Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Whiskey Ridge Cinema

Hi All,
I just thought I would begin a new thread here to engage with all you Meridian Enthusiasts!

I'm renovating my home Cinema space here in Portland Oregon.

It's been a journey for sure as to what I should do ... so much back and forth in terms of how to build the room and what speakers to go with.

The first question I had to answer was should I remain with Meridian or change it all ... This was a really tough one and one I went back and forth on. The other front running contender was Perlistens S series in wall speakers. I'm running a Trinnov Altitude16 with a Meridian 721 currently and just sounds phenomenal!!! 5 of my speakers are DSP5500 and considering their age sound incredible as rear / side surrounds / Center.

Honestly it could have gone either was as I've wondered about what another brand could sound like. Going Passive Vs Active speakers has also peaked my interest as the amp I would have gone for would have been the Trinnov Amplitude16. However, when it came to making the final call I decided to stay with Meridian! 🥳 I just LOVE the sound and the philosophy of how they are built and all engineered as one thing with SpeakerLink connections and each driver being individually amplified and controlled with DSP.

I've decided to go for 3 x new DSP750 for LCR. Why the In walls? I wanted to build them in a baffle so that I get a super clean installation. Lots of benefits with having them mounted into a baffle wall behind the AT screen. I wanted a speaker that could really throw out reference level sound output and should gain an additional 6dB output with the baffle.

Are there any people here with these in their system? Anyone experience these speakers first hand? Would be great to hear your thoughts.

I shall be running DSP7200SE and DSP7200.2 on rears and sides (Would like to pick up another pair at some point for the 9 speaker bed layer as well as an SE upgrade should one surface.)

I shall be then getting 4 new DSP320.2 speakers for my ATMOS channels. I would be curious to hear from anyone here if they have these in their systems how they sound?

I'm getting all the speakers from Bruce here on the forums who has been great over the years and so really stoked to follow the Meridian Journey!

I shall be building the room from the studs and so will be doing it right. I'm in the design phase at the moment and will share images here shortly.

This journey is a really fun one as I've dreamed about building a home cinema since I was a kid and have owned Meridian products now for around 20 years.

That sounds absolutely amazing. Good luck.

Hi,

Wow, enjoy the journey.
I looked forward to reading how your project progresses and what design choices you make along the way.

Regards,
Carl

I suppose you could say that my system is a 'lite' version of the one that you're proposing to build (see my signature) and my system sounds incredible so yours will be INCREDIBLE!

I'm currently running a relatively modest Marantz processor but I recently bought a Lyngdorf MP40 (currently in the UK) so I'm hoping to elevate the performance of the system even higher once I get that piped into my setup. When the cinema was being configured, both REL Gibraltar 2 subs died & I'm waiting to see if they're repairable or if I need to replace them but the system sounds amazing even without any subs; there's real impact & slam from my 640s so your 750s will pack even more of a punch. But my room is quite modestly sized; the house is nice & spacious but the living areas are quite open plan so if we wanted a dedicated space for the cinema (so we can have it inky black with total light control), the only realistic room was only 5m x 3.8, so there isn't a large space for the speakers to energise. But my 320s and the 3100 surrounds also pack a punch & 11 Meridian DSPs in a relatively small space is quite an experience.

I also decided to go for as pure a cinematic experience as possible so everything was designed to maximise the viewing event; most of the high-end rooms that I've seen are somewhat compromised in that owners want very glamorous spaces with elegant design touches and so on; that's obviously fine but I decided to go for a 'pure' room so everything is black (within reason) with virtually no 'design' to the room. When we're watching & listening to a film, it's just the gorgeous visuals coming from an inky black space with this enveloping, impactful, powerful audio experience backing it up. The whole thing is quite remarkable & is everything that I always hoped it might be and I'm sure your room will be everything that you hope for too.

Good luck with your build!

Thanks for sharing your experience with your system!! Sounds amazing and really sounds like your enjoying it!!!

Ive been building the room in sketch up but have had to make a lot of modifications due to positioning. how would you compare the 640s you have to a 5200 or 7200 in terms of sound / output? any experience with those?

Does anyone happen to have the Meridian design guide lines book by chance? I saw them being referenced in one of their videos... Im trying to work out my baffle wall design and don't know if a slight toe in would help or if the wide diffusion tweeter design would be enough?

Also has anyone got any test info on the in wall speakers?

They all state a certain output but none of them state the THD or what conditions they were tested. Im just curious more than anything as the 5500 I have are over 20 years old and still sound absolutely amazing.

Ill be posting images soon.

I have zero experience of either 5200s or 7200s unfortunately but I have had a couple of pairs of 5000s ove the years and a couple of pairs of 5500s which I had in a previous cinema room so I'm well acquainted with them although not for a few years & certainly not in this current room so any comments can probably be taken lightly.

From memory the 5500s hit a little bit harder and possibly went a little deeper into the bass but if anything the 640s are quicker & that initial crack of a gun-shot or a door-slam is terrific with them. I'm also finding that dialogue is extremely clear through my 3 640s & we've both noticed that we hardly ever ask "What did he say?" any more. And I'm a big fan of speakers behind the screen so I'm convinced you'll enjoy that aspect of it. My speakers are installed 'flat' ie no toe-in but I must admit that option didn't occur to me (or my intallers).

It sounds like you're giving the build a lot of thought so I'm sure you'll end up with a brilliant room.

Thanks for your thoughts! and great to hear your experience.

Construction begins this Saturday. However we are planning a major build out.

- Entire room down to studs. 26 x 15 x 9 (However the ceiling pitches out to 21ft at the extremes)
- Will re enforce the floor so that its super stable (There is deflection at the moment as the room is above the garage)
- De couple all walls from structure with rail / decouplers
- Double dry wall + green glue construction
- Temp controlled Projector cabinet outside the room
- Rack outside the room
- AC integration (Will come with a heap of noise challenges....)


The goal of the room is to be as quiet as possible. I'm getting 44dB at MLP from my AC at the moment 😫

Planning for the new Trinnov Bass concept. 6 - 8 Subs. Either Perlisten D215s or JTR RS1s with 240V version external amps. I'm still on the fence about which way to go... Will start with 2 and scale when the new Trinnov software becomes available. I shall put 3 on the front baffle wall and 3 on the rear.

Decay time would be around 0.1ms with the active noise cancellation software update 😮

Open to thoughts if anyone on this forum has experience with either of these subs.

The Trinnov absolutely lit up my system. I didn't realize a processor could make such a difference. Bruce said the T + 271 would be good but didn't realize it would be THAT good.

Really excited to hear and hopefully see how this progresses!

Regards
David

Have a theater at the coast that has four of the Perlisten D215s subs in it.

That sounds absolutely incredible.

Best of luck with your project! Nice to hear you decided to stay with the Meridian DSP line you know and love so much. Familiarity of what to expect and integration/setup will help a lot for sure, despite these being the inwall variety.

Have you considered a stack of REL Predator 1510s? Those are made specifically for theater and are an insane deal for the performance/quality for the money. I hear the output and performance of those are insane.

A couple of 212SXs also would be amazing, but those tend to be more hybrid music/cinema oriented for floor standing systems in big rooms. They are 4 12" drivers in one cabinet. 2 front facing, 1 down facing and one on the rear.

I'm not sure about DSP speakers but I can tell you with my passive high sensitivity horns, with Meridian signal processing, RELs are really the only sub I've come across that can keep up with the zip and speed required with them (especially with horn loaded 15s in my main L/R pair) while also providing separate movie/music bass management input when listening to 2ch vs theater. But in your case being pure theater, that probably isn't as important for you and it being a dedi room.

I've also heard nice things about JTR stuff. But I'd definitely give a stack of REL Predator 1510s a serious look!!

Let us know how it comes along and congrats on your DSP purchase.

Very happy to hear you realizing your life long dream of having a dedi room theater.

P.S.

Try to put in some nice quality Owens Corning or similar acoustic management in the walls if you haven't planned on that already. It'll make a really nice difference in the isolation/proofing.

Oh and if you have plans to upgrade the projector down the road. The latest JVC 4Ks are the best money can buy for home use short of a Christie theatrical. First high end long throw projector to implement proper dynamic HDR10+ support. There's also a very nice flagship BenQ and Epson I hear as well that also got just got HDR10+ certified by the LLC. The tonemapping quality of those are quite a big step up from any of the earlier gen vanilla static HDR projectors.

Thanks for your thoughts guys,
@SixSpeed thanks so much for your thoughts on the REL. They were not on my radar at all so always interesting to learn of new recommendations!

The challenge I have is for the new Trinov bass concert to work you need one channel per sub in the overall array for the concept to work.

The price point and size of this one looks great! I would however run out of channel space which in theory is easy to solve by upgrading to a .24 or .32 Trinnov Altitude one day. The more drivers over a wide space the better. The challenge I would face is the heat + noise of all those plate amps in the room.... When you're running one or two subs it's not a thing. However when you are planning 6 or 8 or more it becomes a real issue within the room as it conflicts with so many other goals acoustically.

This is why I post on here as so many people on here have so many great experiences and advice and NOW is the time for me before I build.

Here is a peek at how the room is now.

Construction begins on Saturday 🥳