4 x BW804's
1 x BW HTM1
1 x ASW850
Room 5m by 10m
FL/FR position @ 1,35m from each wall,
FC in the middle between FL/FR
Sub right of Center
Seating position 4m from front wall
RL/RR 2,8m from seating position

Any ideas anyone?


[This message has been edited by kacos (edited 05-29-2005).]

No, MRC does not tweak Trifield etc.

There is another thread that Meridian could calibrate the levels and delays but currently they do not.

The rest of the adjustments in Trifield etc. are very individual taste and may vary on music type. There has also been a long complate that Meridian could provide better documention to fine tune and understand Trifield etc. better.


[This message has been edited by George Mills (edited 05-29-2005).]

Kacos,

I just reread your message?

Have you calibrated your system with an SPL meter? MRC will not calibrate the system.

Also the surrounds in Trifield should not be that distinct they add a subtle depth the sound stage.