Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Non responsive DSP5500s

Hi there,

Newbie to MU - rediscovering my love of Meridian after a fair old while with just a foot in the door (500 CD and 563), along with a whole bunch of analogue stuff like 501, 504 and 551 left over from the mid-1990s.

I recently took the plunge in a big way with purchase of used DSP5500s, plus D5000C centre, plus 562V and 568v2. Now, comes the hard part - making them work.
So after lot of study, I reckon I worked out the scheme (DSP5000C as Master, M5 connected to 568 and then digital/comms daisy chained upwards via 562 to 500 and going the other way, using 511 Patch, through right speaker to left using S5 leads.

And... nothing.

Configuring the system via Clear on MSR elicits Con/Non Con responses from the 500 units but nothing at all from speakers which just remain on standby and won't wake up.

Tried so far: resetting all units with 30 secs plus power down, making 'bare bones' connection between 500 only and the two DSP5500s, M5 connections to 562 and 568 separately, making connection to just the DSP5000C. It's the same story each time.

For some reason, the speakers are not receiving the digital prompts they need.The only thing I can try is to check the pinouts on the M5 lead, from DIN 240 to DIN 180. Can't see what might have gone wrong with that,but better eliminate it from The Enquiry.
Do any of you more experienced folk have any thoughts or suggestions?

Hi welcome to the forum,

Have you TYPEDed the DSP speakers? For a multichannel setup they should be TYPE 6.

Once reTYPED they will need to be re-configured (Master/Slave, Left, Right, Centre etc).

If you need user guides check Duncan's site, see link near top right of this forum.

Regards,
Carl

Thanks Carl,

That had occurred to me - but don't I need comms into the speakers in order to set TYPE?

I've looked at the M5 cable now - there seems to be infinite resistance between PIN 4 at the 240 DIN end and Pin 5 at the 180 DIN (Input) end. These pins are supposed to linked, surely? New M5 comms cable ordered. But will look at the whole TYPE thing again.

Thanks for the steer to Duncan's section. Maybe set TYPE on the 500 end?

It also occurs to me that it just might be something as simple/stupid as mixing up the Input and Output Comms sockets on the speakers.

Best,
Nick

Hi Nick

As mentioned by Carl, you need to set the Type of each speaker, Type 6 and then also set the postion, L/R/C or Rears etc along with being either a Slave or the Master, only 1 speaker can be the Master. This is done by using the remote (MSR or MSR+) and turning the speaker off and on using the rear power switch. Not easy I know as I have a pair of DSP5500 24 bit (and short arms!)

You then need to configure the 568.2/562v2 from the front panel, I believe from memory. I think you need to configure whether they are 24 or 18 bit speakers.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Jon

Thank Jon

Well, making progress... I've actually heard some music from DSP5500s for first time. Not very convincing music at the moment as both speakers set as Lefts (one Master, one Slave) and I can't figure out how to correct that. Manual says use menu + n/s (up/down) on MSR to change speaker orientation but that doesn't seem to do anything. Presumably that's while still in the TYPE setting, which at the moment is TYPE 5 to be driven direct from 500 transport, with centre speaker and 568 taken out of the mix altogether at this stage. Baby steps....

To save having to do it and then redo it, start with the 568 and TYPE the speakers to TYPE 6.
You can get into the other speaker settings (the config menu) by holding the number zero button on the MSR remote while turning on the rear panel switch.

Thanks Bruce,

I'm on a very steep learning curve here - now figured out how to configure speakers (NOT menu + n/s but the arrowed cursor buttons to the left of that on MSR) using the Type 0 switch on as you say.

So now L & R speakers both configured as slaves and about to bring centre master speaker and 568 into play. Already sounding good (although there are some rather unhappy sounding thumps and squeaks from the right hand 5500 when powered on or off, plus suggestion of hum).

All speakers set up as TYPE 6 and now using 511 slave patch to connect to 568 using centre as Master taking centre digital output from 568 and Main D/O to the 5500s. Now to figure out the 568 Type and Config settings... I reckon by end of week I might have cracked it.

Hmm, the Centre Speaker is 24 bit, but i doubt that the DSP5500s are. So i suppose I'll have to set to 18-bit. I wonder how many thousands of pounds BSM would charge to upgrade them (if such a thing is even still possible)?

Most parts come from donor speakers these days. The DSP board needs to be changed out and in some cases, it can become a little complicated. It is easiest to change the whole back panel from the donor speaker.

Latest chapter: 568 and centre DSP5000C hooked up as Master. CD from 500 playing fine through centre speaker that shows red Master LED but L and R remain on standby, having been playing fine earlier when hooked up to 500 only. Digital outputs from 568 are Centre to DSP5000C and Main D/O directed to RH speaker, slaved to left, with Comms directed from Output of centre via slave patch to Input of RH, again, daisy chained out to Left. All speakers set as TYPE 6, while 568 TYPE is set to 3.0.DD (three speakers, no sub, centre and mains both digital). Any idea what I'm missing here?

If the L and R speakers are not coming out of standby then it's a comms issue. Perhaps there is an issue with a lead or the 511 patch box. To check it's not the 511 you can daisy chain all the speakers - M5 to comm in on the centre speaker, S5 from comms output on centre to LH comms in, S5 from comms out on LH to comms in on RH.

Check you are using the input and output correctly!

Thanks for all that. I doubt it's an issue with leads, because I'm using the same three M5 and S5 leads in each 'proving' set up, which have all worked to different degrees. I do have a spare S5 lead not yet used, so I could try substitution with that. So, yes, I will try the daisy chain plan.

So far, I've been using the RH speaker as the bridge to the Left one, bit maybe I'll now try going the other way to see what happens. But before that, I'll check the speaker configs one more time. Both the mains are set to something that looks on the displays like 5L and 5r, which I presume actually means SL and Sr, meaning both are in slave status.

Wow, it's complicated, isn't it? I did realise it would be - but just not quite so much.

PS: Surely it would be fairly simple to test a 511 slave patch using a multimeter and probes to check continuity?